Author: The Reviews Hub - London

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…

Creator: Stefanie Rummel Coming to us live on Zoom, Stefanie Rummel’s cabaret show Chansons has more than a touch of European flavour. Rummel, who herself has spent many years working and living in France, gives the audience the authentic Parisian cabaret experience. Filmed against a background in luscious, Valentine red, Rummel welcomes us coquettishly. She offers three flowers: one for love, one for trust and one full of bees if “you ever forget me”. Stefanie is an award-winning singer (with Chansons scoring five awards on its debut in 2019) and she quickly puts the audience at ease. She explains that…

Writer: Sherine Chalhie Director: Bayley Freer Aisha, as written and performed by Sherine Chalhie in her solo piece Why So Syrian?, has all the self-assuredness and vigour of a 17-year-old from Tottenham excited to be taking her first solo holiday. That trip is to visit relatives in Damascus, where Chalhie portrays an array of aunts and uncles with a variety of comic caricatures. And then she is swept off her feet by her handsome cousin Mohamed. When she returns to England and back to school, Mo makes the perilous journey by boat to Greece and then through other underground routes…

Writer: Becks Turner Director: Adam Gregory In Avocado on Tits, Becks Turner’s cabaret game show, her Slag of the Dump bursts onto the stage to describe to us Slagsters her journey as top influencer, media content provider and brand ambassador. She dances, twerks, lip-syncs, Beyoncés and burlesques her way through a rapid succession of her Instagrammable moments. Flanked by two rails of blagged fashion items and wearing a saucy confection of bin bags, inflated breasts and a pink cowboy hat, she’s all about clothes. Her mantra is the infamous defence of ex-Love Islander Molly Mae, now creative designer of fast…

Choreographer and Director: Léa Tirabasso Cellular death may not be an obvious subject for dance but Léa Tirabasso’s piece Starving Dingoes is an exploration of group dynamics and responses to the ‘dysfunctional element’, although you may not get that without reading the programme notes in advance. Performed for one night only at The Place as part of its eclectic Spring Season, Starving Dingoes is a continuous loose movement piece and dance in its most abstract form. With no story as such, Tirabasso’s choreography begins in the dark with a crackling hum as so many dance shows now do, before five…

Writer: Henry Madd Director: Nic Connaughton You city folk may never fully understand. Growing up with more than one option for public transport, a world of options for places to go after school or at the weekend with friends, and even street lamps that illuminate wherever it is you want to go. A rural childhood can be a beautiful thing: fields, cows, fresh air and all that bucolic glory. But it can also mean isolation, stagnation and crushing boredom which leads to dysfunction and potential mental health and substance abuse issues. The power, the glory, and the ugliness of life…

Writer: Natasha Marshall Director: Miranda Cromwell Drawing loosely on some of Natasha Marshall’s own experiences of growing up Mixed-Race in a predominantly White area of Wiltshire, Half Breed is a one-woman show. The story revolves around the main protagonist, Jazmin (Jaz), who is grappling with her identity, her parochial environment and her dreams of moving to London which would involve leaving her grandmother and best friend behind. As well as her desire to attend drama school there, Jaz believes that London can offer a clean slate and respite from the racism she endures living a small West Country village. Jaz’s…

Writer: Rachel Hammond Director: Lucy Jane Atkinson Studying music at university, Hannah is expected to choose her own piece for her first recital. ‘I was brought up in an autistic household,’ she tells her tutor. ‘I need a bit more structure’. Rachel Hammond’s semi-autobiographical play Joshua (and Me) shows what happens when the neurodivergence of one member affects every aspect of a family’s life. At seven Hannah is already aware of things she cannot do because they would upset her autistic older brother Joshua, and the list gets bigger as he gets older. Playing music is one of them; but…