Tag Archives: Pleasance Theatre

Reviewer:Lucy Danser [rating:4.0] There’s no one on the circuit quite like James Acaster. With a persona and material that borders on the bizarre but never crosses into incomprehensibly surreal he manages to be both different and accessible. Though he seemed surprised to see under 18’s at this performance of Lawnmower, the truth is that Acaster, thanks to the fact he ...

Writer: Tom Wainwright Director:Emma Callander Reviewer:Lucy Danser [rating:4.0] Audiences are often split on the subject of solo plays. Relying on both a strong story and an engaging actor to tell it well they can so often be a major disappointment. When they are done right, however, it can be an unmissable event. This can be said of Tom Wainwright's play ...

Writer: Edward Ravenscroft Director: Danny Wainwright Reviewer: Harry Stern [rating:3] Twenty years after the end of Puritan era, the English stage, judging by this raucous romp, was still fixated by sex. To the exclusion of virtually everything else it seems. Other than overindulgence in alcohol consumption. Hedonism was certainly the order of the day. By transmuting the action of this ...

Writer: Chris Larner Director: Hannah Eidinow Review: Harry Stern [rating:4.5] This piece of work is devastating. Devastatingly real and devastatingly sad. Its wit, its perception, its poetry, its gravitas and its triviality are the very stuff of humanity. All life and all death, as it were, is here. Yet at the same time it is uplifting. A simple tragedy of ...

Writer: Jake Brunger/Hannah Rodger Director: Kirsty Patrick Ward/Luke Sheppard Reviewer: Lauren Kilgannon [rating:4] Home is where the heart and the heartache is in this touching yet humorous double bill from James Quaife Productions. The low wooden beams of this intimate and cosy theatre lend themselves to the country house setting. Although at first, it feels like we're sat in the ...

Writer: Morag Fullarton Director: Morag Fullarton Reviewer: Georgina Newman [rating:4.5] It's a mean feat to recreate the tones of the 1942 Hollywood classic, Casablanca, within the confines of Islington's Pleasance Theatre, but Gilded Balloon has achieved a marked evocation of the celebrated film. Written and directed by Morag Fullarton, Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut is a colourful and irreverent spoof/send-up ...

Writer: Elspeth Turner Director: Emily Reutlinger Reviewer: Amy Taylor [Rating: 3/5] Family, tradition, roots, secrets and lies form the basis of Elspeth Turner’s debut play, The Idiot at the Wall. Directed by Emily Reutlinger and based on Gaelic tales, songs and expressions, this new piece of the theatre shows promise, but is a little unpolished. Taking place on an unknown ...