Tag Archives: Theatre

Writer/performer: Robin Dale Boon Reviewer: James McColl In his latest show, What Does Stuff Do? Robin Dale Boon asks the all-encompassing and important titular question. Through his inventive juggling, ping pong mastery, water-bending and philosophical leanings, the Circomedia trained Boon does his best to answer his own question by exploring the relationship between objects and people in a tight hour-long ...

Writers: Gary Barlow and Tim Firth Director: Matt Ryan Designer: Robert Jones Reviewer: Julia Beasley Getting naked for charity was a cheeky move by 11 female friends in North Yorkshire over 20 years ago. Modestly poised with sunflowers, teapots and currant buns,  their Women’s Institute nude calendar started life as a local controversy. It was all quietly subversive and heaps ...

Writer & Director: Tristan Fynn-Aidu-enu  Reviewer: James McColl London, the early Nineties. Black British culture is a dominant part of mainstream culture, with garage, jungle and soul music bubbling under the surface of the capital. Sweet Like Chocolate Boy, the latest play from writer & director Tristan Fynn-Aidu-enu, is a coming-of-age story spanning multiple decades and generations. Two young black ...

Writer: Gabriel Bisset-Smith Director: Charlotte Bennett Reviewer: Richard Maguire It’s rare that a play teems with so many ideas while still managing to remain coherent, but Whitewash is that rare play. There might be those who say that writer Gabriel Bisset-Smith has packed too many issues into his 70 minutes, but we are not one-dimensional beings with a single narrative: ...

Writer: Kenny Emson Director: Eleanor Rhode Reviewer: Richard Maguire A play about a couple having an affair may not promise the most exciting evening at the theatre, and unfortunately Rust, a new two-hander at the Bush, only proves this. Despite some stellar acting, Rust has very little to report on the state of extramarital affairs. In what may be the ...

Writer: Anton Chekhov  Director: Lev Dodin Reviewer: Gus Mitchell With a double bill of Life and Fate and Uncle Vanya at the Theatre Royal Haymarket last summer, the Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg made a splash in London. Their renowned director Lev Dodin now leads the company back to the West End, with a 10-day run of Anton Chekhov’s penultimate play, ...

Writer: Dion Boucicault Director: Phil Wilmott Reviewer: Richard Maguire It’s a difficult task to pull off Victorian melodrama in this day and age. The stock characters and the sentimental coincidences seem so out of place on the stages of today. And so The Finborough and director Phil Wilmott should be commended for this revival of a play first seen in ...

Show title: The Future - Venue: Battersea Arts Centre, London Writer: Little Bulb Theatre Director: Alexander Scott Reviewer: Richard Maguire The Future is a quirky exploration of Artificial Intelligence and lies somewhere between a TED Talk and a rock gig. However, its focus on zany and nerdy humour means that it fails to ask any new questions about AI that ...