The biggest pleasure in Glenn Chandler and Charles Miller’s new musical, inspired by the hedonistic history of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, is the beautiful set and video projections.
‘Well-oiled storytelling’: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS – Park Theatre
This play won’t give you sleepless nights. It does give you rich historical detail. I imagine anyone who enjoys ghost stories went rushing home to Google Guernsey’s dark history.
‘A tense & funny watch across 100 minutes’: A RAT, A RAT – Golden Goose Theatre ★★★★
Mental illness is no fun. The portents aren’t good in A Rat, A Rat, yet this lively short play by Chloe Yates finds humour and possibility in every exchange.
‘A masterly exercise in exploring the grey’: DRIP DRIP DRIP – Pleasance Theatre ★★★★★
At a time when headlines reduce the debate around racism to good or bad, black or white, Drip Drip Drip is a masterly exercise in exploring the grey… It’s theatre at its best.
‘Bristles with promise from the off’: NETFLIX & CHILL – Drayton Arms Theatre
Netflix & Chill bristles with promise from the off. Ben’s a working-class boy who’s been to university and is saving for a masters by working as a chef in the local pub. He’s gentle, he’s kind, and he’s making the best of a bad hand.
‘Strangely wonderful & wonderfully strange’: PEOPLE SHOW 137 – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
Strangely wonderful and wonderfully strange. That’s the only way to sum up People Show 137. Basically, two old blokes, aided and abetted by some other old blokes, a chanteuse puppet, and the legs of three can-can dancers, are in a French café where the single croissant has been dusted, ready for sale.
‘A charming presentation of a Victorian classic’: A LITTLE PRINCESS – Drayton Arms Theatre
Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that the litmus test of a good Christmas show is not whether the grown-ups are enjoying the writing or the acting or the storyline, but how the children are responding.
‘There are scenes that will remain with you long after the performance is over’: THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS – Cervantes Theatre ★★★★
After a cinematic start with the characters caught in spotlights mid-activity, we tumble into The House of the Spirits with a series of brutal scenes – rape, bullying, exploitation, pain.
‘Well-crafted & executed storytelling’: THE MOZART QUESTION – Upstairs at the Gatehouse ★★★★
Michael Morpurgo’s story, The Mozart Question, is essentially about the solace and joy great music gifts us. For Paola’s parents, however, beautiful music presages pain and shame and guilt.