London Reviews

Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Ten years ago, Pizza Express turned the underused basement of its King’s Road establishment into a cabaret spot, attempting to plug the gap left by the demise of Mayfair’s Pizza in the Park. The rebirth of The Pheasantry as a treasured cabaret space helped propel Pizza Express’s live music ventures away from their solitary Dean Street jazz ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Gregory Doran Reviewer: Richard Maguire Shakespeare’s problem play gets a 1900’s update in Gregory Doran’s production for the RSC now playing in rep at The Barbican. But placing Measure For Measure in Austria at the height of the Vienna Secession Movement does little to solve – or further complicate – the issues in this tale of ...

Writers: Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière Translator/Adaptor and Director: Jeremy Sams Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Originating in France in 2010, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière’s Le Prénom found success in over 30 countries before this British adaptation by Jeremy Sams, which first premiered at the Birmingham Rep in 2017. Now on tour, this Ayckbournesque comedy of manners ...

Devisers: Fusion Theatre Director: Katie Merritt Reviewer: Scott Matthewman The legend of Medusa is well-known. Or at least, parts of it are: most notably that she was a Gorgon with snakes for hair, and anybody who looked upon her face would turn to stone. Beyond that, things get a little fuzzy. Like all good stories, it improved with age: Medusa, ...

Reviewer: Karl O’Doherty Many happy returns are due to the most engaging of all Pizza Express basements. The Chelsea home of Pizza Express Live, the chain’s live music and performance operation, is 10 years old and is hosting a week of cabaret performances from the historic venue’s old (and new) friends. The Tuesday show kicked off the four-night mini-festival, pushing ...

Creators/Directors: Ellie Dubois and Pete Lannon Reviewer: Scott Matthewman “Eye contact,” is one of the few spoken elements in Nosedive. Eye contact is especially important in this piece, about growth, trust and intergenerational relationships – and is always greeted by a smile. Scotland-based contemporary performance company Superfan are the 2019 recipients of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, which ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Justin Audibert Reviewer: Stephen Bates Some plays struggle to stand the test of time. In the not so distant past, The Taming of the Shrew could be seen almost constantly, almost everywhere, but now it has been eclipsed by the much tamer Much Ado About Nothing as the Shakespearean romcom of choice. …Shrew may now be ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Gavin McAlinden Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Finding a new take on a Shakespeare classic is a tricky task at the best of times. For a fringe production, sharing a stage and set with plays by Ibsen and Strindberg, it is certainly an uphill battle. The Acting Gymnasium’s Macbeth, in repertory with the company’s Miss Julie and A ...