Jason Byrne: Paddy Lama Shed Talks, Museum of Comedy

by Zahid Fayyaz

Following on from his success run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, Jason Byrne brings his one-man play to London for a few dates. On a stage set up to look like his dad’s ‘man cave’, with a Perry Como record and red lemonade prominently displayed, it certainly looks the part for what follows.

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Life With Oscar, Arcola Theatre

by Diana Miranda

As we enter the space, playwright and performer Nick Cohen greets us as if we’re special guests at a private screening. He’s wearing a black suit, and has a polite if fidgety demeanour. When the studio’s doors close, he expresses a mild disappointment that Ryan Gosling hasn’t shown up.

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In and Out of Chekhov’s Shorts, Southwark Playhouse

by Stewart Robson

For five performances only (sadly this not a full run), Dragonboy Productions have produced this adventurous adaption of five Chekov short stories: The Lady with the Little Dog, The Chemist’s Wife, At a Summer Villa, An Avenger and The Bear. Eliot Giuralarocca has skilfully adapted and directed these five stories. A brilliant cast of five, including Giuralarocca himself, give the stories a dynamic, farcical structure which plays brilliantly in the large space at Southwark Playhouse.

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Marry Me a Little, Stage Door Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

This is a brand new venue in the West End that recently opened in Covent Garden, currently hosting a revue of Stephen Sondheim songs as its opening production. The performance space is upstairs at the Prince of Wales pub. It is a cozy venue with a supper club vibe to it, and the audience is up close and personal to the stage and its performers.

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Cowboys and Lesbians, Park Theatre

by Laura Kressly

Best friends Noa and Nina are 17 and have the world at their feet. They are bright, articulate, young women with busy, privileged lives. Despite this, they agonise over the possibility of the world passing them by and whether or not they might actually be quite boring. To manage their worries, they project them – and their queerness – onto a high-conflict romance of their own creation. Set on a contemporary American ranch, scenes from their heightened fiction intersect with the real in entertaining and touching ways.

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Journey of a Refugee, Stanley Arts

by Laura Kressly

In the Stanley Arts bar, Kassi, Ali, and Daphne hype up the audience for the arrival of a group of refugees. They’ve organised a welcoming party but plans change when only one person, Zain, arrives. He’s initially unenthusiastic about being the centre of attention. With some coaxing after hiding the main performance space, he shares his journey from Sudan using puppetry, dance, and narration. The promenade family show is inclusively crafted with striking design, but doesn’t romanticise his journey or patronise family audiences.

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Last Rites, Shoreditch Town Hall and touring

by Laura Kressly

Even if our relationships with our parents aren’t fraught, they’re often complicated. In the case of the unnamed character in this solo show, his father never accepted his deafness and refused to learn sign language. He rehashes and reckons with this resentment as he ritually washes his father’s body, but other memories show he and his father loved each other. Using movement, creative captioning and projections, the production dives deep into the emotional landscape of a parent’s death to immensely moving effect.

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Cassie Workman: Aberdeen, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

Fresh from a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Cassie Workman brings her lyrical 55-minute poem to the intimate upstairs space at the Soho Theatre. A spoken-word performance of uncommon intensity, it tells the fictional and fantastical story of the narrator traveling back in time to try to save Kurt Cobain from committing suicide. It touches on additional, more universal themes and issues however, so it isn’t just for the Kurt Cobain fans to enjoy.

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FLIP!, Soho Theatre

by Diana Miranda

A darkly humorous play about influencer culture in the AI age, Racheal Ofori’s FLIP! is a witty two-hander that follows the journey of friends Carleen and Crystal, popular co-vloggers who go above and beyond for online fame. After a few hit-and-miss attempts, Carleen starts producing content with FLIP, a new social media platform that utilises advanced AI. The fun satire takes a dark turn, and what follows is an exploration of the lengths people may go to craft an identity appealing to the masses, all for the sake of fame and fortune.

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Boy Parts, Soho Theatre

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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