Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Artistic Director: Kane Husbands Happy Birthday to The Barbican, the Brutalist arts centre in Central London celebrating its 40th year. And what better way to celebrate than to invite The PappyShow to curate an evening of diverse early-evening entertainment down in the Barbican’s Pit. The party also underlines The PappyShow’s own spectacular journey. A few years ago they performed at the VAULTS festival, and now they are at the top of the Barbican’s birthday list. The PappyShow specialise in dance and spoken word, and their shows like Boys and Girls give voice to people of colour and, more recently, to…

The energy in the Barbican auditorium has never been higher than when dance company Boy Blue take to the stage for its 21st anniversary celebration A Night with Boy Blue. Filled with alumni, supporters and fans, the vocal excitement for this compilation show barely subsides across its two and 20-minute running time as the troupe explore their long repertoire, welcoming star performers and combining its Adult A, B and C companies, the Bluez, veterans, the baby Sky Blues and guest performers New Movementz with over 100 dancers on stage across the evening. The Barbican also turning 40 this weekend means…

Creators: Brian Lobel and Gweneth-Ann Rand What would a show about failure look like? 24 Italian Songs and Arias is ‘award-losing,’ deadpans performance artist Brian Lobel and straightaway we know we’re in good hands. His own failure came early. Auditioning for a prestigious New York choir and expected to know 1894’s collection of Italian songs, a near-perfect score was necessary to begin the journey towards Carnegie Hall. His preparation was intense. He watched La Dolce Vita hoping to improve his non-existent Italian. But then he scored 94. Not a failure exactly, but the end to his dreams. Thus starts a…

Writer: Sophie Swithinbank Director: Matthew Iliffe Stories of sickening violence among adolescent boys attending inner city schools frequently fill local news reports, but we get few insights into the details of their lives and the causes of their behaviour. Sophie Swithinbank’s new 75-minute one-act play interrogates teenage macho culture with the vision of an outsider looking in and uncovers its soft centre. Mark and Darren are 15-year-olds, both from single parent families, but seemingly polar opposites. Mark is geeky, smartly dressed, conformist and proud of the waistcoat that he made for his dog. Darren is an unruly, aggressive bully, lying…

Writer and Director: Nathan Ellis The premise of work.txt promises a story about the gig economy, never switching off, work seeping in to every aspect of life etc, except the story is told by you, the audience. There are no actors, instead you are the worker: “You’ll clock in at the beginning. You’ll get short breaks at regular intervals. You’ll work in a team, and under your own initiative.” and so on. It’s not quite as radical as all that, but it’s certainly an original format. The audience is instructed, via a semi-automated PowerPoint, what to say and do, with…

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Sacha Duchamp It is common for modern Shakespeare adaptations to reinvent the story in some way, presenting the piece with a clever or ‘current’ angle. Sacha Duchamp’s production of Measure for Measure is no different and certainly takes an ambitious swing in its delivery of the classical piece. As the audience members enter they are given either a white or black ticket and told this will have significant bearing on their experience. With no further instruction the play begins and, despite the suspense of what is to come, it is a slightly underwhelming affair; an expositional…

Adaptors: Jeff James with James Yeatman  Director: Jeff James There are really three ways to present classic texts in the twenty-first century. The most conservative, most respectful way is to presume the text has earned its reputation – Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, Austen, they still have value because they just do. Present them as nearly as possible to the way they first engaged their public. The second way is to mine the text for contemporary relevance, to highlight colonialism in The Tempest, or queer subtext in The Importance of Being Earnest. The production values and the acting choices may sometimes hit…

Maybe EastEnders got it right. When the soap opera restarted after lockdown, Covid was hardly ever mentioned; no one wore a mask and the Queen Vic was always open. It was reassuring not to see reality on TV. Stand-up comedy is not so dismissive of real life, and in her new show Irish comedian Catherine Bohart continues to pick at those lockdown scabs. However, jokes about Zoom and breaking Government restrictions are just too familiar now. One of the worst calamities of lockdown – but not the worst, she’s clear to point out – was splitting up with fellow comedian…