by guest critic Tom Brocklehurst
On arrival at Bethnal Green Town Hall, we are split into groups, given a key each, and then given the opening spiel. Ben, a secret love child of Michael Caine and Marilyn Monroe, was raised by the hotel staff in the 60s at the behest of its owner to save the stars from a scandal.
by Laura Kressly
Last summer, New York’s Shakespeare in the Park made international news with its production of Julius Caesar, updated to contemporary America with Caesar looking rather suspiciously like Trump. When the right wing press got wind of it, protests outside the theatre ensued.
Fortunately, this is much less likely at Nick Hytner’s similarly Trumpified Caesar. Unfortunately, his look at the devision between the ignorant, poor right and educated, middle class left is a simplistic and occasionally wildly inaccurate comparison to real life partisan policies.
by guest critic Tom Brocklehurst
The Pretend Men return with a ridiculous sequel to their action-packed police parody. Don’t worry if you missed the first one – you should still get a ticket to this! Done with parodying cop shows, we now get references to The Terminator, Blade Runner and Star Wars – to name but a few of the references.
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 Lara Alier
Blood. Clit. Cunt. Period…Oh, and nipples. Does it make me feel uncomfortable? Not really. It’s 2018.
Yet I remember two days ago, one of my flatmates couldn’t pronounce the word “vagina” and almost had a fit, gesticulating and mumbling incomprehensible sounds.
by guest critic Zahid Fayyaz
From a successful run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Mat Ewins bring his well-received show to London’s VAULT festival. This is a series of daft but funny jokes, using faked videos and audience participation supported by a spine of an Indiana Jones-style adventure. The quest is to obtain a magical amulet to prevent the closure of his museum.
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 Lauren Gauge
At it’s best The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha is a one of the most ridiculously fun, liberating examples of interactive, ensemble storytelling. Though the narrative is intrinsic and the episodic adventures of Don Quixote are told with great clarity and comedy, the novel the production is based on is not the main attraction, nor is it important that one knows the original material.
by Laura Kressly
I’m a big fan of Golem!’s approach to theatrical storytelling, and they’re a big fan of my review of their last production – so much so that their primary pull quote is one I wrote. It tops their programme, their press release and their festival listing. So it saddens me to say that Tomorrow Creeps pales in comparison to their I Know You of Old on which I lavish heaps of praise.
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.
The Play's The Thing UK 