London Reviews

Writer: Molière, adapted by John Donnelly Director: Blanche McIntyre Reviewer: Scott Matthewman It seems that Molière’s tale of a conman posing as a man of faith who inveigles his way into a high society family has a resonance with today’s theatre audience. How else could one explain this, the third version in a year of Tartuffe, following Christopher Hampton’s West ...

Writers: Nicola Bland, Stacey Bland Director: Victoria Gimby Reviewer: Karl O'Doherty With the point clearly flagged up by Vicky’s mother in the opening minutes, the 1980’s in London was a potentially dangerous place for men and women stepping outside gender and sexuality norms. And Vicky isn’t stepping so much as leaping vibrantly into an unpredictable future, complete with leopard-print heels, ...

Writer: Bryony Kimmings Directors:  Kirsty Housley and Bryony Kimmings Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Bryony Kimming’s one-woman show already comes studded with so many four and five-star recommendations, it seems almost unnecessary to review it. But here goes. I’m a Phoenix, Bitchis a multi-media restaging of the worst years of Kimming’s life. This is therapy on a grand scale. In 2016, after ...

Writer: Carrie Marx Director:  Chris Lincé Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Performer Carrie Marx was behind one of the most creepy shows from last year’s VAULT Festival. In Unburied, a play about a lost children’s TV show, Marx took the audience into the dark web, with terrifying results. Her new show, April, is also unsettling and eerie. Aprilis an internet sensation. She ...

Writer: Martin Malcolm Director:  Russell Lucas Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Some 50 years after their arrest, Reggie and Ronnie still hold their appeal. Films like Legend and The Krays continue to mythologise their lives and glamourize the violence they perpetrated. It’s not too hard to imagine young men of today being lured by the Krays’ signature starched white shirts and their pristinely ...

Writers: James Mitchell and Ed Coleman Director:  Jessica Rose McVay Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Week 5 at the VAULT Festival, and it seems to be busier than ever down in the tunnels under Waterloo station. Opening proceedings this week is Leave a Message, a thoughtful play about alcoholism, but despite some strong performances it does seem slightly too conventional for a ...

Writer: Stephen Adly Guirgis Director: Kate Hewitt Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Our first experience of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Jesus Hopped the A Train is of Angel Cruz, an incarcerated Latino man, desperately trying to remember the Lord’s Prayer (“Howard be thy name?”) while other unseen prisoners tell him in the earthiest of ways to shut up. Many have taken from the play’s ...

Book, Lyrics and Music: Paul Whitehouse and Jim Sullivan Director: Caroline Jay Ranger Reviewer: Scott Matthewman For over twenty years, through sixty-four episodes across seven series and countless Christmas specials, Only Fools and Horsesaudiences watched Derek “Del Boy” Trotter selling knock-off goods that promised the world, but were ultimately a let-down. There is a new musical of Only Fools and ...