Tag: Theatre

★★★★Macbeth Mayhem

Simon Ward reviews The Tragedy of Macbeth at Southwark Playhouse. Flabbergast Theatre have spent years working and re-working this noisy, exuberant, muscular and unnerving version of Shakespeare’s infamous Scottish play. Entering the auditorium is like stumbling onto the enactment of an ancient pagan ritual in a woodland clearing. Characters […]

★★ Detention Sentence

Simon Ward reviews How To Break Out Of A Detention Centre at the Riverside Studios This is the world premiere of a piece whose themes and message arguably transcend the world of theatre and render any review meaningless. Performed in many languages by performers passionately and deeply engaged […]

★★★★ Home Truth

Simon Ward reviews How Not To Drown at Theatre Royal Stratford East This is a powerful and important piece of theatre. It provides a counterblast to the prevailing anti-immigrant rhetoric from the government and commentariat and it offers a personal account of a lived experience which could not […]

★★★★ A Sweet Treat

Simon Ward reviews Pick n Mix Downstairs at The Pleasance Taking the bare bones of the plot of Kat Rose-Martin’s brilliant debut play, having its London premiere in North London’s Pleasance, could well suggest a dose of kitchen-sink Northern miserabilism. We witness period pains and problems, multiple unplanned […]

★★★★ A Highly Enjoyable Excursion

Simon Ward reviews Alarms and Excursions at Greenwich Theatre During rehearsals for this production of Michael Frayn’s collection of short plays and sketches, the playwright apparently wrote to the director to query whether the various technological devices which conspire to confound and torment his characters were now too […]

★★★ The Time Machine

Harry Bignell reviews The Time Machine at The London Library. This interactive adaptation by Jonathan Holloway of HG Well’s classic The Time Machine is a wonderful excuse to prowl the isle and smell the stacks of hardbacks at one of London’s leading literary institutions. Tucked away in the […]

★★★★To Teach or Not to Teach?

Anna Hadley reviews Teach at Edinburgh Fringe. This is my third year at Edinburgh Fringe, reviewing for the Peg. It’s been a wild ride, from drag cabaret to performance art about urinary incontinence, but I have never seen such an energetic performance as Matthew Robert’s one-man show Teach.   […]