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 BLACK EYE CLUB – Bread & Roses Theatre
Zoe’s back at her commuter belt town’s refuge after her husband beat her up again. This time it’s because Palace lost. Last time, it was because she was nagging to much.
TRYST – Tabard Theatre
George Joseph Smith was a petty thief and con man who preyed on the most vulnerable women he could find. He would win their love, persuade them to elope, then strand them on their honeymoon after cleaning out their bank account.
THE END OF HOPE – Soho Theatre
You only find round beds with pink satin sheets in particular places or owned by particular people. But it’s safe to say that a woman wearing a full, fur-suited mouse costume complete with face/head mask is not one of these.
ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS – Arcola Theatre
Hilarious and heart-breaking in equal measure, Jane Upton’s work is a darkly realistic shock to the system.
THEBES LAND – Arcola Theatre
A playwright wants to write a play about patricide, but with an actual criminal onstage instead of an actor. Initial research leads him to a young man called Martin Santos, serving consecutive life sentences in Belmarsh for killing his father.
ME & ROBIN HOOD – Royal Court Theatre
Shon Dale-Jones and Hoipolloi’s Me and Robin Hood has admirable intentions in aiming to raise awareness and money for charity ‘Street Child’.
LOOT – Park Theatre
To honour the 50th anniversary of his death, this is the first time we get to see Joe Orton’s original version of the Loot script before the Lord Chamberlain censored it prior to the 1966 production.
BOX CLEVER – #EdFringe
Marnie’s a 22-year-old single mum from Bermondsey and every day is a fight at the moment.
KILLOLOGY – Royal Court
Sion Daniel Young is Davey, a fifteen-year-old tearaway who roams the streets looking for trouble. A traumatic incident several years before, severe poverty and a well-intentioned but clueless mum means he channels his anger into violent bullying.
35 AMICI DRIVE – Lyric Hammersmith
In Amici Dance Theatre Company’s revival of their 2015 show, over fifty performers – professional and amateur, disabled and non-disabled, child, adult and OAP – come together to capture the mood of a down-trodden working class continuously exploited and discarded by those with money and power.
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.
THE LOUNGE – Soho Theatre
Whatever your thoughts are about the inevitable march towards death, The Lounge is likely to touch on them in some way or another. Set in the lounge of a care home with characters ranging from residents to staff to hapless visitors, this three-hander is a funny and moving overview of attitudes.
GUARDS AT THE TAJ – Bush Theatre
Epitomising opposing political viewpoints, the war between practical and aesthetic, emotional versus intellectual, and the disparity between social classes, the two characters each represent huge forces clashing within a coming-of-age story and a myth of the Taj’s history.
THE TOLL – Touring
Luke Wright’s jovial demeanour and impressive word hoard sit at odds with his smudged eyeliner and black leather jacket. The unassuming performance poet skulks to the mic, breathes, then unleashes a torrent of verbal acrobatics snapshotting British everymen and women.
MADE IN INDIA – Soho Theatre
The all-female play looks at the complex and controversial landscape of commercial surrogacy in India through the microcosmic relationship between three parties – the surrogate, the doctor and the mother.
THE MONKEY – Theatre 503
John Stanley’s dark comedy could easily descend into poverty porn, but he avoids this pitfall with a focus on detailed characterisation and the consequences of drug addiction, both of which can translate to any social class.
THE LONG TRICK – Vaults
Tristan is the stuff of Cornish legends. The Robin Hood-esque figure who lives along the Helford River gives much needed gifts to local people the moment they reach utter despair – or so people believe.
HE(ART) – Theatre N16
Running at just over an hour, writer Andrew Maddock fits in the nature of art and its criticism, public health, social class, poverty and loyalty across two very different sets of characters in the same neighbourhood.
THREE SISTERS – Union Theatre
ith existentialism one of the cruxes of the story, this Three Sisters is a bleak echo of present day narcissism and hopelessness. Phil Willmott’s staging of a new, pared back translation doesn’t stagnate, though. Combined with a strong cast, this is production uncannily suits our times.
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