Much Ado is about as classic as a Shakespearean comedy gets, there’s mistaken identity, devious plots, and faked death. Robert Hastie’s new production puts accessibility front and centre, incorporating BSL and captioning from start to finish. We look in on a Scandinavian-style dining room behind glass sliding windows, which opens onto a clearing in a forest where much of our action takes place. This aggressively modernized adaptation kicks off with a lengthy introduction in contemporary … [Read more...]

A somewhat mixed bag of pieces, Reboot Festival offers new writers the opportunity to try out very early versions of pieces they are working on. It is great that there are opportunities for those new to the industry, unfortunately, the quality was lacking in this collection of scenes. The evening was comprised of six short pieces made by a variety of different writers and directors. While these are pieces early in their development, they left a lot to be desired in the overall quality of the … [Read more...]

Unease stirs in the audience as George Orwell’s classic political allegory rings as uncomfortably true as ever. This new adaptation brings life and laughter to an eventually damning tale of political corruption, greed and exploitation. Animal Farm tells the story of a revolution against an oppressive, exploitative farmer to establish a new equal society for the animals on the farm. Over time, the revolution is exploited for personal gain by a few shrewd individuals who use the revolution … [Read more...]

Jules and Juniper are meant to be together, and although they love each other, it's not that simple. In this new transfer from the Vaults Festival, we are taken through the oft' troubled relationship between two young queer women. When Jules and Juniper meet, it is mortifyingly awkward and, at the same time, truly charming. While Juniper has always been queer; the possibility of being queer had never even occurred to Jules. That all changed in a nightclub when the two met and that special … [Read more...]

If Adrian Mole was the amusing touchstone for your youth, you will probably find all the same joys in this new Musical adaptation of the Sue Townsend 80s classic. Adrian’s parents are splitting up, he’s got a crush the size of the spot on his chin, and he's obsessed with being an intellectual but doesn't quite know what that means. It’s all there, from the red-sock rebellion to an utterly abysmal school nativity. Aside from adding some solid tunes, this adaptation is picking up the book … [Read more...]

Alice B. Toklas is getting married, I think, or maybe she isn’t, I think she is. It all depends on the imagination of Gertrude Stein, and who is playing who and what you believe. In this new farce by Edward Einhorn, we meet a litany of Modernists along the journey of a romance that is steeped in queer history. Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein sit at the front of the stage, in white ornate chairs, they tell us that they will be playing each other, playing each other, playing each other. … [Read more...]

Gina Miller takes on Theresa May in this political thriller just like we remember her doing five years ago. With fictional insights (writer) takes us through both sides of the case that shone a light on many ugly truths about politics in this country. The Gina Miller case is unpleasant pretty much however you want to spin it. Granted, it showed a woman of colour sticking up to a government that thought it could do as it pleased, but aside from that, it brought out the worst in our nation. … [Read more...]