Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Writer: Sian Carter Director: Michael Buffong Running with Lions is a warm, entertaining debut by Sian Carter. Despite the play’s themes of loss, grief and mental health, this portrait of a British-Caribbean family is often charmingly funny. After a brief flashback to when brother and sister Joshua and Gloria were young, happily sharing pick ‘n mix, we move to the present. Gloria is being discharged from a psychiatric hospital where she has been in treatment for a long spell, while her parents, Maxwell and Shirley, have been taking care of her teenage daughter, Imani. The indefatigable Shirley is getting the…

Writer: Mark Gerrard Director: Andrew Keates Steve’s birthday has forced him to put his life under a magnifying glass. Gone are the days where he’d sing showtunes in a shabby restaurant – the wild parties have dried up and he’s living (somewhat) responsibly with his partner of 16 years and their adopted son. Trying to find a new path in a world while dodging the obstacles of monogamy, middle-age, musicals and monotony is proving to be a struggle, but can he get his life back on track before it’s too late? Set and costume designer Lee Newby has transformed the…

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Joanna Read Sheila’s Island is a genderbent reimagining of Tim Firth’s 1992 comedy play Neville’s Island, adapted for an all-female cast. While the show offers plenty of laughs throughout, it is evident that it is catered towards a small and specific demographic, and occasionally lacks the substance and consistency to efficiently carry the story. The play sees four women (Sheila, Denise, Julie, and Fay) stranded on a small island in the Lake District after an incident during a team building exercise. Elected team captain Sheila(Judy Flynn) struggles to keep her team alive and morale up as…

 Writer: Khalil Gibran Director: Bronagh Lagan Book: Nadim Naaman Music and Lyrics: Dana Al Fardan and Nadim Naaman The union of music and poetry makes for a fruitful marriage. After a healthy period of gestation, this wonderful new work finally gets a full staging in London after concert performances in the UK and the Middle East. Vibrating with the sounds and strong-running emotions of young love, Broken Wings is a dramatised retelling of the poet Gibran Khalil Gibran’s book of the same name. Through our journey with the poet and the other characters we cover huge swathes of narrative territory…

Writer: Martha Reed Director: Gwenan Bain Where do we come from? What are we doing here? How will the universe end? And in the meantime, if all life ends in death, is there any point? Such weighty questions are borne lightly by Martha Reed’s charming two-hander Existential Fish & Dread, which sees Nigel Fyfe’s Martin having an existential crisis in an aquarium, triggered by the death earlier that day of Sir Stephen Hawking. Luckily, the worker he runs into is the bubbly Ellie (Natalie Durkin), currently working there to pay the bills while she completes an astrophysics PhD and whose…

Choreographer and Director: Jamaal Burkmar Jamaal Burkmar’s new 60-minute dance performance piece Donuts is a celebration of the classical American sitcoms that have become part of television history, and whether they are set in work or domestic spaces they have friendship at their heart. Staged by designer Rebecca Bevan on a familiar-looking sofa surrounded by lamps, the audience is instantly at ease in a recognisable scenario where nothing bad will happen for long. Three friends are lounging on their sofa, relaxed and happy with each as they chat and play. As they prepare for their night out, the different shades…

Writer: Florian Zeller Director: Jonathan Kent Translator: Christopher Hampton After the-more-miss-than-hit Classics seasons to celebrate its 60 years, it’s good to see the main stage at Hampstead once again presenting new work. And not just any new work, but the world premiere of a new play by Florian Zeller, the writer of The Father, which was, of course, adapted into the film that scored Anthony Hopkins his second Oscar. However, while The Forest is dazzlingly theatrical it is also stunningly old-fashioned. Surgeon Pierre comes home to find that his daughter has left her boyfriend. While searching through her boyfriend’s coat…

Writer: Mark Bastin Director: Finlay Glen Long-married couple Gina and Dennis have been through their fair share of tribulations during their relationship. Gina is wild, sassy and full of emotion, a total opposite of mild-mannered, laidback husband Dennis. Their yin and yang personalities may the reason opposites attracted in the first instance, but could they also be the driving force that is pushing them apart after all these years? Mark Bastin’s script has promise and is at times captivating, but the direction from Finlay Glen is lacking in areas. As Gina (Susan Graham) and Dennis (Mark Steere) take their bleak…