Confession: I've never seen Cabaret. I know many of the songs, of course, and I've seen snippets of the 1972 film with Liza Minelli, but I think I must have avoided it, thinking it would be dark and depressing and not for me. I was SO wrong. If this production of Cabaret is anything to go by then I've been missing out - this deliciously naughty and knowing production is joyful, daring and everything that is extraordinary about theatre. I was enraptured from start to finish. From the … [Read more...]
I Love You, Now What? at the Pleasance
The Islington Pleasance main space is lovely, all cabaret tables and excellent sightlines, and it’s always a friendly venue, and very much worth the visit. There was a long queue on a sunny Friday evening in London to see this short play looking at ‘the messiness of grief,’ and asking ‘if love can survive when someone else dies.’ There are content warnings as you enter, highlighting that the show contains strong language and references to suicide, and the night I went there were plenty of … [Read more...]
The Trial of Josie K at the Unicorn Theatre
The day after her 12th birthday and Josie K is innocently finishing off some leftover chocolate cake before school when her world is changed by the appearance of a ‘Bureaucrat’ who tells her that she is on trial. "Maybe it’s for something good" her best friend Becca suggests optimistically, and so starts this inventive whirlwind of a play. Josie K whisks you along on her journey as she tries to make sense of the surreal and search for answers amongst unasked or confusing questions. This … [Read more...]
Pick n Mix at Pleasance, London
Kat Rose-Martin’s debut full-length stage play shows lots of heart, humour and promise. Following a successful run in West Yorkshire, the Bradford-based play has come to London and for 80 minutes we get to be part of the Pick n Mix world. We follow the lives of Oliva (Charlotte Ellis), Kim (Natalie Davis) and Aisha (Sonja Wrightson) as they navigate their way through the perilous world of dating, teenage kicks and adult activities. It’s lots of fun and there’s some gorgeous dialogue and … [Read more...]
Kim Noble: Lullaby for Scavengers at Soho Theatre
The blurb for Lullaby of Scavengers didn’t really prepare me for the show, sure it mentioned that there may be some explicit content and there was something about living in a sewer and something more about a fox and a dead squirrel, and I noted that this was a show about ‘human loneliness of longing,’ - but the actual performance is extraordinarily challenging - and I like to be challenged and would fight (nicely) for the right for theatre to be provocative and transgressive, that’s what art is … [Read more...]