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Aliya Al-Hassan
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Amber-Rae Stobbs
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Caroline Cronin
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Cheryl Markosky
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Cindy Marcolina
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Debbie Gilpin
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Franco Milazzo
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Gary Naylor
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Kat Mokrynski
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Matthew Paluch
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Mica Blackwell
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Michael Higgs
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Vikki Jane Vile
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Review: PRECIPICE, New Diorama
What do we do when the world is falling apart around us? We sing. Cloying though that sentiment may be, in the hands of the team of five devisers behind Precipice, it’s anything but....
Review: THE FORCE AWAKENS IN CONCERT, Royal Albert Hall
The stories about the latest entry in the Royal Albert Hall’s Film In Concert series are insane. There was the intense secrecy over that moment, Daniel Craig’s secret cameo, Mark Hamill’s perma-beard and then the issues with Harrison Ford’s long hair and broken foot. With a sky-high budget n...
Review: HANDLE WITH CARE, Battersea Arts Centre
A poetic response to a remarkable work of anti-theatre....
Review: L'INDISCIPLINE, Theatro Technis
A touch of Grand Guignol and a soupçon of French farce can't land a show whose style swamps its substance...
Review: PERSPECTIVES: BALANCHINE, MARSTON, PECK, Royal Ballet And Opera
The Royal Ballet season continues with Perspectives: Balanchine, Marston, Peck. A triple bill that will supposedly “ignite the imagination” - stir, perhaps; ignite, not quite.
...
Review: #FATKARY: THE CORRIDO OF A TRAGIC EX-FAT WOMAN, Playground Theatre
You’d be hard pressed to find a more striking opening outfit in a play than #FATKARY: The Corrido of a Tragic Ex-Fat Woman. Performer and writer Caridad Gómez dons a fat suit exaggerated to comical absurdity, her face mostly covered in the manner of a lucha libre fighter and her body obscured by ...
Review: PORN PLAY, Royal Court
Ani has a problem. Well, two problems, but they are on very friendly terms: she’s addicted to hardcore porn and her boyfriend Liam has had enough of seeing it when they're in bed. She doesn’t care so she cums, he goes, and - even before the door slams - she’s back on her phone scrolling throug...
Review: LOU WALL: BREAKING THE FIFTH WALL, Soho Theatre
Lou Wall: Breaking the Fifth Wall is one of those shows that is difficult to describe (and review!) without giving away the performer’s secrets. The show, directed by fellow comedian Zoë Coombs Marr, is essentially a follow-up to a bit of Wall’s that went viral, in which they sing about how the...
Review: INTO THE HAIRY - SHARON EYAL, Sadler’s Wells
Sharon Eyal and her S-E-D Dance Company return to Sadler's Wells with a UK premiere of INTO THE HAIRY, but if honest, I've definitely seen the material before. The programme info is clear; “parts of the creation were originally created in the frame of THIS IS NOT A LOVE SHOW (January 2022)”, the...
Review Roundup: What Did the Critics Think of THE HUNGER GAMES: ON STAGE?
Based on the original Hunger Games story, this gripping tale of courage, defiance and unbreakable human spirit, follows the fearless heroine Katniss Everdeen on her journey of self-discovery, as she emerges as a beacon of rebellion and hope. Multi award-winning playwright Conor McPherson (Girl from ...
Review: POOR SHIRLEY MUST MAKE HER ESCAPE, Union Theatre
They may be strangers on a train but, in Tom George Hammond’s two-and-a-bit-hander, Shirley and Kieran are not here to swap murders but to discover what real happiness looks like....
Review: THE HUNGER GAMES: ON STAGE, Canary Wharf Troubadour Theatre
Housed in a purpose-built venue in Canary Wharf, it’s a behemoth. Adapting it for the stage was always going to be a Herculean task, not only when it comes to pleasing a very passionate fandom, but when we consider the scale and magnitude of the story too. Written by Conor McPherson and directed b...
Review: OLD FAT F**K UP, Riverside Studios
Olly Hawes excavates the anxieties of a man adrift in a hostile and confusing life...
Review: BARRIER(S), Camden People's Theatre
There’s something of Heartstopper to the design of Barrier(s), pastel sketches of suburban living rooms and nervous texts to a crush etched out lovingly on the projector. On this occasion, though, those charmingly awkward texts have a practical function as well as an aesthetic one, because Barrier...
Review: COVEN, Kiln Theatre
Directed by Miranda Cromwell, it’s a mixed bag: invigorating and galvanising on one hand, sermonic and overly explanatory on the other. Exquisite performances deliver generally mid songs that have a tendency to come up short on poetic narrative, but overdo it on the clichés. A more decisive tonal...
Review: OSIPOVA/LINBURY, Royal Ballet and Opera
An evening of contrasting pieces, leading to a conclusion about the need to connect...
Review: MORE THAN ONE STORY, Trafalgar Theatre
If there is one message that those who were in attendance at More Than One Story LIVE on 9 November absorbed through their skin, it is that “The arts don’t belong to a few, they belong to everyone.” The sentiment was declared proudly by Rory Kinnear in his opening speech and echoed warmly by ...
Review: THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, Richmond Theatre
Patricia Highsmith's psychological thriller The Talented Mr Ripley was published 70 years ago, but remains fascinating due to her brilliant writing, but also movie and Netflix versions that have kept the story alive. This excellent new stage adaptation, written and directed by Mark Leipacher, stri...
Review: IN A WORLD THAT’S LOST ITS BEARINGS, MADNESS SEEMS THE ONLY PLACE LEFT TO FEEL TRULY AT HOME
What did our critic think of IN A WORLD THAT’S LOST ITS BEARINGS, MADNESS SEEMS THE ONLY PLACE LEFT TO FEEL TRULY AT HO at Aaa?...
Review: LIAM WITHNAIL: BIG STRONG BOY, Soho Theatre
Liam Withnail: Big Strong Boy is an hour of comedy that has Withnail aiming to answer an important question about his life - is he happy? The show is inspired by a conversation that the comedian had with a friend when they were catching up, with the friend asking Withnail if they were happy living i...
Review: THE DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL LADY, Bridge House Theatre
Lovely intimate adaptation of immensely popular novel is a pleasing diversion in these troubled times...
Review: ROMEO A JULIET, Shakespeare's Globe
Romeo a Juliet does not make any of its political points overtly, and this is an occasion where some things are better left unsaid, without cheap gimmicks. With nothing made explicit, the audience comes away reflecting on their own use of language and dialect in their daily life, as well as on how o...
Review: TOUSSAINT TO MOVE: FREE, Sadler's Wells East
Created by Akeim Toussaint Buck, Toussaint to Move: FREE is a dance performance that combines reggae dub culture and contemporary dance, allowing audience members to become immersed in the world created by the five performers - Aline Simo Kamga, Francesca Matthys, Jemima Tawose, Márcio Inácio and ...
Review: THE SEA HORSE, Golden Goose Theatre
Recently, on the north coast of Ireland, I had lunch in a seaside bar. Outside, the wind howled, sunshine and rain were locked in a battle for supremacy and the sky was too big. I knew that feeling, as I had grown up by the sea with sandhills at the top of the road. It was ‘other’ to the adult v...
Review: DEAD MAN WALKING, London Coliseum
A confession. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine to read the death notices on Wikipedia - I am my mother’s son after all and, without the columns of classifieds in the Liverpool Echo, where else is there to look?...
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