South East

Reviewer: Simon Topping The first half of the evening kicks off with an address from Joanna Neary’s repressed housewife alter ego, Celia. Modelled on actress Celia Johnson's character in Brief Encounter, Neary captures the clipped modulated voice and subjugated manner of a put-upon spouse incredibly well. There is a sprinkling of Alan Bennett-style tragedy, as the audience learns from Celia’s ...

Writers: Kajetan Uranitsch and Katelijne Beukema Reviewer: Simon Topping The piece starts with two people exploring their surroundings in front of a large screen which has a pictorial representation of the internet on it. Kajetan Uranitsch and Katelijne Beukema are dressed all in white, in outfits you might have expected experimental fashion designer Alexander McQueen to have designed for Wimbledon. ...

Reviewer: Simon Topping Do the Thing (Simon Plotkin, Tim Meredith and musician Ian Anderson) are here to rock the crowd with a made-up musical. Different every night, it promises to be an entertaining evening of mirth and merriment. Meredith hobbles onto stage on crutches for this performance, he has been in Accident and Emergency all day after doing himself an ...

Reviewer: Simon Topping Strolling onto stage like a puffed-up peacock crossed with a cat burglar, in a white fur coat, black gloves, hat and sunglasses, comes Eddie Summers. Summers is a geezer and a thief and he is here to tell his gathered students just how it is done. There is a slow start to this premiere performance, as Summers ...

Reviewer: Simon Topping Hawk and Fisk are at the top of their tennising game; no one else can match their double trouble. At the peak of it all, after fighting their way to the very top, Fisk is shot on court just as they win the world cup. Hawk is bereft and after five years out of the game looks ...

Writer: Jen Ives Reviewer: Simon Topping Jen Ives is transgender, but she doesn’t want to talk about it, so she heads up her show saying. “There is plenty more about me to talk about”, she exclaims. And so there is, in this 40 minutes of impish and irreverent material full of laughs, wonderfully delivered. Ives, a rising star of the ...

Director: Anthea Williams Writer: Maeve Marsden and Libby Wood Reviewer: Jo Payne Gin has made its comeback and a team of Australians are bringing the musical story of how and why to the theatres of the UK with impeccable vocals, witty humour and only the drink doing the talking. The scene is set: cabaret-style seating, a small stage with a ...

Reviewer: Simon Topping Margaret Powell (1907-1984) was in service in the Edwardian era; first as a kitchen maid and then as a cook, until she married out of the work (this was a time when women could only escape such bondage by marriage). In her fifties, she went back to school and not only gained several qualifications but went on ...