East London Shakespeare Festival’s Twelfth Night offers up an 80s-themed rendition of the classic comedy, touring across parks in East London this summer. Promised fun for the whole family, ELSF deliver a memorable and community-centred experience that highlights local talent. Armed with my picnic, and sitting alongside many other families, I was lucky enough to watch the production at the very beautiful Fellowship Square in Walthamstow. This production makes excellent use of the square’s … [Read more...]
Henry VIII at Shakespeare’s Globe | Review
Henry VIII is a play about power, and the way it corrupts. However relevant to this moment in time, it is an imperfect play – several key points of action occur off-stage. There isn’t much of a climax, the ending originally served in an epilogue. Given all this, it isn’t the most interesting of works attributed to Shakespeare. This makes the accomplishment of this particular production extra exciting. Through the addition of music co-comped by Tom Deering and Maimuna Memon, Henry VIII is … [Read more...]
Sliding Lives at The Free Association, London
The Free Association is synonymous with the best of London improv, and their latest show Sliding Lives doesn’t disappoint. It’s a familiar improv premise, taking an interview and creating scenes based on the conversation. In this guise, the special guest imagines another possible life for themselves, and we get to follow down the path of their alternative timeline. At my viewing, Mae Martin was the special guest. The calibre of the guests associated with this show is really spectacular, and … [Read more...]
Magic Goes Wrong Gala Performance at the Apollo Theatre
You don’t need me to tell you how hard the last year and a half has been - on individuals, on theatres, on London and on the world. For my first time back in a busy central London theatre, what more could I ask for than magic and big laughs? Magic Goes Wrong is just the latest in the run of Mischief Theatre’s comedies, which include The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and Comedy About a Bank Robbery. This time around, Mischief Theatre collaborated with Penn and Teller to bring us just … [Read more...]
Transit Presented by Underbelly and Flip Fabrique | Review
There are more circus shows trouping through London these days than you can poke a stick at. I’ve had the great pleasure of watching a lot of circus shows, and so approached Flip Fabrique’s Transit with great excitement to add to the incredible circus shows I’ve seen this year so far. Transit is the story of troupe life, friendship, travelling together and sharing memories. It begins with an airplane announcement. Six performers are revealed from the clever, compact set. By Ariane Sauvé. The … [Read more...]
A Hundred Words for Snow at Trafalgar Studios | Review
What an absolute pleasure, this International Women’s Day, to be writing a review of such a female-driven show. A Hundred Words for Snow at Trafalgar Studios is written by Tatty Hennessy, directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson and performed by Gemma Barnett. It follows Rory, a teenage girl who has abruptly lost her father, a geography teacher, who dreamed of being an explorer. In an old-fashioned sense of the term - following in the footsteps of Shackleton and Nansen. In the wake of all these historical … [Read more...]
Work Bitch presented by Jessica Siân at the Vault Festival
I remember working in a service job. I was 16, and took orders, ripped tickets and cleaned up trash left behind by cinemagoers in a suburban Sydney Westfield. Work Bitch is the story of a waitress who never thought she’d still be waiting tables at 32, and touches on experiences I and many others will have had. It’s the story many of us will recognise, feelings many of us will have encountered in doing less than satisfying work - work we do merely to be paid. Customer-facing jobs are not that … [Read more...]