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 […]
Two performers, a bare stage, and a tabletop of household objects combine to deliver a truly inventive work of physical theatre in A.I.M [An Invisible Mission]. A.I.M [An Invisible Mission] The best kind of fringe theatre tends to do one thing very well, and A.I.M [An Invisible Mission] knows exactly what it’s doing. ICA Theatre […]
Londongrad throws a newly minted Labour prime minister into crisis mode when Putin offers to buy London – via emoji – in this sharply–executed political farce. Londongrad There’s an undeniable energy to Londongrad, Athena Atherton’s satirical political farce that imagines what would happen if, just months into a Labour government, Vladimir Putin offered to buy […]
