Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Writer: James Rushbrooke Director: Oli Savage 17-year-old Zara is dying of a brain tumour. Her final wish is to write and record her own eulogy and then broadcast it to the nation, on a station like Radio 4. Stuart, her therapist, provided by a charity to guide her through her last days, thinks Zara’s plan is a good idea. However, he’s more used to helping children younger than Zara and maybe his sock puppets and ditties about cuddling aren’t quite the right tools to lift the spirits of a stroppy teenager facing an unimaginable fate. Writer James Rushbrooke, who won…

Writers: Hannah Power and Conor Murray Director: Emma Finegan Secrets, lies, and the death of a Princess on one of the most significant days in late twentieth-century history, Hannah and Conor embark on a journey, taking these teenage characters from hopeful dreamers in 1997, obsessed with the then Princess of Wales to young adults ready to embrace their future apart. Written by Hannah Power and Conor Murray, Don’t Tell Dad About Diana, transferring from last year’s Edinburgh Fringe to the Underbelly Boulevard, tells the tale of two friends with theatrical aspirations trapped by traditional Irish family life and dreaming of…

Concept: FLIP Fabrique Director: Olivier Normand It’s not often the UK has a record-breaking heatwave in the middle of May – so what better way to cool down than by being blown away by FLIP Fabrique’s brrrr-illiant Winter themed acrobatic performance. At the start of the show, audiences are told to wrap up and be wary of the incoming chill, with snowy conditions and poor visibility from the Blizzard on its way. What follows is a variety of impressive circus-style performances, all compiled around the theme of Winter. A live pianist (Ben Nesrallah) on stage provides the music throughout, which…

Writer: Cat Gannon Director: Avery McNeilly & Savannah Beckford Pitched somewhere between stand-up, cabaret, and brutally unvarnished confessional monologue, Cat Gannon’s searingly in-your-face single-hander, Dominus, explores the costs and consequences of their character Deborah’s journey from mild-mannered religious girl to ball-kicking dominatrix. Avery McNeilly and Savannah Beckford direct impeccably; though, it has to be said, the outcome is not an easy 75-minute watch. Still, Gannon imbues the damaged protagonist with such visceral vulnerability that it is hard to take your eyes off her, however much one might sometimes want to. “Everything in the world is about sex, except sex, which…

Writer: Behkam Salehani  Director: Amari Harris The quality of this year’s Peckham Fringe has been exceptional, and Behkam Salehani’s Manchester Drive playing at the Canada Water Theatre might prove to be the best show of the month-long festival. With a few revisions and a snip here and there, it definitely has a future, and with its themes of rap and political responsibility, would fit right into somewhere like Soho Theatre’s programming. Salehani’s play is smart, current, important. It’s not set in Peckham, however. It’s set in Ladbroke Grove, where every young man wants to be the next Central Cee. Ardz…

Choreographer: Joseph Toonga If there are any positives to come out of the rise of the “manosphere” and toxic masculinity, it’s the increase in the number of works that thoughtfully engage with an alternative, more accurate and more contemplative approach to looking at men and their mental health. The piece opens with three young Brazilian men laughing and dancing together. From showing off their own moves before joining in with their friends’, to two of the dancers performing a fake-out and laughing at their friend when he doesn’t pick up the cue, there’s a real sense of good-natured camaraderie between…

Writer: Martha Loader Director: Patrick Morris Alice returns from an Antarctic research expedition plagued by apocalyptic visions of melting ice, only to find catastrophe has arrived at home too: the family house is recovering from a flood, her daughter Alba is asleep, and her mother, having spent the interim looking after Alba, is contemplating a cruise to see the Antarctic herself. In Bruntwood Prize-winning Martha Loader’s Albatross, an unexpectedly intimate story of maternity, protection and family is viewed through the distorting lens of climate emergency, repackaging neglect and ambition as the supposed salvation of the planet. A production that first…

Writer: Andrew Atha Director: Jasmine McHayle Just a few years ago, a play about an AI-powered robotic girlfriend would have felt like pure science fiction. Now, with people using AI as therapists or even claiming to fall in love with ChatGPT, zoe.exe feels much closer to social commentary. Jo (Rachel Duncan) has recently broken up with her girlfriend Zoë (Rhiannon Lucy Bird), and her roommate Zack (Izaak Hamilton-New), who works at a tech company, decides to recreate Zoë as an AI-powered robot girlfriend. He asks Jo to help make the robot as human as possible by sharing everything she knows…