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Aliya Al-Hassan
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Kat Mokrynski
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Review: GONE TO THE DOGS, VAULT Festival
Gone to the Dogs is an interesting show, but difficult to understand at times, making it a struggle for me to fully enjoy what was going on on stage. It was tough to tell whether the performance was satire, poking fun at those who miss the “good old days” of England, or a genuine performance mou...
Review: THEATRE OF GULAGS, VAULT Festival
Even with my desire to learn and my love for immersive theatre, the show was confusing and left me frustrated. It is one thing to have purposeful confusion, in which the audience is meant to question what they are seeing - It is another thing entirely when your audience has no idea what to do or how...
Review: THE BUZZTONES PRESENT 'NOW THAT'S WHAT SOMEONE MIGHT CALL MUSIC!', VAULT Festival
Ultimately, The Buzztones Present “Now That’s What Someone Might Call Music!” is an absolutely delightful presentation of acapella from a group that is clearly passionate (while also being immensely talented)! You can bet that I’ll be humming their songs for the next few weeks....
Review: THE RENDEZ-VOUS REVUE, VAULT Festival
Ultimately, Rendez-Vous Revue is a fun show with some great performances that could be a little more cohesive. Sometimes the performances felt a bit low-energy, but that may have been solo performers being on such a large stage, only accompanied by loud music and the cheering audience....
Review: KATIE PRITCHARD: DISCO BALL, VAULT Festival
Katie Pritchard: Disco Ball is an absolute delight that will have you shaking from laughter, but it is also a powerful anthem to being yourself and not letting others tell you what to do. To quote Pritchard, “You’re a disco ball”!...
Review: HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, VAULT Festival
Ultimately, Hildegard von Bingen is incredibly confusing and very unsatisfying for those hoping to learn more about the brilliant woman that Hildegard was. As someone who studied her music and her life, I was hoping to see a more psychological look at the woman, not images of Hildegard curled up in ...
Review: BEN VAN DER VELDE: FABLEMAKER, VAULT Festival
When taking moments to pause from laughing at the quick and witty jokes, I found myself in awe of how easily Van der Velde was able to take what appeared to be random characters and put them together, creating a story about an underground fight ring that was being run by “The Last Remaining Briton...
Review: HOUSE OF BURLESQUE: POLITITS, VAULT Festival
House of Burlesque: PoliTITS is, to quote the host, Lolo Brow ('Better than Lolo Self-Esteem') about 'Our two favourite things - Tits and the end of the world.' The goal of the show is to celebrate the history of burlesque through the lens of news, but not all the news as, 'We have an hour. We canno...
Review: BOORISH TRUMPSON, VAULT Festival
Boorish Trumpson is fun for the clowning aspects but fails to deliver on the political side. If this show was meant to give me the sense of frustration and confusion of the Boris and Trump era, it met its goal. I left Boorish Trumpson just as confused as I was by the time Trump and Boris themselves ...
Review: POLICE COPS: BADASS BE THY NAME, VAULT Festival
Tommy Dixon is an ordinary man who wants to live an extraordinary life. He’s a telemarketer for a magazine company about tall things, his dad left him and his mother alone, and his stepfather talks to him with his butt. But Tommy’s life changes when he meets Father Badass, a priest at St. Bartho...
Review: VAULT FESTIVAL BIRTHDAY BASH, VAULT Festival
On Friday, January 27th, the VAULT Festival hosted its own VAULT Festival Birthday Bash, a 4 ½-hour party in The Flair Ground at The Vaults to celebrate the festival’s “decade of bold and original live performance.” The show’s description promised “breathtaking burlesque” and “outstan...
Review: ALL FALLS DOWN, VAULT Festival
On the VAULT Festival’s website, All Falls Down is described with the keywords “horror,” “improv,” and “interactive.” Unfortunately, while the show was certainly improvised by the sole performer and interactive as it depended on its audience, it failed to bring horror to the VOID....
Review: ADAM WILLIS: JOSEPH, VAULT Festival
As someone who loves comedy and went to a Catholic school named after Saint Joseph, I immediately felt drawn to Adam Willis: Joseph. The VAULT Festival’s website stated that “Adam’s hilarious retelling of the Nativity story puts a dimly-lit spotlight on the Bible’s third-best carpenter; Jose...
Review: STEEL MAGNOLIAS, Richmond Theatre
As with so many famous films, there was first a play. Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias remains best known for being the 1989 weepie with a stellar cast featuring Dolly Parton, Sally Fields and Julia Roberts, but began life Off-Broadway over thirty years ago....
Review: CACEROLEO, VAULT Festival
A disorientating and disruptive piece that challenges the nature of theatre itself....
Review: STILL LIFE: FLESH, Barbican
A mime show about the tragedy and the beauty of being human, all too human....
Review: JOY, VAULT Festival
You enter the Cavern's space underneath an inflatable rainbow, with the performers greeting you with smiles and asking how you are. Some performers are hitting large balloons to each other across the space while others hand audience members pieces of paper, asking them to write down an embarrassing ...
Review: YOU SHALL NOT YASS, VAULT Festival
I have a confession to make - I have never been to a drag show. But, being quite a nerdy person, it was incredibly on brand that my first drag show would be You Shall Not Yass, a queer take on the Lord of the Rings franchise....
Review: DANIEL SLOSS: CAN'T, London Palladium
Daniel Sloss’s Can’t is a brilliant show that will have you crying tears of laughter while also making you think about the different controversies that divide our world....
Review: HAVE I NONE, Golden Goose Theatre
Dystopian play, set 54 years in the future, raises questions about the direction of consumerism today...
Review: FAMOUS PUPPET DEATH SCENES, Barbican Theatre
Slashed, smashed, squished, shot, stabbed and splatted: these are only some of the ways that Canadian company The Old Trout Puppet Workshop kill off their creations in the pitch-black Famous Puppet Death Scenes, making its London premiere at The Barbican as part of this year's London International M...
Review: NOISES OFF, Phoenix Theatre
What’s that famous quote, never work with children or animals? After a peek behind the curtain at Noises Off, there should be no doubt that drunks, adulterers, or actors prone to nosebleeds should be added to that list....
Review: PROJECT ATOM BOI, VAULT Festival
This first iteration of the piece is the perfect chance for the material to grow alongside its creatives: the elements of a great production are all there, they just need further polishing....
Review: BLOODY MARY: LIVE!, VAULT Festival
Bloody Mary: Live! is a joy to watch. The influence of Six is clear as day, from looks to sass, but Miller is unapologetic about it - a trend that continues throughout the hour-long piece. Giving a historical figure the Hamilton treatment isn’t new, but it’s a gift that keeps on giving. “I ref...
Review: ALL IN GOOD TIME, VAULT Festival
All In Good Time is, to quote the show’s site, “a show about ADHD and time travel, complete with dodos, disco balls and ducks and whatever else we have time for” created by the Not-God Complex. The show itself aims to tell a story of time from a neurodivergent perspective, particularly focusin...
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