by Christina Bulford
Using Nabokov’s 1955 Lolita as a springboard, Hannah Nixon’s new play Lola asks questions of our era and the threats it poses to young women. This Lola however, born out of the 21st century and not the mid-twentieth, gets to answer back. And she doesn’t just answer, she roars.
by Laura Kressly
It’s no secret that the social class system in this country has marginalised the working classes, with women pushed to the absolute fringes of society. To the world outside their immediate circle, sometimes no bigger than the street they live on, they are invisible. Solo shows Opal Fruits and Dangerous Lenses, though radically different in style, seek to change that by centering the working class woman’s experiences and demanding attention for those wilfully forgotten.
by Christina Bulford
Ah, how it felt to be just 17… Given the chance would you do it again? How about with the technology we have now? Social media offers us tools to connect – but these are also tools of destruction.
Tori Scott is all charming wit and fabulous gumption in this autobiographical narration. She bills it as an experience that will not inspire you to greater heights — “lower your expectations” she warns — before carrying you on a meander of her life’s efforts and delightful failings.
by Laura Kressly
What’s a woman to do when she wants to have filthy, degrading sex that directly opposes her feminist principles?
Find the most degenerate, weasel of a man in the hopes that fucking him will purge her of deep-seated desires to be used, of course.
by guest critic Lara Alier
Smaller scale musicals are on the rise at the moment. They’re performed in smaller venues that, as well as being kinder on production costs, also offer an intimacy between performers and the audience that we really value. Lock and Key’s cast is also small, with only two performers on stage, and a live quartet including a cello, violin, piano, and a cajón.
by Laura Kressly
A woman is chained up in a damp cell. Alone, she is watched by an unseen group of men, afraid of her power. She rants, lectures and mocks them, gradually exposing the real reason she is imprisoned. It’s a pretty horrible thing, but her story of abuse, sexual power and society’s fear of strong women echoes like the howl of a wolf.
by guest critic Alex Dowding
You wake up every day, stumble bleary-eyed into the kitchen, pour yourself a bowl of cereal, gaze at that oh-so-cheery character on the box and wonder what the hell they could be so happy about. Sound familiar? Well, All Boxed Up is what happens when writer Sammy Kissin stares at the lifeless eyes on the box until they start staring back.
by guest critic Lara Alier
2018, the year of the woman – in some parts of the world. I could probably count them on one hand.
by an anonymous guest critic
Nastazja Somers’ remarkable and brave one woman show delivers inspiration by the mouthful.
It’s not very often you get to watch someone eat a whole grapefruit on stage, but Somers does just that. As you watch her slowly devouring the fruit, it’s hard to break your gaze as she courageously stands in a defiant red dress that screams Siren.
The Play's The Thing UK 