Niamh Jones

We all know the names ‘Bletchley’ and ‘Alan Turing’, if only thanks to the 2014 film The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code follows a similar trajectory, documenting Turing’s journey from school boy to death in a collection of non-chronological scenes. Through Whitemore’s play we are able to gain an insight into the life of this character, piecing together his genius and his struggles slowly into a complete understanding. 

Glamorous and mythic, the Mitford sisters often feel like untouchable figures of the past, central to the tumultuous politics of the interwar period and yet forgotten amidst the rollcall of far more significant names. They seem like the sorts of characters who would be impossible to bring to life, and yet Amy Rosenthal’s The Party Girls successfully brings these figures vividly into the sphere of the audience’s knowledge.

When thinking of the classic settings for a heartfelt story about friendship and emotional vulnerability, a construction site is not somewhere that typically comes to mind. Yet, this is exactly where Joe McNamara brings audiences with Bricks.

Arguably the best approach for tackling serious themes is to tell their stories through the eyes of innocence, viewing large historical events through the everyday consequences as experienced by children.

Have you ever really stopped to consider the significance of sound, of speech, on everyday life… on theatre? Many of us take these things for granted, yet Ad Infinitum’s new play throws the realities of being deaf into sharp relief.

A woman’s story is a valuable thing, the trials of experience typically being viewed as under discussed even within modern literature. Amongst these trials are the very real challenges that come with raising a baby, especially when a single parent.

A courtroom is a place of tradition, of cold reason rather than emotional responses. This is a fact which is highlighted in The Trials and Passions of Unfamous Women, a new play produced by LIFT, Brixton House and Clean Break, a company which works to bring the stories of women who are criminalised to a wider audience. The play takes us on an exploration of the court system through the eyes of women, fluctuating between classical stories of female trials and modern testimonies.

Is serial killing ever a forgivable act? A controversial question certainly and the central premise of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen. Told from three points of view, this play explores the impacts of trauma and loss on very different members of society.

Many of us ask ourselves about the definition of love, what is the purest form perhaps, or what does it mean to make promises while in love. Michael Batten’s play Remembrance Monday asks these questions through the lens of a seventy minute psychological thriller.

What is theatre fundamentally about? Why do we create any form of literature or performance? Why do we tell stories? Stories are such a formative part of life, forging our knowledge of the world and helping to bring communities together.

A person’s life can be dictated by many things - career, relationships, decisions made… In the case of Andrée Bernard’s What (is) a Woman it seems that men have dictated the protagonist’s life.

Art mimics life, or so we are always led to believe. In the case of James Alston’s Scarlet Sunday, the life behind the art is perhaps both difficult to see and blindingly obvious. Alston’s play, which is currently being performed at the Omnibus Theatre, provides an insight into the life of renowned artist Ray Blackwood following his death.

Fresh from a UK tour and three years after the Amazon Prime movie, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is back in London. The well known story is one of a Year 11 student in Sheffield who faces the challenges of his surroundings in order to become a drag queen. The musical, based on a true story, remains a heartwarming and energetic tale that promises to put a smile on your face.

Onjali Q. Raúf’s The Boy at the Back of the Class has become a widely read novel since its publication in 2018. The book, and recently adapted play, tells the story of refugee boy Ahmet arriving at a London primary school and having to integrate into the Year Five class. Adapted by Nick Ahad, the play is told from the perspective of a fellow classmate of Ahmet’s, Alexa, as she and her friends learn about refugees and the trails that they face.