by guest critic Amy Toledano
Highly inventive, energetic and hilarious, Ladyface has every element that a good comedy show should. This one-woman sketch show introduces us to a range of characters, from a rich bratty child who hates poor people, to a quirky girl and her pet prawn, to a poet who performs poetry about her various ailments. Ladyface (aka Lucy Farrett) brings them all along for the ride.
by guest critic Tom Brocklehurst
A one wo(man) show by Peter Groom, Natural Duty focuses on Marlena Dietrich’s involvement with the US war effort during World War II. During the war, she spent several years at the front line in France, Belgium and Germany, improving troops’ morale by performing shows and meeting soldiers.
by guest critic Zahid Fayyaz
This is a solo monologue from Kryptonite Theatre Company, a new-ish company putting forward stories from different communities and perspectives not normally put on stage. This particularly story is that of Shez, a working class teenager who loves Starburst and is in the process of getting over her parent’s breakdown. After some harsh words from her mother about her weight, she embarks on a strict exercise and diet regime.
by guest critic Amy Toledano
A stage dressed with cardboard cut outs of Donald Trump, three members of One Direction and a children’s play house are just some of the elements that make up this monologue of a recovering children’s entertainer. Joseph Cullen, or put more plainly Joe, who enters the space in a complete Princess Leia outfit, introduces himself to us as exactly this, and then continues to surprise us from that moment on.
by guest critic Amy Toledano
Trashed is a high energy, thrilling and heartbreaking show that has the audience hooked from beginning to end. David William Byran plays Keith – a rubbish collector from a working class community in the UK. Throughout, Keith is engaging with the audience, asking questions and offering some of his beer, which he drinks continuously throughout the piece.
by guest critic Lara Alier
I’m sitting in the foyer and haven’t seen my friend for 2 weeks so we are catching up before the play starts. A man comes and offers us some blueberry, gluten free pie, then we have a little chat.
A young man waits impatiently for his little brother Matty to finish school. Alone on a football pitch amongst piles of dead leaves, he frets over his alcoholic mum, the state of their home and the letter from social services informing them that Matty will be taken away.
by guest critic Kudzanayi Chiwawa
Expat Underground tells the story of a modern day Italian migrant, who having ventured to London, the “Shiny Eldorado”, finds herself struggling with the metamorphosis from Italian to British, whilst still remaining Italian – a familiar journey for many who find themselves new in London.
by guest critics Maeve Ryan & Mark Nilsson
The show opens with award-winning comedian Hannah Gadsby revealing that, actually, she plans to give up standup comedy. She confesses that she has spent her ten-year career doing the set up and punchline of jokes. Jokes, she says, are about tension: in the first part she creates the tension and in the second part she releases it, and then we laugh.
by guest critic Gregory Forrest
Hear Me Raw was perhaps the poshest theatrical experience I have ever had (and that really is saying something). It was a glowing auditorium of bad hair, good genes, and plastic prosecco, followed by a swarm of supportive mums murmuring ‘Oh, isn’t she brave’.
The Play's The Thing UK 