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Aliya Al-Hassan
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Vikki Jane Vile
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Review: HOW TO MATE: THE SECOND TED XXX TALK, Soho Theatre
How to Mate: The Second Ted XXX Talk begins with an absolute banger of a preshow playlist, which tends to be a good sign of things to come at the Soho Theatre. The show, directed by Mpilo May, marks the return of Steve Porters, AKA “Lockup Ur Daughter,” a character created and performed by drag ...
Review: GHOSTBUSTERS IN CONCERT, Royal Albert Hall
One of the seminal action comedies of the 1980s, Ghostbusters teamed up Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in a story about three failed parapsychology professors in New York. After losing funding for their scientifically-debatable experiments, set themselves up as paranormal investigators ca...
Review: WHY A BLACK WOMAN WILL NEVER BE PRIME MINISTER, Camden People's Theatre
In every mission it sets itself upon, this play succeeds. It’s a tight hug to the communities that need it, it’s vital education to those who want to learn, it’s a wake-up call to those who are ignorant, and it’s an angry, triumphant demand for action. Zakiyyah Deen is a magnetic performer, ...
Review: REYKJAVIK, Hampstead Theatre
There’s a whiff of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem about Richard Bean’s Reykjavík. Come and raise a melancholic glass to the old world of superstition, mythic tales of magic and monsters, fated to be swallowed by the bloodless age of bureaucracy. It’s like spending an evening with that old man ...
Review: THE WILD DUCK, Coronet Theatre
The Coronet's co-production with the Norwegian Ibsen Company (NIC) and Bergen's Den Nationale Scene examines the dangers of idealism through the story of the Ekdal family ripped apart by the arrival of Hjalmar Ekdal's childhood friend, Gregers Werle (also the son of wealthy industrialist Hakon). Rea...
Book Review: DEVELOPING YOUR EMOTIONAL HEALTH, Nick Hern Books
This is a toolkit to help creatives in a business which is often hard to navigate, and I feel it is an excellent addition to the material currently available on the subject. It is written in a chatty and approachable style, and the bitesize structure is perfect for reading on the go....
Review: FLY MORE THAN YOU FALL, Southwark Playhouse
Super singing the highlight of a new musical that speaks to Gen Z loud and clear. Read the review.
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Review: THE UNGODLY, Southwark Playhouse
There’s a number of compelling sides to Carrick’s script, but it ultimately feels over-written, under-directed, and over-performed. The writer-director opts for a rather naturalistic vision and the narrative is ostensibly imbued with detailed historical research; the factual study sets the scene...
Review: AMAZE, Criterion Theatre
A personal show with plenty of 'Wow!' and a nice counterpoint to the gods of magic who deliver miracles from on high.
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Review: LUNA, Sadler's Wells
Guided by the vision of five female, international choreographers, Luna narrates the complexities of womanhood-its beauty, struggles, and power. While Luna has some notably powerful moments, and the music is beautiful, it ultimately falls short in its current form.
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Review: BRIDGE COMMAND, Vauxhall
Ever wanted to captain a spaceship on a mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilisations and perhaps shoot up some enemy ships along the way? With the aid of a shiny new £3.5m set, Parabolic Theatre’s Bridge Command realises every sci-fi geek’s dream....
Review: THE FLEA, The Yard Theatre
Now this is how you do historical theatre. Eccentrically re-imagined yet alarmingly real, James Fritz's The Flea is masterfully made. The show is a quirky retelling of a forgotten piece of queer British history: in an unlikely chain of events, the secrets of a gay brothel threaten to bring down some...
Review: ENCOUNTERS: FOUR CONTEMPORARY BALLETS, Royal Ballet And Opera
The Royal Ballet season continues with its first modern bill - Encounters: Four contemporary ballets. For some, like me, the four works presented are all new, but in actuality only two of the four are premières. And one of those is in fact a development of an existing (2022) pas de deux into a bigg...
Review: TAROT: SHUFFLE, Soho Theatre
Tarot: Shuffle begins a bit differently than your average sketch show. Walking into the theatre, audience members are greeted by three performers, all wearing white nighties. Everyone is given a piece of paper with a personality test on it, with questions ranging from your ability to recognise patte...
Review: THE SOUND OF PHILADELPHIA, Royal Albert Hall
The Sound of Philadelphia, a celebration of “50 years of Philly Soul,” hosted by Sir Lenny Henry, celebrated the Philly soul genre, which is 'characterised by funk influences and lush string and horn arrangements,' so it only makes sense that the music of the night would be performed by the BBC ...
Review: THE KEY OF DREAMS, Treowen
With tickets costing £400 each and a storyline stretching over 24 hours, is Lemon Difficult’s The Key Of Dreams the ultimate in immersive theatre? ...
Review: AUTUMN, Park Theatre
Based on Ali Smith’s novel, Autumn is a curious blur of images and ideas, which weave in and out of each other with varying success. At the centre of it all, however, is an unlikely friendship, originally formed between an eight-year-old girl and the elderly man next door.
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Review: THE REST IS HISTORY: MOZART AND BEETHOVEN, Royal Albert Hall
It's one of the most unlikely moments in the history of entertainment. Two bespectacled 50-something English historians, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, bound onto the stage of the Royal Albert Hall, like rock stars, to tumultuous applause. Eat your heart out, Mick and Keith!
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Review: RADIOACTIVE PRACTICE - ABBY Z AND THE NEW UTILITY, Sadler's Wells
Dance Umbrella continues in London with Radioactive Practice by Abby Z (Abby Zbikowski) and the New Utility. Sadler’s Wells is transformed for the work with three banks of seats placed on the stage and the upper two circles of the auditorium closed. Some audience members still sit in the stalls, b...
Review: IMMERSIVE 1984, Hackney Town Hall
Watching this reboot of Immersive 1984, a thought comes to mind: if, as we’re constantly being informed, we’re all living in the post-privacy, post-truth and post-politics world foretold in 1984, aren't we already inside an immersive version of George Orwell’s seminal book?
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Review: TATTOOER, Charing Cross Theatre
Incomprehensible drama fails to breach the cultural gap between Japan and England.
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Review: THE FORSYTE SAGA, PARTS 1 & 2, Park Theatre
The world premiere of The Forsyte Saga Parts 1 'Irene' and Part 2 'Fleur' has been devised by Ashley Cook for Troupe Theatre, in association with Park Theatre, featuring a superbly talented cast of nine in a genuinely epic and stylish period production. Read our review!
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Review: COME ALIVE! THE GREATEST SHOWMAN CIRCUS SPECTACULAR, Empress Museum
Based on the 2017 hit film about PT Barnum, Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is an immersive mishmash of circus, story and song that somehow manages to do a disservice to all three.
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Review: THE DUCHESS (OF MALFI), Trafalgar Theatre
Zinnie Harris’s 2019 incarnation of The Duchess of Malfi, matter-of-factly titled The Duchess (of Malfi), desperately yearns to conjure the sexy metatheatrical cunning of Van Hove, Mitchell, Ostermeier. It stumbles toe-curlingly at every hurdle.
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Review: BECOMING NANCY, Birmingham Rep
Cheese and pineapple on a stick, anyone? The latest musical from Birmingham Rep takes us back to 1970s Britain, where trousers were flared, birthday parties required Iced Gems, and boys definitely didn't play girls in school musicals without everyone having something to say about it. BWW's critic we...
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