Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Writer: Mayuri Bhandari Directors: Shyamala Moorty & D’Lo In The Anti “Yogi”, South Asian American actor, dancer, and storyteller Mayuri Bhandari takes a theatrical sledgehammer to what she describes as the cultural appropriation of a spiritual practice rooted in ancient Indian philosophy by the multi-billion-dollar global Yoga industry.  The “Yoga industrial complex”, personified by “Wogis” or white yogis, has, she claims, “appropriated, commodified and sold back to me” selective elements of her own cultural heritage. The writer’s point is that making you feel good should be merely a side effect of genuine Yoga, a practice that ought to be more…

Based on Novel & Film: John Ajvide Lindqvist  Writer: Jack Thorne Director: James Dacre   John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Let the Right One In found success in film, and Jack Thorne’s stage adaptation ensures the narrative retains both its unsettling brutality and tender coming-of-age heartbreak. Set in a quiet, wintry Stockholm suburb, Oskar (Nicky Dune) is lonely; bullied at school, his teachers are oblivious to his struggle, his father living away and his mother, despite caring, unable to fully understand him. When he initially meets Eli (Rachael Dowsett), his guard is up, careful to let anyone close and sceptical of…

Music and Lyrics: Tamiko Dooley Book and Lyrics: Cathy Farmer Director: Craig McKenzie It takes only one woman to blaze a trail, and others will follow, and so it appears for empowering female-led musicals with Tamiko Dooley and Cathy Farmer’s Sylvia-inspired Flyology, which mashes pioneering historical women with contemporary technology. Arguably in workshop form with a bit of refocusing still needed, this 70-minute musical is packed with interesting metaphors about the structures that shape and confine women, the commercialisation of the patriarchy and the rousing call to arms needed to shake us all awake, and with a little finessing, this…

Writer: Marcos Byrne Directors: Joe Bernstein and Marcos Byrne From this year’s Peckham Fringe comes Hello My Name Is…, a dynamic short play about the highs and lows of being a teenager with big dreams. It opens on Peckham Rye railway station, where 15-year-old Carlos Murphy is freezing and miserable on his way to school. The whole play is essentially a rapid monologue, with bursts of interaction. Carlos bemoans his early mornings, his tight collars, his limited life, the academic paths he’s being shepherded into when he really wants to be a performer. He’s a kind of teenage South London…

Launching into a new medium is a scary prospect, even for hugely experienced writer Anna Jordan, whose debut collection of poems, Decade, published by Broken Sleep Books, receives its intimate debut at a friendly and supportive event at the Poetry Café attended by fellow poets, writers and some friends and family via Zoom. Inspired by her poet father, who left a new verse under her mother’s pillow every day for a quarter of a century, Jordan’s poetry reveals a wealth of complex human experiences, emotions and challenges running alongside her successful play and TV writing career. Jordan’s poetry collection reflects…

 On Thursday, poet, writer and former children’s laureate Michael Rosen will turn 80. To celebrate, he’s continuing to do what he clearly loves best, performing his works and making people laugh. His new tour, Nice!, is named after what has become one of the writer’s most famous poems. After a YouTube performance of the work, which involves himself and various members of his family blowing on cooked potatoes to make them cool enough to eat, the poem’s chorus of “hot food, nice!” has become a meme, extracted into GIFs and shared all over the world. Rosen’s performance of the poem…

Writers: Suzann McLean and David Fielding, based on Alex Wheatle’s novel Director: Suzann McLean  Peckham Fringe returns, and its first show is a hit. Based on the YA novel by Alex Wheatle, Witness tells the story of young teenager Cornell attempting to find his way in a world of toxic masculinity and postcode wars. Studying at a PRU school (a Pupil Referral Unit, an educational institution for pupils deemed too disruptive to attend state schools), Cornell is asked by another boy to join a “mission’ which leads him to become a witness to a serious crime. Suzann McLean and David…

Writer: Kate Bromage Directors:  Kate Bromage and Stephanie Kendrick  Sparkling and lively, with surprising depth and persistence, Book Club is a witty ensemble piece that toys with the subtle mores of wine-steeped British middle-class distractions and ‘making your own fun’. Originally penned by writer Kate Bromage as a beneficial diversion during the early Covid era, it’s blossomed well beyond its therapeutic beginnings, enjoying sell-out runs at the Rye Arts Festival and Wandsworth Fringe. The play’s principal delights stem from keenly observed characterisation, prompted, no doubt, by sustained book club attendance. Central protagonist Linda is the uptight founder of the Club,…