by Zahid Fayyaz
This experiential, bilingual, gig-theatre show shares the experience of being a Welsh woman. A five-strong cast recite poetry and spoken word, and perform some songs, in both Welsh and English.
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by Zahid Fayyaz
This experiential, bilingual, gig-theatre show shares the experience of being a Welsh woman. A five-strong cast recite poetry and spoken word, and perform some songs, in both Welsh and English.
Continue readingby Zahid Fayyaz
This is my first show at the Vault Festival, which has been on hiatus until now since the pandemic started in 2020. London’s version of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this is a wonderful festival in the tunnels underneath Waterloo station that hosts almost 2 months’ worth of new shows, cabaret and stand-up comedy.
Continue readingBy Luisa De la Concha Montes
Project Atom Boi follows the story of Yuanzi (Xiaonan Wang), a doomer who, pressured by a self-indulgent Filmmaker (Francesca Marcolina), starts re-exploring the memories of her childhood in China. Yuanzi grew up in Factory 404, a Cold War ghost town in the Gansu province that was built in the fifties with the sole purpose of hosting a nuclear weapon. As Yuanzi travels back in time, we also meet her childhood best friend Erdan and her grandfather (both played by Kelvin Chan).
Continue readingby Zahid Fayyaz
Shit-faced Showtime has returned to their London home, the Leicester Square Theatre, for their annual yuletide version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. The USP of this particular Christmas Carol, to distinguish it from the other versions across the country, is that one member of the cast is completely hammered and the rest of the case have to work around and incorporate their drunken ramblings into the show. The cast also incorporate a number of contemporary songs into the narrative, which occasionally do not work, though not at the fault of their singing talent.
Continue readingby Romy Foster
This December, audiences of Battersea Arts Centre are transported to the vibrant forest of Cherwood where big bad wolves, beloved outlaws and worldwide superstars run amock. This inventive mash-up of the famous childhood classics Little Red Riding Hood and Robin Hood make an unlikely but hilarious twist as we follow the townspeople being terrorised by the sheriff of Nottingham in his wicked attempt to build a car park over the village.
Continue readingby Diana Miranda
“This gig gets weird”, announces Bradán Theatre in their publicity blurb. And weird it gets as it tackles the climate crisis through an absurdist script infused with Irish mythology and folk music, presenting a majestic salmon as an icon of environmental awareness, and veering from metaphors to literal meaning in quite a jarring spin.
Continue readingby Luisa De la Concha Montes
CW: suicide
Turning to medical settings for drama is not a new endeavour. With long-running series like ER and Grey’s Anatomy, the plot of Super High Resolution might sound overdone in the first instance. However, contrary to TV blockbusters, Nathan Ellis’ new play utilises simplicity to defy expectations and tackle the elephant in the room: the collapse of the NHS.
Continue readingby Laura Kressly
Sudha Buchar has had an extraordinary career as an actor, writer and producer. Other parts of her life are equally exciting – born in Tanzania to Indian parents, her early childhood was spent between East Africa and Asia before moving to the UK at age 11. Now 60 years old and long-settled in middle-class Wimbledon with a husband and two Gen-Z sons, she reflects on a vast range of topics in her stream-of-conscious monologue. Generational differences, race, feminism, and her neighbours are just a few of these that make up this chatty and reflective staged reading.
Continue readingBy Luisa De la Concha Montes
Described as a “an internal stream of consciousness and sketch comedy” That’s Not My Name, written and performed by Sammy Trotman, is a one-woman show that explores the absurdity of psychiatry. Through a direct and satirical exploration of her own experience of psychiatric wards, diagnosis and stigma, Sammy skilfully navigates the stage and eases the audience into an unconventional take on mental health.
Continue readingby Laura Kressly
Operation Desert Storm. An English primary school. Guantanamo Bay. The Green Zone. A village in Afghanistan. These are some of the places where writer Sînziana Cojocărescu situates individual stories of colonisation and oppression. Informed by interviews with over 90 people involved in or survivors of war and conflict, as well as activists and researchers, the resulting collage of violence forces audiences to reckon with white western imperialism.
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