they have made a noticeable effort to share the experiences of many, to both hilarious and humbling effect in word, movement and dance.
INSIDE PUSSY RIOT – Saatchi Gallery
Les Enfants Terrible, a company now synonymous with this experience-based immersive theatre, take us through white-walled holding cells, to a cathedral with neon Donald Trump and Putin effigies, to grimy prison workrooms.
DIAMOND – Soho Theatre
2017 marks fifty years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexual ‘behaviour’ between consenting adults in the UK, and sixty years since the Wolfenden Report recommended this as the best course of action for Parliament. A diamond anniversary, of sorts.
HEAR ME RAW – Soho Theatre
Hear Me Raw was perhaps the poshest theatrical experience I have ever had (and that really is saying something). It was a glowing auditorium of bad hair, good genes, and plastic prosecco, followed by a swarm of supportive mums murmuring ‘Oh, isn’t she brave’.
MAIDEN SPEECH – TheatreN16
In world of Harvey Weinsteins, Bill Cosbys, MRAs and other own-brand misogynists in and out of the arts, A mini-festival of feminist theatre should be a soothing balm to the wounds wrought by male privilege. It is, in part.
MAIDEN SPEECH – TheatreN16
In world of Harvey Weinsteins, Bill Cosbys, MRAs and other own-brand misogynists in and out of the arts, A mini-festival of feminist theatre should be a soothing balm to the wounds wrought by male privilege. It is, in part.
PALMYRA – #EdFringe
Two men glide around the floor on small wheeled platforms. Like children, belly down on skateboards, they relish the speed and inability to control their paths.
PARTY GAME – #EdFringe Edinburgh Festival Fringe
I have reservations as soon as I walk into bluemouth’s new immersive party show at the Wee Red Bar. Primarily because there aren’t many people there – never a good sign for a party.
LISTS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD – #EdFringe
Things that are good about Lists for the End of the World
1. It’s funny, sad and moving all at once
2. Though the concept is simple, it’s structurally dynamic
KLANGHAUS: 800 BREATHS – Southbank Centre
A dozen or so of us were led to the roof of the Royal Festival Hall where we were told to expect: ‘A multi-sensory encounter of shifting sound, colour and light, which reinvents the gig-going experience as a site-responsive close-up standing performance.’ Whatever that is.
DIRTY WORK (THE LATE SHIFT) – Battersea Arts Centre
The performers are framed by a false, red curtained, proscenium arch that forms, like the show itself a facade: a description of something without being either of itself or the thing it describes. An hour and fifteen minutes runs with Robin Arthur and Cathy Naden taking turns to speak.
DOUBLE DOUBLE ACT – Unicorn Theatre
What happens when two experimental performance artists join forces with a few kids to make a kids’ show? Utterly delightful, if messy, madness. 1990s Nickelodeon is a clear influence, as are fart jokes, poo, time bending and parallel universes.
HAMLET FOOL – Lion & Unicorn Theatre
Anastasia Zinovieva is a motley clown who wants to reenact Hamlet, but it’s a big story to take on herself. She enlists seven people from the audience to fill the major roles and instructs them as they go – similar to Hamlet’s treatment of the players.
PONYBOY CURTIS VS. – The Yard
Trying to write about Chris Goode’s latest Ponyboy Curtis show vs. is like trying to fit a hurricane into a canning jar. The energy, love and freedom on the Yard’s stage is irrevocably alive and unrestrained, and trying to pin this one-of-a-kind butterfly onto a page kills it a little, or a lot.
OH YES OH NO – Camden People’s Theatre
Louise Orwin is asking big questions about female sexuality and desire, but she doesn’t have the answers. There are no definitive answers anyway, just individual experiences. To make Oh Yes Oh No, she interviewed dozens of women around the country and found some disturbing patterns.
FLIGHTS OF FANCY – Soho Theatre
Taking a cabaret-style approach lends itself to the wonderfully disparate stories – Korean Culture camp as a child, hanging out in Seattle’s cafes, a layover in Korea, and internet dating all feature along with other topics and tales.
FLIGHTS OF FANCY – Soho Theatre
Taking a cabaret-style approach lends itself to the wonderfully disparate stories – Korean Culture camp as a child, hanging out in Seattle’s cafes, a layover in Korea, and internet dating all feature along with other topics and tales.
CIRCUS DIARIES: Taival by Company Nuua
The second show from Company Nuua is a poetic sideshow philosophy of beauty, life, and pain. There is dark. There is bright. There is flesh. There are hugs, and struggles (which, themselves, have a hug inextricably at their core), and there is humour in all shades of absurd and awkward.
Buzzcut Festival: Day Three highlights include Silent Dinner & Free Haircuts
With the glorious sunshine and packed building, it’s a great day to see some of the outdoor work. Sexcentenary, a collective of older women addressing issues around gender, feminism and ageing are performing around Govan.
Buzzcut Festival: Day Two highlights include Free Lunch & Stuntman
Part of the reason I wanted to come to Buzzcut is that I find it hard to write about live art. I don’t dislike it, far from it – I have a broad but uninformed appreciation of it. But my theatrical home is built from Shakespeare, text-based narratives and the great American playwrights.