London Reviews

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Pamela Schermann Reviewer: Michael Gray   In a dank, chilly space beneath an office block that would make a useful car park, a City worker sleeps not at, but on, his desk. The weight of the faceless building seems to press down on him as he stirs restlessly. This is Iago. In Pamela Schermann's new version ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Ferdy Roberts Composer: Tom Haines Reviewer: Maryam Philpott   Macbeth is having a moment. Maybe it’s the aftermath of the referendum on Scottish independence or just the bleak winter months, but several versions have appeared on the fringe recently, not to mention a forthcoming film with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, as well as rumours that ...

Writer: Adam Hughes Director: Joshua McTaggart Reviewer: Stephen Bates “When two tribes go to war…” blares out from a loudspeaker to open Adam Hughes’ new play which takes us back to the days of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the Miners’ Strike and football hooliganism. In 1984/85, Leeds United had an indifferent season in football’s second tier, but the gang of ...

Writer: Camilla Whitehill Director: Sarah Meadows Reviewer: Scott Stait   "My name is Lucy Fuller. I’m 24 and I live in Whitechapel. When I was 18 I was kidnapped by the Kray twins, and locked in a flat with an escaped murderer." As audiences queue up for performances of Where Do Little Birds Go, the faces of Reggie and Ronnie ...

Writer and director: Steve Green Reviewer: Joanna Trainor   Imprisoned by a cage of wire casing and a material that looks like chain mail, Daniel Chrisostomou’s Elephant Man is at times unbearable to watch. Portraying Joseph Merrick’s deformities like this mean the audience can constantly see the man trapped inside, and at times you are desperate to pull him out ...

Writer: Matt Parvin Director: Anna Fox Reviewer: Maryam Philpott   What kind of decision-maker are you? Do you carefully weigh up all the options before rationally selecting the most appropriate one; do you rely on a gut-instinct or some form of intuition to guide you in the right direction, or do you pick something entirely at random and just deal ...

Writer: Friedrich Schiller Reviewer: Maryam Philpott   Joan of Arc – saint, warrior and saviour of France or demon, witch and murderer? Famous historical characters are constantly being reinterpreted by historians and dramatists as fashion alters our perspective on the past. Where once the lives of history’s ‘great men’ were written as determinist narratives of victory and success, there is ...

Music and Lyrics: Cole Porter Book: PG Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay New Book: Timothy Crouse, John Weidman Director: Daniel Evans Reviewer: Alex Ramon Following its highly acclaimed and hugely successful run as Sheffield Theatres’ 2014 Christmas show, Daniel Evans’s production of Anything Goes now tours, arriving at Wimbledon before heading on to (deep breath) Aylesbury, Stoke-on-Trent, Bromley, Bradford, Hull, ...