by Romy Foster
Silent Faces’ new show brings harmony between goofiness and grief. Their playfulness is infectious and the audience can’t help themselves but to giggle at the absurdity (and tea!) being fed to them over the hour.
physical theatre
Bon Voyage Bob, Sadler’s Wells
by Laura Kressly
I’m going to go out on a limb and state than any performance lasting three and a half hours should be good. At a minimum – if it has a name like Pina Bausch’s attached it should be much better than good. It should be complex, groundbreaking and innovative.
Tobacco Road, Vault Festival
by Romy Foster
First things first – finding the Network Theatre at The Vault Festival feels like going on a secret mission. Coincidentally or not, the venue perfectly suits a play about post-war, underground organised crime in South London.
Welcome to the UK, Bunker Theatre
by Laura Kressly
It seems like the Bunker has been transformed into a small-scale, DIY circus, setting the mood for a playful and uplifting story. Instead, an ensemble of 16 enacts a series of grotesque and infuriating sketches depicting refugees’ and asylum seekers’ experiences navigating the UK’s racist and classist ‘Hostile Environment’.
The War of the Worlds, New Diorama Theatre
by Laura Kressly
Orson Welles’ 1938 broadcast of The War of Worlds caused widespread panic with its reports of an alien invasion in New Jersey. Or did it? Did the newspapers exaggerate the reaction to sell papers, the way websites now use clickbait for hits?
Hole, Royal Court Theatre
by Maeve Campbell
Leaving the Royal Court after watching Ellie Kendrick’s new play Hole, I overhear another audience member describe feeling like she has just been “hit over the head with a sledgehammer”. It’s a pretty apt description.
My Love Lays Frozen in the Ice, Greenwich Theatre
by Romy Foster
As funky European folk music fills the air, actors buzz about the auditorium during the audience incoming, handing out vodka shots to the audience. Everyone is excited and the atmosphere is electric, setting us up for a feel-good show. Actually, My Love Lays Frozen In The Ice follows Mathilde (Jodie Davey) and her heart-breaking tale of how her finance, brother and friend died many years ago in a tragic accident.
Tiger Under the Skin, Bloomsbury Theatre
by Romy Foster
“Calm yourself down, clench and breathe…” Tom utters to himself as he paces through a tube carriage, trying to keep a nervous shit within the safety of his bowels. Tiger Under The Skin is his one-man play based on his own life experiences living with a sudden bout of anxiety and panic attacks at the beginning of this year.
Paper Cinema’s Macbeth, Battersea Arts Centre
By Laura Kressly
I’m a sucker for inventive adaptations of Shakespeare plays, so Paper Cinema’s Macbeth, a live-action, silent movie version, is hugely appealing. For 90 minutes a team of five use handheld cameras, desk lamps and hand-drawn illustrations to broadcast the story in visual form onto a large screen. Accompanied by a Celtic-inspired, cinematic score, this graphic novel/stop motion/object manipulation telling is enchanting – until I ask my companion, a Dutch woman who doesn’t know Macbeth, what she thought.
Black Cat: Bohemia, Underbelly Southbank
by an anonymous guest critic
Black Cat: Bohemia is a French-style cabaret show combining many exciting acts, including fire eating, aerial choreography and hula-hoop jumping. All of this is interspersed with lots of singing and dancing.
The Play's The Thing UK 