South East

Creators: Windmill Young Actors Writer: Joe Gill  Director: Tanushka Marah  Reviewer: Simon Topping A red flag waves and the raised fist of communist solidarity greets the audience as About A Revolution begins. This, the latest offering from the award-winning Windmill Young Actors, is a weighty exploration into the themes of inequality and social change as seen through the eyes of teenagers in ...

Creator: Jane Postlethwaite Reviewer: Simon Topping As Last Night of the Circus begins the audience are treated to some fabulous images of vintage circus performers, leading us to wonder what the enigmatic title of the show could mean we are about to witness. Just as this thought passes through the mind Jane Postlethwaite happily appears spotlit on stage, bedecked in ...

Writer: Adrian Marks Reviewer: Simon Topping It is 2003 as the audience join the queue to meet Gandalf for the upcoming signing of the official movie companion to The Two Towers, due to take place the following day.  Front of the line is Kevin Brook, self-confessed fanatic of all things Lord of the Rings, a seemingly unassuming young man in ...

Creators: Jon Levene and Nathan Lang    Reviewer: Simon Topping From the moment the duo leap on to the stage wearing white shirts and black trousers and ties, music blaring, the crowd know they are going to be in for a good time. Like an acid house version of the Blues Brothers, Jon Levene and Nathan Lang are going to teach ...

Writer: James Graham Director: Jeremy Herrin Reviewer: Alice Fowler The year is 1974 and Britain has a hung parliament. At Westminster, the Labour and Tory whips must employ every ounce of skulduggery and thuggery. Ahead loom a European referendum and the hornets’ nest of devolution. So far, so familiar? The beauty of James Graham’s excellent play This House, set from ...

Creators: Pop Heart Productions    Reviewer: Simon Topping The venue is decorated in post-it notes, with anti-slogan business-speak like: Orange is NOT the new black and Business-Fart. Among the notes on stage are a single office desk and a couple of chairs. As the show begins we meet Penny, a writer of plays and a creative whirlwind, forced to apply for ...

Creator: Elf Lyons Reviewer: Simon Topping Elf Lyons’ show Swan is too good to miss. Entering the stage in a parrot costume, bought from eBay for too much money, along with several other ill-advised purchases and speaking Franglish like a combination of Officer Crabtree from Allo Allo, with a pinch of Stanley Unwin, Lyons is already delighting the crowd. The night, we ...

Writers : Stephen Sondheim and George Furth Director: Charlotte Conquest Reviewer: Steve Turner Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s 1981 musical about the fracturing of friendships and relationships has a somewhat unusual way of delivering its narrative. The action runs backwards in time, each scene set before the previous one, so instead of watching as things disintegrate, we see them at ...