The strong performances and creative potential of Jack Ivimy’s Dialektikon is undermined by a bizarre concept and over-ambitious, confused content. The world is cruel, unjust and relentless: one of my main takeaways from Jack Ivimy’s 90-minute …
Patrick Barlow's The Messiah relies too much on repetitive and unsophisticated humour to be a hit. The exaggerated mime, malapropisms and 'talking-like-a-ten-year-old', that make up the bulk of The Messiah, are safe comic bets for a brief …
The layered dialogue and mesmerising central performance in Luke Culloty's Jailbirds is weighed down by a disjointed pace, unnecessary staging decisions and a disappointing ending. As audiences walk into the Etcetera, Culloty's ensemble are already onstage - …
Acutely pitched and incomprehensibly energetic, Hot Gay Time Machine's high camp soiree into Toby Marlow and Zak Ghazi-Torbati's sexual awakenings is intelligent, unadulteratedly obnoxious and sublimely silly. Lucy Moss, Toby Marlow and collaborator Zak Ghazi-Torbati's second West End …
Some strong performances and deliciously catty one-liners ensure The Crumple Zone is an enjoyable and inoffensive 75-minutes, but the flimsiness of the writing becomes a bit of a barrier to really feeling able to rave about …
Charles Court Opera’s alternative panto offering of 2018, Buttons: A Cinderella Story, is on the money - impressing with a talented ensemble, quality production values and enormously funny (if not-so-innocent) gags. The King's Head Theatre is …
Simon Katan and Luke Fraser's Clamour could have been a thought-provoking and multimedia “choose your own adventure”, but devolved into a meandering installation that lacked vigour. Upon entering a theatre, we're usually met with announcements to turn off …
Flux Theatre's production of Chutney is slick, stylish and self-aware - with assured direction and promising performances. I just wasn't mad about the play itself. The sanguinary premise of Reece Connolly’s Chutney is rich, both in dramatic possibility …
Though it may seem counterintuitive, investing more in the drama of their stories is the key for Project2 to anchor their narratives and create comedy gold. Improvisers Katy Schute and Chris Mead begin Thirteen Cycles as …
Christopher York's metatheatrical reimagining of The Pit and the Pendulum transposes its central characters' dire fate on an unnamed but real-life Iranian activist. When a peaceful Iranian protestor becomes a prisoner, she (meta-theatrically) finds herself in Christopher York’s …
Valiant performances and an interesting, expressionist design are not quite enough to elevate A Pupil's lethargic writing. Lucy Sheen wheels on to stage as Ye, an utterly dejected former musical prodigy. Ye occupies a sparse bedsit that’s littered …
Laughs do come thick and fast in Fat Rascal's gender-swapped Beauty and the Beast parody - but it doesn't particularly play to individual cast members' strengths, nor seem quite as imaginative or well-oiled, as Vulvarine did. Fat Rascal's Vulvarine was …