Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Writer: Mohamedally Hashemi Director: Hamza Ali The world of couture designer fashion is the backdrop for Mohameddaly Hashemi’s Where There is No Time.  The writer plays Yusuf, an independent designer whose collections have traditionally had a political tone and have never been delivered on time for the major fashion weeks. With his business facing bankruptcy, he has partnered with Milly Zero’s Suzann, who has ambitions to get the designer onto a more commercial tack. Yusuf’s childhood friend and favoured runway model, Nina (Kerena Jagpal), has a history of antagonism with Suzann, which deepens as she attempts to persuade Yusuf to…

Writer: David Visick Director: Tim Marriott Old King Hamlet and his former Court Jester Yorick discuss various topics in the Nowhere, a place that is neither Heaven nor Hell. King Hamlet is unsatisfied with letting his murderer go unpunished, and he insists on returning to the world of the living. Yorick tries his best to discourage him, but the King is determined. They discuss topics ranging from their social class to the King’s inability to see what is occurring around him while alive, to the humorous importance of hats. The range of topics has a nice balance between humour and…

Writer: Louis Emmitt-Stern Director: Matthew Iliffe Jude and Kyle haven’t seen each other for ten years. Their complicated breakup was messy, fuelled by shared addictions and a cycle neither of them could break – leaving Jude feeling abandoned and Kyle determined to disappear and start over. But now it’s 3am, and they’re in Jude’s flat making spaghetti with a side of emotionally charged small talk as they catch up on the last decade they’ve missed. The only reason Kyle (Perry Williams) is even there is because he was unexpectedly put down as Jude’s (John McCrea) emergency contact after a trip…

Writer: Mark Bastin Director: Matthew Parker Mark Bastin’s entertaining and impeccably performed slice of neo-Gothic melodrama, The Dawn of Reckoning, follows two former best friends as they resolve long-standing enmities over copious amounts of bourbon in a hotel residents’ lounge. Flickering lights, heavy fog outside, and the offstage shrieks of a skulk of metropolitan foxes suggest there may be more to the locale than first meets the eye. One supposes Batin and director Matthew Parker may be fans of Noël Coward. There are nods to both Blithe Spirit and Fallen Angels here, though the comedy takes a back seat to…

Writer: Luke Stiles Director: Toby Clarke A cross looms on the wall and signals, along with the title, that Miraculous is a play about religion. But Luke Stiles’ witty, engaging debut drama also deals with power, honesty, integrity, friendship and intergenerational dynamics. Paul (Diego Zozaya) is a dedicated youth camp pastor, cheerfully shepherding young souls. One of his charges is Josh, a troubled and troubling student, whose frank questions illuminate exactly the pastor’s own areas of unease: sex, violence, revelation. Both actors are utterly convincing and watchable. Writer Luke Stiles plays Josh and gives a compelling performance with believably teenage…

Writer/Performer: Andrew Doherty Funding new theatre writing is a precarious business, and Andrew Doherty is struggling for cash for his latest piece. He has left his job at Deloitte, and his grandmother had the audacity not to die, so he hasn’t got any inheritance to fall back on. So he must do a deal with the devil – or the devil’s representative on earth, who goes by the name of Arts Council England. The mayhem that follows centres on a series of scenes from the play Doherty has been commissioned to write. As an out gay man, ACE has insisted…

Choreographer: Alexander Whitley Predators and prey. Alexander Whitley’s Dance Company arrives at Sadler’s Wells East offering two pieces with a slightly sinister heart while blending old and new. Using innovative motion capture technology and AI to create simultaneous digital versions of the dancers in the exploratory Mirror followed by a more traditional The Rite of Spring, the choreography takes second place to the computer technology that offers a beautiful if often bleak perception of human existence. Running at close to an hour, Mirror seeks to deliberately dazzle as two dancers in fitted monochrome bodysuits explore their connection, and the opening…

Writer: Sarah Power Director: Ed Madden At what point does the past stay in the past, and are some pasts more troubling than others? It is this question, and the conflict between reconciling with the past and re-punishing acts of the past, which is explored in this terrifically powerful and very funny new play. Sarah Power’s script drops us into the quiet gift shop of Pemfort, a fort, not quite a castle, and a landmark that is being lost to time. Thankfully, its staff, owner Uma (Debra Gillett), nature-loving Ria (Lydia Larson) and a history buff Glenn (Ali Hadji-Heshmati) are…