Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Writer: Rosie Day Director: Georgie Staight Following a sell-out run in 2020, Instructions for A Teenage Armaggeddon returns to London and this time has set up camp at Southwark Playhouse. Rosie Day, who also penned the solo piece, performs as Eileen; a cynical and dark-humoured young girl navigating her teenage years with an unfortunate amount of family baggage. The piece establishes almost immediately that Eileen had an older sister, Olive, who died while eating a yorkshire pudding. This seemingly silly-yet-serious concept sets the initial tone of the piece as Eileen guides us through the immediate aftermath of the bereavement with…

Choreographer: Anthony Missen Anthony Missen’s new show is a dystopian dance where shadows stalk a group of young friends as they grow up. Acrobatic and physical, The Shadow begins with some clear storytelling, but it loses its way in the second half. It starts with the five friends as young children playing games such as Peek Behind the Curtain. They waddle in fun and smirk in their competitive displays of silliness. But as the days pass, and as dancers dressed all in black pass between them, darker times beckon. Four of the five friends pair off in heterosexual couples leaving…

Writer and Director: Simona Hughes About 500 by Simona Hughes is a compelling, witty drama about women and fertility. In the punchy opening, thirty-year-old Clem, meeting Luke at a wedding, recognises him from his Match.com profile. They laugh in embarrassment and delight after she asks him why he never responded to her first tentative message. Face-to-face, the chemistry is obvious and when we see them next, they’ve moved in together. Stephanie Fuller as Clem and Dickon Farmar as Luke are utterly convincing as the couple in the joyfully erotic delight of a new relationship. The shadows on the horizon are…

Popular podcaster and panel comedian Ed Gamble is back with his brilliant stand up show Electric. Now a known face on Mock the Week and Great British Menu, he’s come a long way since his days of being comedy’s diabetic poster boy, but thankfully he’s stayed just as hilarious throughout. The show begins with a cascade of lasers and thrashing heavy metal guitars. While you would assume that maybe you’ve walked onto the wrong gig and that System of a Down are about to rock out on stage, instead, on wanders middle-class Gamble, ready with a scathing rant about the…

Writer: Everleigh Brenner Director: Maria Cristina Petitti What if a friend took you to a pub, sat you down, and then was hilarious and wildly vulnerable about her sexual assault, revenge plots and sexual blackmail for a straight 50 or so minutes? The reaction would depend on how strong the friendship is, really. It’s a relief then, to know we in the audience are Em’s best friends – she tells us this plainly. It may go some way to explain the comfort and ease with which our short time together goes. Within minutes we care deeply about her, and are…

Writer: Nathaniel Hall Director: Chris Hoyle Nathaniel Hall’s autobiographical one-man show First Time documents his experience of living with HIV in the modern world. Hall’s performance provides a fresh perspective on living with HIV, bringing an educational side to the emotion and passion that fuel the show. Breaking away from narrative convention, First Time is a character study that shows the honest and flawed nature of humanity. Hall narrates as he guides the audience through the timeline, starting on the day of his school prom in 2003, following through to his first time having sex, his HIV diagnosis, his work…

Writer: Tom Foreman Directors: Tom Foreman and Connor Rowlett What would happen to a coastal community if their small town was slated to be ‘decommissioned’ due to rising sea levels? It’s not a hypothetical question. Writer Tom Foreman’s Swell is an imaginative response to  the Welsh seaside town of Fairbourne, condemned in 2014 to be depopulated by 2054. It’s a wonderful piece of story-telling. Foreman’s fictional east-coast town of Swell is at first a cheerful local community. The quick, gossipy snatches of dialogue from assorted colourful eccentrics makes it feel like an updated version of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood.…

Writer: Sonali Bhattacharyya Director:  Nimmo Ismail There are many reasons why secondary school students should see this play. A not insignificant one is the demonstration of a how to write a history essay. Safiyya Ingar’s character, Ash, has learnt from Irwin in The History Boys   to ‘start with something surprising’, in this case ‘Gandhi takes on the British Empire’, (and B R Ambedkar takes on Gandhi).  Then she turns it into a boxing match, which Gandhi wins with his ‘killer blow’ – a 21 day fast. She finishes with a solid conclusion and gets 85%. Students should note that far…