One particular magnetic performance overcomes limitations in the writing in Born With Teeth. And it might not be the Elizabethan playwright you’d first think of. Born With Teeth One thing’s for sure: Ncuti Gatwa has charisma in spades. His Kit Marlowe is confident, flirty, and absolutely mesmerising. Having not seen any of his high profile […]
Not Your Superwoman at the Bush Theatre is a moving new play by Emma Dennis-Edwards (co-created with director Lynette Linton), exploring the bonds and fractures between three generations of Black women, and what it means to carry or resist the weight of inherited expectations. Not Your Superwoman You know you’re at a powerful piece of […]
Vernon, written and performed by Gary Bates, is a heartfelt monologue about a funeral director whose work forces him to face his own grief. Blending dry humour with an emotional core, it’s a simple but powerful piece of new writing at SE Fest. Image credit: Gary Bates. Vernon Vernon is a one-man play about a […]
Black Power Desk at Brixton House is a new Black British musical that blends family drama, politics, and a vibrant and varied soundtrack to tell a story of resistance rooted in real history. Black Power Desk I can just about remember enough of my high school history classes to have a conversation about Rosa Parks. […]
Megan Prescott’s Really Good Exposure explores toxic beauty standards, the pressures of the entertainment industry, and how to reclaim agency in unexpected ways. Content/Trigger Warning: NSFW themes including exploitation, nudity, sex work. Really Good Exposure As an elder millennial, there was a lot that felt familiar in Megan Prescott’s Really Good Exposure. I watched a […]
The Popess: Instructions for Freedom brings to light the little-known story of the Guglielmites, a 13th-century religious sect. Elena Mazzon tells this tale with humour, directness, and a contemporary feminist eye. The Popess: Instructions for Freedom The Popess: Instructions for Freedom takes as its starting point the unusual history of the Guglielmites, a small religious […]
In 21Soho’s Green Room, Avocado Improv ditch prompts and gimmicks for a looser, funnier approach to improvised theatre. An Improvised Play Walking into 21Soho I had the sense it was going to be a good evening. The upstairs cocktail bar is stylish. The Green Room downstairs is compact and informal, with its own bar and […]
A sculpture of William S. Burroughs becomes an unlikely confidant in Lost Watches, a playful and chaotic absurdist comedy at Park Theatre. Lost Watches Right, let’s get one thing out of the way: I know very little about the Beat Generation. One of whom is central to today’s play, Lost Watches. But theatre’s as good […]
Static Lives, by Two Parachutes, is a sharp, intimate two-hander about friendship, numbness, and how we try to stay human in the digital age. Content Warning: mentions of violence and suicide. Static Lives Today marks the fifth work I’ve seen as part of this year’s Camden Fringe, and the third at Etcetera Theatre. It’s also […]
Rooted in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, Shedwood is a short, striking piece of physical theatre that explores transformation in raw, bodily terms. Shedwood I found myself thinking about some very eclectic comparisons as I watched Shedwood, a new work written and directed by Yuchen Zhou, with set and costume designed with Kailin Xu, who also […]
