Author: The Reviews Hub - London

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…

Choreographers: Raúl Reínoso, Norge Cedeño, Thias Suárez, Pontus Lidberg, Maria Rovira, Alexis Fernández and Yaday Ponce Artistic Director: Carlos Acosta An evening with Acosta Danza is always the highlight of any season and their latest show 100% Cuban doesn’t disappoint. Delayed by the pandemic and finally arriving at Sadler’s Wells with some new pieces created in the last year, this showcase for choreographers and dancers offers five distinct but beautifully presented expressions of Cuban culture and rhythms. Surprising the audience is the UK premiere of Norge Cedeño and Thias Suárez’s Hybrid, which tells the story of a group of people…

Writer: Heather Alexander Director: Dominique Gerrard  ‘A woman must have money and a room of her own, if she is to write fiction.’ So starts Virginia Woolf’s 1928 lecture to Girton College investigating why women have been so absent in creating fiction. What may, at first, seem like a throw-away and glib remark, ‘money and a room of her own’, have been impossibilities for women throughout history. Woolf shows how women’s position throughout history has directly influenced their absence in creating works of fiction. She reminds us that wife-beating was not only tolerated but encouraged; that women married the man…

 Book, Music, Lyrics: Willy Russell Director: Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright A classic becomes a classic independent of its stars, its tunes or its fancy set designs. It’s the relationship between an audience and the spirit of the thing that counts. If it can bang its drum for different demographics and generations, and have them properly connect with its rhythm, then you may just have a piece of art with longevity on your hands. So, Blood Brothers returns to London bringing its story of class division and questions of fate v circumstance. Playing and touring since 1983, it has reached…

Writers: Sarah-Louise Young and Russell Lucas Director: Russell Lucas Of all British singer-songwriters, Kate Bush is the most eclectic, the most unique, and possibly the most beloved. The performer who made her name at the age of 19 with Wuthering Heights has produced some of the most recognisable and memorable songs and performances, all of which are lovingly captured and reimagined by Sarah-Louise Young in this hour-long tribute act. The famously reclusive “Ivy Queen” is, as the show’s title suggests, not in attendance downstairs at the Soho Theatre. At least, not in person; in spirit, she is very much in…