by Zahid Fayyaz
This is the premiere of an adaptation of the popular 2020 Eliza Clark novel, Boy Parts. A comic thriller, this is the story of Irina. She is a Newcastle-based photographer of young men, and is either a violent killer or a damaged fantasist. It’s never clear which one is the correct interpretation of the main character. This makes the show more fascinating, as it leaves the audience and reader without a sure footing.
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by Zahid Fayyaz
Having previously created highly acclaimed solo shows in the last year, friends Frankie Thompson and Liv Ello have joined forces to produce a two-hander. Set in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse, the pair play survivors trying to determine who they are and how they fit into this new world. It is a clear nod towards Waiting for Godot. However, this narrative is very loose, and gives way to scenes that are both very funny and moving. These share the pair’s feelings towards society’s expectations on gender and the shape of bodies.
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by Zahid Fayyaz
Fresh from a sold-out month at the Edinburgh Fringe, Ben Target, former Perrier comedy award nominee, comes to London with a run of his highly acclaimed solo show. A return to the stage after spending the last few years collaborating with other artists, this is a brave and startling work.
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by Diana Miranda
Delightfully ludicrous, The Importance of Being Earnest under Mark Beer’s direction captures the sarcastic humour so well-embedded in Wilde’s satire. Through spot-on characterisation, strong performances and a detailed set, this fringe show takes us on a time-travelling ride to London’s 19th Century high-tea culture, where appearances are of the utmost importance.
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by Zahid Fayyaz
This is a modern day take on an old-fashioned drag act, located at the lovely Crazy Coqs venue underneath Brassiere Zedel in Piccadilly Circus. Randy Roberts, who has been doing the act for decades, had the act finely honed in this, the first of three nights in London.
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by Luisa De la Concha Montes
Led by the Wind is a queer story that follows K (Kiki Ye), a young woman from Fuyang, China living in the United Kingdom. She has been convinced by her family back home to go on a blind date with Bryan (He Zhang), who, according to her family’s standards, is the perfect husband material. As their relationship progresses K starts zoning out, sinking deeper into beautiful dreamscapes with Windy (Vivi Wei), a mysterious woman that represents K’s deepest queer desires. In order to unveil the process of writing this piece, and to deconstruct the complexity of K’s character, I caught up with director Kiki Ye.
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by Laura Kressly
Safaris evoke the dynamic of the self and the other, the watcher and the watched. As an activity, it has a colonial legacy where the ‘civilised’ travel to faraway lands to observe ‘exotic’ people and wildlife in their native habitat. More widely, considering safari’s aspect of watching, it links to the gendered phenomenon of the male gaze. In this short performance piece-cum-installation, these differing, contemporary conceptualisations of the safari converge, prompting the audience to consider how women’s bodies – especially those from the Global Majority – are exoticised, othered and preyed on in a white supremacist, heteropatriarchal society.
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by an anonymous guest critic
Hannah Maxwell is back at the Fringe with her second show after 2019’s charming I, AmDram. This one is similar. It’s about what happened next for Hannah – moving back to Luton to care for her recently bereaved grandma. A show about 30-something angst, obsession and stalking should not be charming, but Maxwell manages to make it so.
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by Laura Kressly
Section 28, the British law that prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local authorities, was passed in 1998 by Margaret Thatcher’s government. Though repealed in 2000 in Scotland and 2003 in England and Wales, Ellice Stevens (she/her) & Billy Barrett’s (he/him) verbatim musical demonstrates the harm this legislation caused on millions of queer people, and serves as a warning against today’s rampant transphobia.
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By Luisa De la Concha Montes
This is a new play co-created by Scott Le Crass & Joe Wiltshire Smith exploring religion and creativity through effective humour. The play opens with Spanish painter, Elías García Martínez (Roger Parkins), entering the stage dancing to Rosalía, setting the mood for his camp, tender and charismatic character. Promptly after, a vibrant dialogue ensues.
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The Play's The Thing UK 