London Reviews

Writer: Tim Crouch Director: Tim Crouch with Karl James and Andy Smith Reviewer: Joanna Trainor Student Louise Mane is presenting her work to be considered for a scholarship, speaking of her admiration and love for the conceptual artist Janet Adler, in 2004. This is interspersed with scenes between a man and a woman ten years later. They stand completely still, ...

Writer: Kevin Kautzman Director: Max Pappenheim Reviewer: Stephen Bates Sleep,“’tis a consummation devoutly to be wished” according to the Bard and so ’tis here, as we see an elderly couple edging inexorably towards eternal sleep and their insomniac son tortured by his past. American writer Kevin Kautzman’s 90 minute one act play, a reflection on mortality and inter-generational tensions, is ...

Writer: Anne Washburn Director: Robert Icke Reviewer: Lou Flaxman Billed as a ‘post-electric play’, Mr Burns is a three-act epic, spanning over 80 years of post-apocalypse America. Survivors on the run from a nuclear disaster cling to their cultural past by attempting to remember one particular episode of The Simpsons- Cape Feare- in which a murderous Sideshow Bob pursues Bart, ...

Writer: Francesca Millican-Slater Reviewer: Joanna Trainor With wine, cheese and Buble; Francesca Millican-Slater tells the story of her flat, from a dirt path to wooden walls. Though it might sound like a history lesson, her warmth and love and enthusiasm for the life of her former abode, makes the evening seem more like a housewarming party with friends and karaoke. ...

Writer: Harold Brighouse Director: Nadia Fall Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Originally set in 1880, Harold Brighouse's 1915 play Hobson's Choice is just as much about the social changes afoot at the time of its writing as they were about life in 19th Century Salford. It's partly down to that malleability of timeframe that makes the Open Air Theatre's decision to relocate ...

Writer: Greg Wohead (using extracts from Ted Bundy's confession tapes) Director: Greg Wohead Reviewer: Cavelle Leigh Ted Bundy, the serial killer that shook the world, certainly America. Not only for the sheer number of victims he killed and the length of time he evaded capture, but because his poster boy good looks and charming persona simply didn’t fit the notion ...

Writer: George Saunders Director: Josh Roche Reviewer: Lou Flaxman Adapted from a 1997 short story by Texan writer George Saunders,Winkyis a touching and funny portrait of two confused and eccentric siblings who find themselves back under the same roof, later in life than they might have hoped. Neil Yannicky is a lost and ineffectual man, played with a heavy sadness ...

Book: Chris D’Arienzo Director: Kristin Hanggi Reviewer: Joanna Trainor After its two year stint in the West End finished in November, Rock of Ages is back, for its first UK tour. Though the storyline won’t blow you away, with your air guitar, glowsticks and the best of 80s rock, it’s impossible not to have a great evening. Hear’Say’s Noel Sullivan ...