The Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch is one of the first producing regional theatres to open up again after the various lockdowns of the last sixteen months, albeit in a very safe, Covid secure, way, with socially distanced seating meaning that less than 30% of the auditorium is used, temperatures of all audience members being taken on entry, one-way systems in operation and drinks being ordered and served at seats. One feels as safe as it is possible to feel! Tim Firth, perhaps best known for … [Read more...]

TENNIS ELBOW is the first play that John Byrne has written for thirteen years, and is in fact a companion piece to his critically successful Writer’s Cramp, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival forty-four years ago. Whereas that play dealt with aspiring writer and artist Francis McDade, this new one focuses on Pamela, his estranged wife. She is also a budding writer, and Tennis Elbow uses the play within a play format: Nitshill Writing Circle is paying homage to the life of their beloved … [Read more...]

SAFE is an unusual piece of ‘verbatim’ theatre put together and directed by Alexis Gregory in collaboration with Park Theatre and Hackney Empire, “exploring the themes of gender, sexuality, identity, childhood, family, addiction, relationships, religion, class, race... and what it means to be truly safe in today’s world.” He interviewed several homeless and at-risk LGBTQ young people that he met, using their actual words, together with some poetry by Yrsa Daley Ward. It is structured in a … [Read more...]

I have spent much of the last thirteen months of Lockdown (it seems a great deal longer!) in trying to avoid ZOOM meetings, but Dr Will Houstoun’s The Secret Connection is far and away the most enjoyable and intriguing 75 minutes I have spent on Zoom or anywhere else for a long time! Will Houstoun is an academic historian researching the history of conjuring, especially in the Victorian era, but his interactive show is anything but academic. Tickets are limited to 30 per performance so … [Read more...]