Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Writers: Eden Vansittart, Pia Gurner-Levy and Emma Robson Directors: Pia Gurner-Levy and Emma Robson Dastardly News is a comedy double bill featuring two short plays from Not A Flan Productions. The more engaging of the two performances – The Dastardly Murder of the Chocolate Souffle – features a farcical whodunnit style story, at a 1950s country home. When there is a disappearance at a family funeral, the group try to piece together clues and their vastly different recollections of the evening to solve the mystery, but with such contrasting memories, it proves to be almost impossible. The creativity in…

Director: Barry Kleinbort Musical Director: Christopher Denny While thought of as an American musical theatre cabaret performer, Lorna Dallas has made London her home since 1971, when she starred in a revival of Jerome Kern’s Show Boat in the West End that ran for a then record-breaking 909 performances. Her latest cabaret show, Glamorous Nights and Rainy Days, conceived with director Barry Kleinbort and Christopher Denny, evokes the damp-but-glitzy image of both the West End and Broadway, from which she plucks a mix of showtunes familiar and unfamiliar from nearly a century of the genre. The first, and earliest, of…

Flamboyant, fiery, fierce and fabulous – Johannes Radebe dazzles in his first solo dance tour Freedom, which is camper than a row of rainbow-striped tents and more effervescent than a thousand glitterballs. It’s hard to think that the Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer might have been held back by the show that boasts more sequins and sparkles than a Mardi Gras Pride float. But as Johannes shimmers, struts and stakes his claim to every inch of the Peacock Theatre stage with bright colours and starry brilliance he makes the celebrated twinkling BBC series look like a seniors’ day trip to…

Writers and Directors: Stu Barter and Clare Dunn Let’s all get on the same page here. It’s objectively good to come together to raise chunks of cash for worthy causes – no one could dispute that. But the methods and madness that people employ to achieve this end can sometimes be bewildering, bizarre and mixed with a selfish motive. There’s also a divide over what’s worthy and what’s just one group’s pet issue. All of which means when big money, celebrity and fundraising come together there’s a rich and potentially inexhaustible seam of sharp material for satirists to mine. Sharing…

Choreographer and Director: Blanca Li Perhaps the most exciting thing about this VR experience playing at the Barbican is choosing which outfit to wear. All the eveningwear has been designed by Chanel, and each lavish dress and natty suit comes with its own animal head. Turning to look in the mirror is so surprising and satisfying that you want to try on every costume available. It’s true what they say: the best part of going out is getting ready. The last time choreographer Blanca Li was at the Barbican she brought robots to the stage. Le Bal de Paris is…

Choreographer: Eleesha Drennan How does one normally judge a dance performance? Strength and flexibility, some flashy impossible-seeming choreography? Maybe some fierce costume design or some artful lighting? Well, the best part of All the Time in the World has none of that, and yet it is near perfect in its execution. A lot is squeezed in to this three-part production. Eleesha Drennan’s own performance, Whiskers 2, for example, is an expression of ‘what it means to be a woman’; a bold premise indeed. Laying within a circle of fossils, she initially seems to give over to an external control, her…

Curator: Campbell X Director: Tabby Lamb For the fourth in the Transpose strand of the Barbican’s series of Pit Parties, which allows artists to curate their own shows of the material they want to see, the strand’s originator CN Lester hands over their curation duties to Campbell X, who puts together an evening that veers towards the joy in trans identity –something that can feel in short supply at the moment. There is no escaping that these are tough times for trans folk at the moment – especially trans women of colour, who are disproportionately victims of violence, including murder.…

Writer: Cindy Lou Johnson Director: Penny Gkritzapi Written in the late 80’s by Cindy Lou Johnson, Brilliant Traces is a play about two people desperate to escape the world but find themselves trapped with the only person who might just understand them. Set in a remote cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, we open on a sleeping Henry (Michael Feldsher) whose slumber is interrupted by frantic knocking at his front door, soon followed by Rosannah (Sam Kamras) bursting through it, wearing a wedding dress complete with lace veil and satin shoes. She brings with her a wild energy which burns blindingly…