Simon Ward reviews Cold, Dark Matters at the Hope Theatre Writer-performer Jack Brownridge Kelly’s one man show is endearingly low tech. Aside from an exploded shed (due acknowledgment paid to artist Cornelia Parker on the blackboard outside) and a chair, there is no set. More than once I […]
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 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 String V SPITTA at the Soho Theatre Written and performed by Ed MacArthur (String) and Kiell Smith-Bynoe (SPITTA) and with George Chilcott’s direction keeping the mayhem just this side of chaos, this new musical comedy is an utter delight from start to finish. Normally the […]
Simon Ward reviews Getaway/Runaway at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre There is always a frisson of excitement when the actors are already on stage as the audience enters the auditorium. Sometimes there is some business going on, perhaps even a bit of audience participation. But, when, as here, […]
Simon Ward reviews Looking for Giants at the Camden People’s Theatre. Onto a stage bare except for a stool and a microphone, Abby McCann enters almost sheepishly from a side door but then launches into a remarkable and intriguing preamble to the action. It is about the people whom […]
Simon Ward reviews Let’s Pause There at The King’s Head Theatre This debut play by comedy writers Russell Obeney and Andre Guindisson crams a lot, perhaps a little too much, into its running time of about an hour. In keeping with its therapy-based theme, we are required to […]
Simon Ward reviews Skin In The Game at The Old Red Lion Theatre Watching plays in pub theatres is often an intense experience. The enforced intimacy of actors performing just inches away can be claustrophobic. And if there is tension in the air, it crackles. So it is […]
Anna Hadley reviews Have I Told You I’m Writing a Play About My Vagina? At Edinburgh Fringe. I like to see at least one play which makes box-office attendants at the Fringe blush when they’re retrieving my ticket. Cue: ‘Have I Told You I’m Writing a Play About […]
Anna Hadley reviews Bost-Uni Plues at Edinburgh Fringe. As a recent graduate fumbling towards unemployment, I sought to find shows relative to my current lifestyle of career insecurity and day-time television. I found Bost-Uni Plues. I had done no other research, and I wasn’t quite sure what to […]