People go to university for many reasons. For the majority, the main one is to get a degree and, following that, a good job. However, along with the educational aspects, university is also a place to make life-long friendships and maybe even meet your one true love. But what happens afterwards? A question that is addressed in Jake Brunger’s Four Play at the Above the … [Read more...]
Reviews of Plays in London West End and Off West End
If you are planning to visit London to see a play at one of the West End theatres, or a play in one of the many Off West End or Fringe venues, then maybe our reviews section can be of help? Read one of the latest reviews or use the search button to find and view one of our previous reviews. We use a star rating system on our site.
Small Island adapted by Helen Edmundson at the Olivier Theatre
After the recent Windrush Generation government scandal, this National Theatre production of Small Island couldn’t have come at a better time. Based on Andrea Levy’s 2004 novel and adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, it tells the stories of two families, one white and one black leading up to the arrival of immigrant workers from the Caribbean on the Empire Windrush in 1948. Read the full review...
COPS by Tony Tortora at Southwark Playhouse | Review
COPS is the second play by budding New York born playwright Tony Tortora. It tries to explore the world of Chicago policing in 1957: “a pressure cooker police precinct office in which four cops of different ages, classes and races struggle to work as a team”(director’s programme notes). The production is blessed with an excellent team of five actors who try to … [Read more...]
Beckett Triple Bill at Jermyn Street Theatre | Review
It was one of those press nights where a couple of minor hiccups (so negligible, in the grand scheme of things, that they are really not worth providing too many details about) resulted in an audience being all the more supportive of the production and its actors. It’s rather pleasant when things turn out like that. In this trilogy of Samuel Beckett’s (1906-1989) … [Read more...]
FIX by Julie Tsang at The Pleasance Theatre | Review
With its quintessential Gothic setting of a remote cottage in the woods, Ali Hunter’s heavily misted lighting and unexplained things that go bump in the afternoon, Julie Tsang’s Fix is more Twilight Zone than kitchen-sink drama - despite its promise of emotional intensity and frustration in the pursuit of functioning white goods. Although we initially encounter … [Read more...]
Falling in Love Again at King’s Head Theatre | Review
What would you give up for love? I know people that have given up their job, the family and their friends, even moving to another country all in the name of love. But few people would give up everything they have worked and been trained for since birth. However, in the early part of the twentieth century, one man did, and his story forms the backbone of Ron Elisha’s … [Read more...]
Hamlet: Rotten States at The Hope Theatre | Review
Fardels. Yeah, fardels. If you know your soliloquisation of tragic procrastinators you’ll know we’re talking Hamlet here. That is, of course, if you hadn’t already spotted it in the title. Hamlet, arguably the greatest play ever written, has lent itself, rather too often in my view, to various bastardisations in search of what we might term “further meaning” or “extra … [Read more...]
Twelfth Night at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre | Review
A wooden box remains in position, dead centre stage, throughout this production of Twelfth Night, which is faithful enough to the Shakespeare text, and isn’t one of those overly abridged versions that shoots itself in the foot trying to be accessible so much that the details of the narrative fail to be fleshed out properly (such that the production becomes ironically … [Read more...]
Feeling Lonely at Parties at The Space | Review
Feeling Lonely at Parties is back and this time it's playing at The Space Arts Centre near Canary Wharf. The production is a devised piece of physical theatre, just shy of 60 minutes in length. It's an ensemble piece with a cast of 9 emerging artists from Middlesex University. The show is promoted as a production where "five broken individuals seek love in the face of … [Read more...]
Jew…ish at the King’s Head Theatre | Review
My first show of 2020 sees me, once again Islington bound, to the fabled King’s Head for Unleash the Llama’s production JEW...ish. This is the story of TJ (Edie Newman) and Max (Saul Boyer) two millennials that met at university, were members of the polyamory society and shared many experiences together. Now they have left Uni and are in the real world - Max is a … [Read more...]