Simon Ward reviews Just Stop Extinction Rebellion at the White Bear Theatre Theatre-going has changed significantly since I first started attending plays on a regular basis many years ago. One aspect, in particular, is the inexorable rise of the sixty-to-ninety minute play with no interval. They were notably […]
Simon Ward reviews Kim’s Convenience at The Park Theatre This is the UK and European premiere of Kim’s Convenience, Ins Choi’s groundbreaking play first performed in Toronto in 2011, subsequently spawning a hit Netflix series, spanning several seasons. There was a definite sense of excitement at a packed […]
Simon Ward reviews Cockfosters at The Turbine Theatre The Turbine Theatre is built into the railway arches next to the new Battersea Power Station development. With the noise of trains rumbling past at intervals and a definite subterranean feel in the architecture, there could hardly be a more […]
Simon Ward reviews The Sex Life of Puppets at the Southwark Playhouse Borough This was my first encounter with the work of Blind Summit, a company committed to proving that puppetry can tackle any theme, and they ably demonstrate that here in an exploration of sexuality in all […]
Simon Ward reviews The Half-Cocked Sketch Show at The Hen and Chickens Half-Cocked Theatre is the brainchild of Elliott Campion and Teddy Robson. After producing a hit show in Edinburgh in 2019 there seems to have been a Covid-related hiatus and now they re-emerged with this new show, […]
Simon Ward reviews £1 Thursdays at the Finborough Theatre A word about the venue. The Peg spends much of its time celebrating the glory that is London’s thriving fringe theatre scene, much of which revolves around tiny stages in rooms above pubs. The symbiotic relationship between drinking and […]
Simon Ward reviews The Boy at Soho Theatre The blackboard outside the theatre, and the theatre staff, warn as one enters that Joakim Daun’s beguiling new play deals with sensitive issues – a warning all the more ominous for being so vague. And, indeed, the themes touched upon […]
Simon Ward reviews Oils at RADA Studios Oils by Jessica Rachid, which ran for two nights at RADA Studios as part of the Bloomsbury Festival, deals with the theme of domestic violence and abuse. Based on her own mother’s experience of horrendous abuse while she was pregnant, it […]
Simon Ward reviews Dead Dad Dog at the Finborough Theatre This is the first major revival of a play that first ran in 1988, to much critical acclaim, first in the Traverse in Edinburgh followed by the Royal Court in London. It is therefore something of a period […]
Simon Ward reviews Lessons On Revolution at the Hope Theatre In this thrilling and thought-provoking piece of documentary theatre, writer-performers Samuel Rees (Sam) and Gabriele Uboldi (Gab) skilfully, wittily and movingly weave together a narrative which encompasses, among many other things, Cecil Rhodes and his conquest and exploitation […]