by guest critic Maeve Campbell
Clare Pointing’s With Child isn’t actually about pregnancy. Facing a show that’s billed as six ‘talking heads’ style monologues delivered by six pregnant characters feels dauntingly alienating when you only know or care a little about trimesters or nursing plans. But thankfully, none of these themes are focused too heavily upon in Pointing’s perceptive, nuanced one woman show.
by Laura Kressly
Ink Asher Hemp (they/them) is trans nonbinary. They are taking up space and they are not apologising in this one-person show with a bit of spoken word that overviews trans and queer issues.
by guest critic and photographer Esther Moorton
To see or not to see? That is the question.
But this is a hilarious take on Shakespeare’s famous Hamlet, but not as you or I know it.
In these long-running, established shows, one of the main actors is plied with alcohol pre-performance and throughout the show audience members have the authority to request more drinks for the actor.
by guest critic Meredith Jones Russell
It’s 1626 and a young d’Artagnan sets out for Paris, determined to join the King’s Musketeers. There’s just one problem – women aren’t allowed.
Paines Plough’s flatpackable Roundabout theatre is one of the most exciting new writing venues of the fringe. Tucked in the rear courtyard at Summerhall, the intimate, domed space features several plays spotlighting Britain’s working class this year. From Scottish school gates to a Yorkshire village, the best writing here this fringe wrenches theatre’s narratives away from the privileged classes.
by guest critic Nastazja Somers
Anger is what I am not allowed to feel.
Most days I wake up, think about the prospect of hiding my anger and dealing with whatever life throws at me, then consider hiding under my duvet. The theatre industry keeps throwing so much shit at women that sometimes the only way we can keep going is by unleashing our rage. Except anger is an emotion often denied to women. So we suppress and suppress and suppress. It’s a vicious circle and it keeps happening. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. My hope of ever witnessing a true revolution for women in theatre began to disappear over the last year – until this show.
By Laura Kressly
Some facts: Katie is 15 years old. She has a dog called Pip. When she grows up, she wants to be an animal trainer. She has an older brother called Rob, and was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was two years old.
by Laura Kressly
Theatre doesn’t need another all-white, all-male absurdist production ridiculing vulnerable people. Whilst fun in its staging and innovative in its storytelling, Flies lazily exploits cishet, male power dynamics in a Kafka-esque nightmare for fly-phobic Dennis whilst exploiting systemic, patriarchal structures to make him even more of a victim.
by guest critic and photographer Esther Moorton
Egg may be a comedy, but the underlying message behind the sketches is that women are still underrepresented in comedy, in the workplace and are still being objectified. “Hello, my name is Sharon” is the tagline for this show and serves as a reminder that any one of us can be subjected to sexism and objectification.
by guest critic Joanna Trainor
Allô you gorgeous creatures, this entire review is going to be written in a very sexy French accent so that’s how you should read it.*
The Play's The Thing UK 