by Laura Kressly
A couple who have been together for either 14 years or 3 weeks argues as the world around them threatens to collapse. Or maybe it’s collapsed already. An Uber driver writes a book about the fall of civilisation. A lonely woman in a hotel room surveys her destructive work in the financial sector.
Time passes and bends and flips. Personal and global crises unfold in an endless cycle of pain and rage.
by guest critic Ava Davies
The raging influence of Alice Birch’s revolt. she said. revolt again. runs through this performance art/theatre piece by Abi Zakarian. The six-strong ensemble of women (not all white, which is good, but it could always be less white) are trying to discuss feminism. Is that even the right word anymore? It’s become bogged down in pop culture references, in mass-produced t-shirts, in discussions about depicting vaginas in art. I HAVE A MOUTH… occasionally feels like it drifts into white feminist territory, as much as it tries to unpick and dissect that movement.
by guest critic Gregory Forrest
There are no openly gay male professional footballers currently working in Britain. Of course, there are almost definitely gay male professional footballers currently working in Britain, but the prospect of coming out in a sport well known for its chanting crowds and tabloid-splashing players is a daunting one. Paloma Oakenfold’s new play Stud tackles this issue head on.
by guest critic Kudzanayi Chiwawa
This is the story of little known Eletha Barrett (Vanessa Donovan), a Jamaican woman who was married to film star Peter Finch (Stephen Hogan), for his final twelve years. It begins shortly after Jamaica’s independence, and highlights the personal and public struggle of the interracial couple against the backdrop of 60’s and 70’s politics.
by Laura Kressly
‘See it. Say it. Sorted.’
Every Londoner knows this slogan from the British Transport Police encouraging us to be vigilant as we go about our days. Be alert, and if you see something suspicious, report it.
by guest critic Hailey Bachrach
Ignace Cornelissen’s Henry the Fifth, which was at the Unicorn Theatre in 2015, remains one of my favourite versions of that play ever. Setting King Henry’s French wars in a sandbox, Cornelissen simplified without dumbing-down the central themes of Shakespeare’s play.
by guest critic Ava Davies
Boys, the inaugural piece by physical theatre group The PappyShow, is about exactly that. It’s an exploration of manhood, of masculinity, of what it means to be a man of colour in the UK today. It’s about mess and silliness and play and pain. It’s about the complexity of selfhood – because how can one man possibly contain all these multitudes?
by guest critic Ava Davies
On the first page of WHITE’s playtext, Koko Brown writes, “This play is for anyone who has ever felt like the other”.
“You have the best of both worlds/ But you still have to pick a world/ You have to pick a side”
by Laura Kressly
Last summer, New York’s Shakespeare in the Park made international news with its production of Julius Caesar, updated to contemporary America with Caesar looking rather suspiciously like Trump. When the right wing press got wind of it, protests outside the theatre ensued.
Fortunately, this is much less likely at Nick Hytner’s similarly Trumpified Caesar. Unfortunately, his look at the devision between the ignorant, poor right and educated, middle class left is a simplistic and occasionally wildly inaccurate comparison to real life partisan policies.
by Laura Kressly
Saeed is a Bedouin Palestinian refugee, currently in prison. With no one to speak to, his imagination conjures all sorts of beings and memories. He tells the walls his family history and remembers an old man, a donkey, and and a faceless alien. But this disjointed piece takes too long to come together, and the chosen style confuses and disorientates rather than fully rallies the audience to his side.
The Play's The Thing UK 