CW: mentions of rape, sexual assault and addiction
by Anne-Charlotte Gerbaud
Recovery is rarely linear, and All the Worst Parts captures it as raw, painful, and unresolved. Created by Eden Theatre, this four-part play follows a young woman navigating the aftermath of sexual violence. What emerges is a layered and often unsettling portrait of trauma, intimacy, and the damage done
when no one listens.
by Diana Miranda
Forrest Gump’s mama said it best: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” Featuring ten short pieces that delve into the tapestry of human experiences, LIFE: The Beginning, the End, and Everything in Between reflects precisely that variety. Produced by Northern Spirit, this eclectic evening of new writing at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre has the creative energy of a poetry slam and a scratch night put together.
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by Zahid Fayyaz
First performed in 2015 at the National Theatre, Duncan Macmillan’s addiction drama subsequently had a run in the West End and then off-Broadway in New York. It is now back again in the West End after almost 10 years. Denise Gough once again takes the lead role of ‘Emma’, an actress struggling with addiction and trying to get clean.
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by Laura Kressly
Scotland has one of the highest drug-related death rates in the world. This suggests that addiction is woven into the country’s fabric and should be understood, but recorded testimony in this production tells us that society broadly holds the view that addiction is down to personal weakness or moral failing. Tortoise in a Nutshell impressively combine puppetry, animation, and installation with data and verbatim accounts to challenge this belief and other stereotypes about addiction.
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by Luisa De la Concha Montes
Homelessness might not seem like a stage-friendly topic. With the announcement of new laws that might further criminalise rough sleeping, it could seem risky to explore such a complex topic on stage. However, The Streets of London, produced and performed by Amy Wakeman, perfectly balances humour, statistics and verbatim theatre to open the audience’s mind to a topic that is too easily ignored.
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by Laura Kressly
As part of Clean Break’s 40th anniversary celebrations, this outdoor, in-person production showcases some of the work the company created over the past year. The collection of short monologues created by Clean Break members and associate artists all share stories of loss, isolation and loneliness, which are further contextualised by lived experiences of incarceration. The character-driven pieces are remarkable examples of human resilience in the face of systemic oppression and a criminal justice system that is punitive and cruel.
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by Euan Vincent
Hunchtheatre have a thing for re-inventing forgotten fiction. Their new production, The Legend of the Holy Drinker, provides a 2020 update to Joseph Roth’s 1939 novella of the same name. It mixes the time-honoured, moral fetishes of the original with the political milieu of our Brexit-addled times.
by Laura Kressly
A young woman unceremoniously returns to her family home, where her dad watches cooking shows on repeat and listens to battered cassettes on a boom box that’s probably older than she is. She looks worn and fatigued, though promises she’ll only be there as long as it takes her to get back on her feet. He doesn’t really listen.
by Louis Train
What makes some people obsess over fitness? That’s the question at the heart of Brawn, a new play written and performed by Christopher Wollaton under the direction of Matt Staite. At a lean 60-minute run time, Wollaton, alone on stage save a pair of dumbbells, tells the story of how his character, Ryan, came to be the impressive physical specimen he is today, and what he has had to give up to reach it. Part confessional, part social insight, part torture, Brawn is a wise, shocking look into the mind of one man who wants to get bigger.
By Laura Kressly
Defying the odds, Nell and Cathy are comedians with successful careers behind them. But now that they’re nearing 40, they’re also on the verge of being forgotten by an industry that only values women who meet very specific criteria. When they are offered a rare gig at the London Palladium, this is a chance to resolve lingering tension between them and revive their reputations, but it could also lead to total ruination of everything they’ve fought to achieve.
The Play's The Thing UK 