12, Greenhouse Theatre

The Greenhouse Theatre - Canary Wharf

by Diana Miranda

The Greenhouse Theatre is a zero-waste, pop-up venue created to motivate people to take action in response to climate change and, through the power of storytelling, help build individual emotional connections with the immediate natural environment. As part of their summer programme and written by playwright and climate activist Henry Roberts, 12 follows a couple who help each other find a sense of self in a world in crisis. He designs buildings and can never quite shake the feeling that every creation is deemed to fade away. She is a linguist and has a passion for words as a means to bond with our surroundings. Together they navigate a world in which both words and landscapes seem to be disappearing as if hit by an irreversible pandemic, and try to find ways to inspire sustainable and meaningful connections.

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The Comedy of Errors, RSC

The Comedy of Errors review – glorious fun in the RSC's garden | Theatre |  The Guardian

by Michaela Clement-Hayes

A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind;
Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.

It is a brave author that uses the word ‘comedy’ in the title of a play. Expectations are high, humour is anticipated and disappointment likely. Happily, this is not the case with the RSC’s current production of William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors: a tale of mistaken identity and separation (of two pairs of twins) at birth. 

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FRIEND (the one with Gunther), Wilton’s Music Hall

FRIEND (The One with Gunther) - Wilton's

By Stephanie Watkins

After the past year, Friends fans truly have been spoilt for choice for new content and activities, from “Friends Fest” around the country, to the big reunion, and discovering that Ross and Rachel were, in fact, real. However, someone we don’t often hear about when talking about the sensational six is who some consider to be the seventh friend. The man behind the coffee and presumably the “reserved” sign at the table, Mr Gunther CentralPerk.

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Life: LIVE!, Battersea Arts Centre

photo: Holly Revell

by Laura Kressly

As her latest show further proves, Lucy McCormick is a queen of pop culture critique. Embodying her alter ego Lucy Muck, she debuts as a pop star but not one with the spit and polish of a music video. Instead she embraces an aesthetics of failure in both her design and dramaturgy. DIY costumes, gunge and water combine with her character’s emotional vulnerability to interrogate the high shine of celebrity and expectations of a music icon in this absurd and often poignant gig.

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Express Gilbert and Sullivan, Pleasance Theatre

World premiere of Express G&S at Roman Theatre in St Albans | Herts  Advertiser

by Zahid Fayyaz

This is certainly a different one: a whirlwind, 75 minute-long tour through Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular operas, with three actors and a pianist in tow to run through all the songs they can fit into that limited time period. Charles Court Opera, a talented and experienced company, do a great job with the songs, with the solo numbers being a particularly wonderful part of the show.

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Theatre for Two, Stanley Arts

Theatre for Two

by Laura Kressly

In the middle of a dark room, I am ushered into what looks like a largish, stand-alone cupboard. With a spotlight above a single chair facing a perspex sheet covered with a window blind, there is an immediate sense of the audience becoming the performer. Given that the four mini-plays making up this event are semi-improvised character pieces relying on audience interaction, this feeling is apt. As much the playlets are highly theatrical and often disarming, they are also intimate and conversational. In a time where many of us are learning how to just be in the same space as another person, unmediated by a computer screen, Theatre for Two is comforting and familiar as well as challenging what has become normal disconnect from people and the world we live in.

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Ginger Johnson and Friends, Pleasance Theatre

Ginger Johnson – Boyz

by Zahid Fayyaz

Something I had been looking forward to for a while now was the return of cabaret to the stage after lockdown’s easing. This event is an excellent way to restart this particular art form live and in-person. The wonderful evening at the Pleasance was curated by Newcastle’s Ginger Johnson, an associate artist at the theatre and member of Sink the Pink, an LGBTQ+ collective and club night.

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The Language of Kindness, Shoreditch Town Hall

Times Local Newspapers & Magazines | “Nurses have become the focus of our  daily lives and we want to celebrate them”

by Laura Kressly

Everyday life isn’t often a particularly generative setting for compelling storytelling, but the many hospital dramas out there show that medicine is an exception. Though they aren’t part of most people’s daily routines, they are for the nurses who work in them. Long, exhausting shifts are dictated by the rhythms of their rounds, but these are punctuated by literal life-or-death crises. Amidst the moments of high drama, there are series of small, precise actions that keep patients safe and looked after. It’s in these little moments that this physical theatre collage excels.

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Here Come the Boys, London Palladium

Here Come the Boys – London Palladium - The Reviews Hub

by Zahid Fayyaz

This was certainly a rare treat in 2021: a packed-out West End show! Last year, the London Palladium was one of the venues to hold a pilot show when theatre was trying to work out the logistics of how to safely get audiences back. A year later, the stunning building hosts an extremely entertaining dance show in the West End after extensive touring in pre-Covid times.

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Big Girl, Bread & Roses Theatre

by Laura Kressly

Emily Jane Rooney longs for a world that doles out praise for being happy rather than being skinny, and where people can comfortably be their true selves. On the other hand, she wants the posh kid she works with to just fuck off. This clever use of contrast – switching from warm and vulnerable, to biting and sharp, and back again – keeps this one-woman show consistently engaging and fun despite a few underdeveloped moments that don’t fully cohere with the rest of the narrative.

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