The comic and the personal meld beautifully in this honest and heartwarming show, Carly Jurman’s Unlovable.
‘Entertaining & thought-provoking bite-sized stories’: Our Walk Through the World – The Water Rats
Our Walk Through the World is a collection of six sharply written, short plays by Ross Howard that highlight some of the absurdities of modern life.
‘In the current climate, a good comedy is worth its weight in gold’: Lost Keys & Orgasms at the Pasty Motel – Canal Cafe Theatre
Mary Jane Figtree’s play is based on the concept of an Italian 90s play called Orgasmo e Pregiudizio. With this, her first play, she has written something that succeeds in being both funny yet emotionally resonant.
‘Weirdly joyful in a terrible, unnerving, end of Britain kind of way’: BORIS REX – Tristan Bates Theatre
Full disclosure, I was not excited about seeing a show about Boris Johnson. Frankly I’m feeling a tad Boris-ed out these days, but fortunately, given a lively and plentiful audience, not everyone seems to be turned off by the subject matter.
‘Fiercely powerful’: VINCENT RIVER – Park Theatre ★★★★
Philip Ridley’s fiercely powerful two-hander Vincent River may only run for 80 minutes but it packs an emotional punch that left its opening night audience reeling.
‘Broad brushstrokes & clumsy physical comedy’: THE DOG BENEATH THE SKIN – Jermyn Street Theatre ★★
The Dog Beneath the Skin is a bit of a dog’s dinner and a disappointing end to a patchy Scandal Season.
‘It just isn’t funny or bawdy enough’: FOUL PAGES – Hope Theatre ★★
Foul Pages, not as funny, original or inspired as it likes to think it is, runs at the Hope Theatre, Islington.
‘The decision to move the action to the 1920s is inspired’: THE LADY WITH A DOG – White Bear Theatre ★★★★
Advice columns have often suggested lonely hearts should take up dog walking as a sure-fire way of finding romance. They may be barking up the wrong tree but love-sick mutts are suckers for a cute pooch. The ploy works wonders in Mark Giesser’s enchanting romance, The Lady With A Dog, adapted from Chekhov’s classic short story.
‘Robert Cuccioli brings a touch of quality’: ROTHSCHILD & SONS – Park Theatre
At the heart of the story of Rothschild & Sons at the Park Theatre, London is a family and race trying to carve out a place for themselves in history.
‘Regrets & recriminations superbly captured’: THE OPEN HOUSE – The Print Room at the Coronet ★★★★
The Open House comes to The Print Room, Notting Hill, from a successful premiere at Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio and it is an engrossing character study of family life, post-The American Dream.
‘Ripe with expletives & bravura’: EAST – King’s Head Theatre ★★★★★
Shocking, provocative and poetic. Steven Berkoff’s punchy verse play, East, has returned to its roots. No, not Bethnal Green or the Mile End Road, but the King’s Head Theatre Islington, where it made its London debut in 1975.
‘Radical & thought-provoking’: HEARTBREAK HOUSE – Union Theatre ★★★
Phil Willmott navigates a steady course through Bernard Shaw’s turbulent Heartbreak House though he occasionally drifts away from meaningful satire and into jolly farce.
JAMAICA INN – Tabard Theatre ★★★★
London’s Theatre Lab Company has triumphed with Lisa Evans’ dark and atmospheric adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier classic, Jamaica Inn. It’s a thrilling production with, at its heart, a luminous performance by Kimberley Jarvis as the spirited heroine.
THE TAILOR-MADE MAN – White Bear Theatre ★★★★
At one time Billy Haines, the subject of Claudio Macor’s play, The Tailor-Made Man, was as big as Clark Gable, Ramon Novarro and Montgomery Clift (look ’em up if the names mean nothing to you). A clean cut, Hollywood matinee idol, at the advent of talkies, he was feted and adored.
MACBETH – Bussey Building ★★★★
This is a timeless Macbeth, stripped down to the bone and taken back to its original text – slightly abridged to get it into two hours – bloody, brutal and uncompromising.
WHEN MIDNIGHT STRIKES – Drayton Arms Theatre ★★★★
It was the night when everything would change. The internet, still in its infancy, would crash – possibly – 9/11 was 21 months away and Friends was still the most popular comedy on TV.
‘Drama at a totally different level’: Punchdrunk’s Kabeiroi ★★★★
Oblivious passers-by sometimes appeared odd and threatening, and I had the near-constant the feeling that we were being watched – which probably we were. At the same time, the hours walking round London following instructions meant sometimes it felt tedious, tiring and cold.