Writer: James Phillips Director: Joe Harmston Reviewer: Maryam Philpott For lovers of spy drama, the early years of the Cold War are among the most exciting of the twentieth-century. While Ian Fleming and Graham Greene were creating the templates for espionage fiction and its heroes, in reality all eyes were turning East with the slow unveiling of the Cambridge Five ...

Writer: Tom Wright Director: Rikki Beadle Blair Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Hot on the heels of their collaboration on Park Theatre’s My Dad’s Gap Year, writer Tom Wright and director Rikki Beadle-Blair once again work together on Undetectable, at the King’s Head. Freddie Hogan and Lewis Brown play Lex and Bradley, a gay couple in their late twenties who, after three months of ...

Book and Director: Robyn Grant Lyrics:  Robyn Grant and Daniel Elliot Music: James Ringer-Beck Reviewer:  Richard Maguire As we come to the final week of this year’s VAULT Festival, it may seem that V stands for Vault, but actually V stands for Vulvarine, the new superhero created by Fat Rascal Theatre. She’s sassy, kooky and brave. She will save womankind. ...

Writer and Director: Oli Forsyth Reviewer: Karl O'Doherty There’s a sweet appeal in this short, sexless play about porn addiction and the digital world. The relationship between the two main characters is almost ideal - supportive, passionate, tender - and the writing is firey and relevant without preaching. Two actors (Alice McCarthy, Luke Murphy) play about six characters between them. ...

Writer: Athol Fugard Director: Matthew Xia Reviewer: Stephen Bates London is seeing a resurgence of interest in Athol Fugard. A week after a revival of the South African writer’s politically-charged play A Lesson from Aloes opened at the Finborough Theatre, here comes Blood Knot, a play originally performed in 1961, seen in a 1987 revised version. Apartheid forms the backdrop ...

Writer: Joshua Harmon Director:  Daniel Aukin Reviewer:  Richard Maguire This smart and talky new play by Joshua Harmon, who gave us Bad Jews, tackles racism within the high school and university admissions systems in America. Although the action takes places in leafy New Hampshire we have similar problems in the UK with Oxbridge accepting fewer black students than other less prestigious ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Brice Stratford Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Midsummer’s Night Drollbegins with great promise as lead actor and director Brice Stratford presents a short lecture on the interregnum when the theatre was banned. Despite the law, acting persisted with some actors going to Europe to continue their craft while others stayed in England and became involved in drolls, illegal ...

Creators: Dank Parish Reviewer:  Richard Maguire On paper, this immersive show sounds very good; A play which will challenge our well-established mourning rituals, and which will endeavour to create new ones for the 21stCentury. And as we join the funeral procession along the graffitied tunnel under Waterloo station, we are full of trepidation of what will follow.  But despite this ...