Tag: Comedy

★★★Star-Crossed Comic Caper

Simon Ward reviews Romeo and Juliet – The Hate Story at the Hen and Chickens Theatre Directed by Annie Araba, this is the debut play of Brazilian writer-performer-producer Lucas Luan Lima. He and co-star George Bird play Romeo and Juliet, plus a number of the other characters familiar […]

Bar setting, optics behind, glasses in front. On the left Kellie Shirley, looking downcast, on the right Peter Caulfield, looking pensive.

★★★★★Time Gentlemen Please

Simon Ward reviews TWO at the Greenwich Theatre For this revival of Jim Cartwright’s 1989 play, the Greenwich Theatre has been transformed into a pub of that era, The Clock and Compass, with nostalgic soundtrack to match. This doubles as the theatre’s own bar before the show and […]

★★★★Zany Zombie Delirium

Simon Ward reviews Improv The Dead at The Bridewell Theatre One of the joys of a Fringe festival is, of course, to move out of one’s comfort zone and try out something a bit different. I confess that the danger element of improvisational theatre has often left me […]

Bathed in a blue light, on the left Gavin (played by Sam Plumbe), in the centre Clint (played by Ewan Bruce) and on the right Brian (played by Henry Calcutt). They are all wearing corporate uniforms and gazing nervously towards an unseen screen.

★★★Return To Sender

Simon Ward reviews Don’t Shoot The Messenger at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre Co-writers Daniel Camou and Sam Plumbe have billed their new Camden Fringe show as ‘an office comedy of Shakespearean proportions’. For me, this works as the former, but the Shakespeare factor is rather limited. As […]

Blake Stratso seated on a bar stool in open-necked white shirt, tan chinos and white trainers. There is an Indian rug on the floor.

★★★★Soft Underbelly

Simon Ward reviews TURTLE: A Story About Christ, Cancer, Kinks, and Christmas at the Aces & Eights Theatre Although the bread-and-butter review circuit consists of rooms above pubs, there are a few venues where things are not quite that simple. Aces & Eights is one such example. It […]

On the left Malcolm (played by Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson); in the middle Harriet (played by Laurel Marks); on the right Regina (played by Gabrielle Nellis-Pain). They are all wearing dark undertaker-style clothes and looking quizzically at something off camera to their right.

★★★Dead Funny

Simon Ward reviews Grave Mistake at the Hope Theatre Matthew Ballantyne and Toby Hampton’s new play is a Joe Orton-esque farce set in a funeral home. Burke and Sons has been a family business for generations and is now in the hands of sisters Regina (Gabrielle Nellis-Pain) and […]

Crouching figure of Eleanor Hill on the left, wearing a grey sweathsirt and barelegged, with her hand over her chin looking at a phone; projected on the back of the stage the phone screenshot of Eleanor Hill's face.

★★★★Laughter On The Edge

Simon Ward reviews Overshare at the Greenwich Theatre At one point during this hectic cavalcade of a show, creator-writer-performer-producer Eleanor Hill pauses for a beat to wonder whether her last remark was a bit of an overshare. The joke is, of course, that the whole thing is one […]

Nick Cassenbaum, seated, wearing a green and blue striped dressing gown, one hand pointing upwards

★★★★Bubbling Over

Simon Ward reviews Bubble Schmeisis at the Soho Theatre Nick Cassenbaum describes his work as ‘simultaneously unforgivingly Jewish and undeniably British’. As if to underline the point, the programme for this show includes a glossary of both Yiddish and East London slang. Admittedly the Yiddish list is significantly […]