Most impactful in Brown Boys Swim at Soho Theatre is the unexpected ending where the actual stakes are revealed, after have been largely masked by the frivolity of the premise. There’s some brief foreshadowing, but this is glossed over by the boys’ vivacity and focus on impressing their peers so it’s easy to miss.
‘A unique blend of spoken word, choral work & music’: QUEENS OF SHEBA – Soho Theatre
This is a triumphant return of Queens of Sheba after a successful run at Soho Theatre in 2021 and Edinburgh Fringe in 2018. Expertly directed, these ladies burst onto the stage with such energy and so many vibes it’s infectious and everyone in the audience feels it.
‘Funny, clever & moving’: THE CULT OF K*NZO – Touring
Cosmopolitan’s current most-read article is a feature on a $35 maternity dress worn by Megan Markle. This is, as explored in performance artist Paula Varjack’s latest work, an example of post-recession celebrity dressing. Yet mixing a Gucci top with Topshop jeans is a distant dream to those of us who will never be able to afford to wear Gucci.
‘Where will all the incels gather without reddit?’ THE ABODE – Edinburgh Fringe
There are great intentions at work here, but the initial concept is flawed – ultimately it undermines the power that the internet and technology gives to the alt-right.
Could Hamilton become the new symbol of the Leave campaign?
This pro-immigration, hip-hop reinvention of the all-American musical about a country gaining independence from a distant, tyrannical overlord resonates rather differently in Brexit Britain than it does in America. Forget the NHS bus – could Hamilton be the new symbol of the Leave campaign?
THE LOST BOY PETER PAN – Pleasance Theatre
The Tradition versus Progress conflict sits along side the moral question of whether or not we should be perpetuating these attitudes in young children – who don’t know enough to see these problems – by continuing to tell these stories.
DOUBLE TROUBLE – Intermission Youth Theatre
It can be tough to get kids to engage with Shakespeare. Many of them see the foreign-sounding language and old-fashioned stories as irrelevant to the issues they battle as growing up today.
HALF BREED – Soho Theatre
This is a beautifully made one-woman show in which Natasha Marshall plays all the characters, but chiefly Jaz, a 17-year-young woman of mixed African and British parentage.
HEATHER – #EdFringe
Harry receives a children’s book manuscript from an unknown writer, Heather Eames. Impressed, he wants to discuss an advance, rights and making her book the Next Big Thing, but Heather’s based outside of London, heavily pregnant and ill.
Submission & Sarah, Sky & Seven Other Guys – #EdFringe
A British Pakistani Muslim tries to reconcile his faith and family with his love of men and clubbing. A gay guy and his straight female BFF share a flat, a mutual adoration for classic films and the occasional man.
GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY – Old Vic Theatre
The music they listen to, and that which seeps from them with aching melancholy, is by Bob Dylan – written decades after the Great Depression ended. Combined with Conor McPherson’s earthy, Celtic script of imagery-laden prose, Girl From the North Country is not a musical.
BECHDEL TESTING LIFE – The Bunker
Bechdel Theatre’s recent initiative Bechdel Testing Life asks women to send in recorded conversations from their everyday lives that pass the test. These are then given to playwrights, who use the conversations as jumping-off points for short plays.
DOMINOES – Tara Theatre
In Dominoes, History teacher Leila and her fiancé Andy share the same last name – McKinnon. Andy’s white and Scottish, Leila’s half black-Caribbean. When curiosity gets the better of her in the run up to their half term wedding, she makes a discovery that pits family and friends against each other and threatens to destroy her big day.
IDENTITY CRISIS – Ovalhouse
Phina Oruche has had an extraordinary career. Growing up in Liverpool to Nigerian parents and desperately wanting to see more of the world, she let her best friend Amy talk her into doing a modelling photoshoot as a teenager. Soon she found herself living and working in London, then New York and LA.
BUNNY – White Bear Theatre
Katie is a fairly average eighteen-year-old living a life busy with A-levels, uni applications and her older boyfriend, Abe. She’s not sure what she wants to do with the rest of her life, but she’s enjoying the here and now of Luton in the springtime.
Response to Daily Telegraph critic Dominic Cavendish: You are the thought police
Dominic Cavendish can rest assured: he will not lose the opportunity to see his favourite (white) male actors in leading Shakespearean roles.
THE WILD PARTY – The Other Palace
This revival of Michael John LaChiusa’s musical The Wild Party unfortunately lives up to its original reception. Dripping with sex, booze and jazz, there are some great tunes but little substance.
Howard Barker’s play doesn’t drase minorities, The Print Room Does
As The Print Room’s controversially cast production of Howard Barker’s In the Depths of Love opens this week, here’s a guest contribution from Daniel York.
GLOCKENSPIEL – Tristan Bates Theatre
In the programme notes for Steven Dykes’ Glockenspiel, we are told that 40% of current personnel have been deployed more than once, and 27% of those veterans deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from anxiety disorders and/depression.
An industry-wide new year’s resolution: Open letter to the Print Room
An industry making resolutions? Now that’s something I can get behind – people working together for a common goal is what theatre is about, on a microcosmic level anyway, and more unity is surely a good thing in a world becoming increasingly polarised.
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