by Meredith Jones Russell
Kirsty is a sixteen-year-old girl growing up in ‘00s Brentwood. She likes blue WKDs, Elton John and pie and mash. She’s also desperate to hook up with ‘Sexy Ricky’, but has a secret she doesn’t want to share.
gender
Beauty and the Beast, King’s Head Theatre
by Amy Toledano
Fat Rascal Theatre Company has created magic in their gender-swapped, musical parody of Beauty and the Beast. This show offers an interesting look at the ideologies behind most classic fairy tales and quite literally turns it on its head with a sharp book, catchy score and brilliant performances.
Poet in da Corner, Royal Court
by Laura Kressly
At the start of the millennium, Deborah is a teenager living on the edge of East London with her silent father and zealous Mormon mother. She feels suffocated by religion when she starts secondary school. But as she gets stuck into this new world, she meets Vyper and discovers Dizzee Rascal. Once her mind and her talent are unlocked by these two forces, her life is irrevocably changed for better and worse.
Fabric, Soho Theatre
by Laura Kressly
Leah loves life. She works in a Saville Row shop and shares a flat with her best mate. It gets even better when she meets Ben Cavendish, a new customer at work, and things starts turning into a real-life fairytale. But real life isn’t a fairytale – awful things happen and endings aren’t always happily ever after.
Queens of Sheba, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
by Laura Kressly
In 2015, four black women were turned away from the nightclub DSTRKT for being ‘too black’. It temporarily drew attention to systemic racism, but black women still encounter racism everywhere. In schools, work places, social situations and in public spaces, black women must conform to standards of behaviour and appearance that are dictated by white people.
147 Hz Can’t Pass, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
by Laura Kressly
Ink Asher Hemp (they/them) is trans nonbinary. They are taking up space and they are not apologising in this one-person show with a bit of spoken word that overviews trans and queer issues.
S/he/it Happens, Etcetera Theatre
by Amy Toledano
Perfectly suited to the Camden Fringe, this strange yet poignant show offers a new take on gender and the struggles many young people have with gender identity. It opens our eyes to gender fluidity and the complications that the outside world imposes on it.
As You Like It & Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Globe
It would be so much fun to be part of Michelle Terry’s ensemble cast that performs both Hamlet and As You Like It to open this year’s season and her tenure as artistic director. They’re having a great time in what are something of a return to the Rylance era of the actor-manager, but uneven pacing and a smattering of interesting but disconnected choices lead to a lack of cohesion that indicates a lack directorial voice.
Faust, Theatertreffen
by guest critic Maeve Campbell
On entering a seven-hour long production one might ask the following questions: will I understand the plot, will I be able to sit through it for the duration and will it be worth the plane journey, holiday costs and copious amounts of pilsner consumed over the weekend? The answers are no and no but, to the last question, a resounding yes. Directed by the controversial Frank Castorf, famously ousted as leader of the Volksbühne theatre after nearly fifteen years of service, this production is his swan-song. Castorf’s previous work has been described as ‘deliberately incoherent’, and this Faust does not disappoint.
Worth a Flutter, Hope Theatre
by an anonymous guest critic
Worth A Flutter written by Michael Head and directed by Jonathan Carr is a simple story of love and its complications that sadly misses the mark. Set in a greasy spoon in Southwark, we see a week in the life of two men and how their affections for one woman changed them forever. While the energy and commitment from all the actors is high, the piece lacks the depth it is trying to convey. Instead, it spends most of its time on odd, offensive and tasteless humour.
The Play's The Thing UK 