London Plays: Best Plays in London - New Plays in London

Fury is a modern reworking of Euripides’ classical Medea, a play which has become increasingly popular for contemporary, often feminist interpretations. Rachel Cusk’s adaptation played at The Almeida last September; Pecho Mama’s Medea Electronica opens next week at The Pleasance - Islington; International Theatre Amsterdam’s Medea runs 6-9 March at The Barbican. It … [Read more...]

I have never bothered with dating sites, and it is only through shows like I Would Like To Get To Know You that I even have the faintest idea of what it means to ‘swipe right’, or indeed left. There are more definitions in this show, projected onto a large screen, including the acronym ‘IRL’ – in real life – and a hilariously over-emotional definition of ‘ghosting’ … [Read more...]

How important is gender these days? Worry not, this is a review not a political commentary, but gender has recently been at the forefront of news around the world. The thing I, it's not a new phenomenon, back in William Shakespeare's day, only men were permitted to act on stage - bringing up the vision of a burly bearded bloke in a dress playing the teenage Juliet. … [Read more...]

Between 1890 and 1895, the Business Manager (Bram Stoker) from the Lyceum Theatre could be found in the London Library pouring over some very interesting books as diverse as “The Devil: His Origin, Greatness and Decadence” through to “A Glossary of Words used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby”. Subsequent research has shown that during this time, Bram Stoker was working … [Read more...]

As you enter the Studio Space at The Vaults, three girls dressed all in black are arranging things on desks, writing on a flipchart, talking to each other and taking the occasional swig of whisky. Then a young man in a suit enters, addresses the audience as if it’s a lecture and informs us that he’s Guy White (geddit?) and he’s “one of the good guys”. Guy’s into … [Read more...]

In theatreland, the term “re-imagining” is a tricky beast, filling one with an uncomfortable mixture of hope and dread. If done well, it can breathe new life into a hackneyed production. If not, as is unfortunately often the case, you leave the theatre determined to hunt down the director and yell at him: “Why?? Why did you mess with it? Just leave it … [Read more...]

The clipped tones of Flora (Gemma Whelan) and Edward (John Heffernan) in A Slight Ache almost called to mind the Noel Coward comedies. This being a Harold Pinter play, it doesn’t quite match the rapidity and breeziness of Coward but is very much in the mould of the ‘Pinter at the Pinter’ series: the surrealness begins fairly early on, as it does in The Dumb Waiter … [Read more...]

Rose Lewenstein’s new two-hander, Cougar, is neatly staged in a series of hotel rooms, delineating the relationship between John (an earthy Mike Noble) and Leila (a sultry, mincing Charlotte Randle). What begins as a random encounter after a conference within the hosting hotel, unfolds into a lengthy liaison as Leila (a high- powered environmental expert) invites … [Read more...]