Everything Theatre

A warmly human performer relating a powerful story that's touchingly emotive and thought-provoking rather than hysterical.

A hilarious call for empathy and accountability that remains relatively surface level.

There’s no stopping Justine Pierce in her rise from humdrum housewife to climate warrior as she puts the heart-warming into global warming. Inspired by the life of a ‘Just Stop Oil’ protestor, Justine’s fiery yet funny story captures the ongoing debate around the role and rights of extreme activism.  From road blockades to soup-splattered masterpieces, few will have escaped the far-reaching mission of the ‘Just Stop Oil’ movement; not even self-confessed squirrel watcher Justine. Sequestered in her conservative Brentwood bubble, Justine’s worldview is shaken to its core after a night of doomscrolling sends her down an ozone rabbit hole of climate change despair.  Writer Louis Catliff’s well-observed suburban sarcasm permeates his uplifting one-woman show as his protagonist inhabits characters across the political spectrum from far-right trolling husband Keith to sensual socialist Kate. Actor Lehla Eldridge vacillates through her canon with aplomb, whilst always remaining in the warm relatability of ‘fish out of water’ Justine.  Her imposter syndrome is keenly felt in her first protest meeting as she encounters every left-leaning stereotype she can imagine. Director Sam Holland Bunyan makes good use of in the in-the-round seating as the audience becomes the rallied troops with Eldridge selecting those with unusual hair…

Can you believe there was a time when we didn’t have mobile phones or the internet? No instant messaging to arrange a night out with your mates. Instead, you had to use the landline and hope someone was home! It also meant getting to an illegal rave, a scene that thrived during the late 80s, involved a lot of planning, locations spread by word of mouth or secret messages left for people to follow. If you wanted to go you really had to know someone who knew someone! It’s this era of illegal raves that Louise finds herself reminiscing about as she approaches 50, when the most exciting thing now seems to be the weekly rave/exercise class. It’s brought on because her daughter is revising for a test about the perils of drugs. Because yes, raves and drugs went hand in hand as Louise knows only too well. As she recollects, we travel back to her younger life and she recounts her adventures, lamenting the loss of the fun times, wondering when her life became so mundane and respectable. Second Summer of Love will strike a chord with anyone who lived through that era. It’s clear that much of the…

Black, bold and brilliant! A searing tale of being Black and British in 1970s Britain.

A great premise and solid performance, staged in a difficult space!

Part of SE Fest 2025, Vernon is a one-man show about a funeral director, with writer Gary Bates also performing as the eponymous Vernon. It’s hard to tell if there is an autobiographical element to the writing: if so, it is an incredibly brave story to relate, and if not, it shows great insight into some deeply traumatic subject matter. The preamble for relating this story to the audience is Vernon bunking off from a wake for a cigarette break. This allows a naturally candid tone to develop quite organically, and the use of a black box theatre with one character, one funereal costume, with a beer barrel for a set and a cigarette for props; a neat means with which to suddenly start talking to strangers.  Soon touching on his home life, the narrative begins to get heavy as problems with Vernon’s marriage start and intertwine with mental illness in his daughter. Coupled with this, there is the period of COVID, where funeral businesses were forced to not only continue working but at an increased rate. With growing demands, they were unable to provide the same level of service to soothe loved ones. All of these topics unwind almost…

This is a unique piece of theatre describing one person's trans experience with honesty, authenticity and power. An extraordinary autobiographical performance from Pete MacHale.

Is there room for magic in the modern world? Or have we cancelled out anything enchanting, anything out of the ordinary, anything remarkable? Ben Hart says no–but do we agree?

Disturbs the audience as brilliantly as intended - make sure you read the content warnings.

From childhood aspirations of stardom to a fizzled-out career and swathes of scandal, Megan Prescott lays bare the horrors that lie behind the scenes of showbiz.

Get a sneak peek into the Essex nightclub DAZZLERS’ ladies’ loos in LAVVIES. Witness the high-drama of a wild night out, have some big laughs, and celebrate friendship.

A Tosca with a backstory in Argentina instead of Rome? Hmm... Great music to hear, but despite a promisingly reimagined setting to this most dramatic of operas, this revival misses its mark.

The Golden Goose is a typical pub theatre: a compact black box in an unassuming room in a less-than-glamorous pub. For Still Here, the sparse seating is arranged on three sides in a thrust stage formation, with boxing ropes marking the performance space. A simple design, it creates an intimacy between performer and audience while anchoring us to the physical and metaphorical home of the piece: the boxing ring. Scattered just outside the ropes are a few personal items, mostly boxing-related, and a couple of chairs, which are moved in and out to signal presence. And that’s it. Yet with a cleverly nuanced script, powerful performances, and subtle lighting, the audience is transported. We travel from a school to a care home, a supermarket, a park, and a boxing gym: all in the Rhondda Valley. Although just two actors are on stage, the voices of their families and friends ring clear: it becomes hard to remember these characters aren’t physically there. Rhys (Phillip John Jones) and Yasmin (Emma Kaler) are both 18, Welsh and struggling to communicate with their parents. Yasmin has ended up at Rhys’s local comprehensive having been excluded from her ‘posh’ all-girls school in Cardiff. He’s White…

A complex play that activates inclusion and empowers the possibility of alternative ways of being.

A rare beast in the West End; a clever play for clever, curious audiences. 

An evening of surprises, shocks and treats across the Southbank Centre, as two powerhouse dance companies collide.

A bold, captivating, and entirely unique production guaranteed to leave audiences speechless

A great stage biopic, but more music please!

A poignant exploration of the challenges of living, the confusion of suicide and loss. A rollercoaster of love, laughter, loss and learning.

A triumphant, genuine, and well-intentioned return to Rydell.

Exactly what it says on the tin: family theatre that hurtles through UK history in 70 minutes, packed with poo jokes to keep everyone entertained.

Families who love the book will love this live version, and, as a first-time West End adventure, it is sure to bring rocket-fuelled laughter.

Sadler’s Wells gives the young dancers of England a chance to shine, and they excel at this wonderfully powerful and exciting showcase.

A vibrant, dance-based production celebrating Arab culture through the lens of the traditional tale, at the start of its creative journey as a piece for family audiences.

Lovely design, plenty of talent and a bundle of laughs, but with room to go somewhat bigger.

Chris Fung talks open night, collaborative community and fundraising

How To Date SE Fest 2025 is a two week festival across two wonderful fringe venues that are almost neighbours; Bridge House Theatre in Penge and Jack Studio in Crofton Park. Now in its second year, all shows play at both venues, so giving double the chance to catch them. We continue our short run of interviews with Stephanie McNeil‘s How To Date, a dark comedy exploring naivety and vulnerabilities faced by young women in London. How To Date plays at Jack Studio on Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 September, and then moves to Bridge House Theatre on Thursday 11 September. We grabbed some time with Stephanie, along with director Isabel Steuble-Johnson to find out more about the show, and what brings them to South London for the festival. What can audiences expect from the show? How To Date is a hilarious and truthful piece of new writing that captures the realities of growing up as a woman in 21st century london. Clarissa, an independent girl from North London meets Emily, a spoiled girl from Cheltenham, who dreams of being a film star. Searching for partners, they face the disastrous dating scene in London. Disappointed by dating apps, a spiral…

Vernon

Eat. Sleep. Ruminate. Repeat

SE Fest is a theatre festival based in southeast London to promote and celebrate new writing. It is hosted for the second year by two neighbouring venues, The Bridge House Theatre in Penge and The Jack Studio Theatre in Crofton Park, two award-winning theatres with a reputation for supporting and presenting new work. You can find the full programme for the festival here. One of the first shows that will be playing at the festival is Wendy Fisher‘s It Never Rains (2 and 3 September at Jack Studio, 4 September at Bridge House Theatre). The show promises a blend of evocative storytelling, sharp humour, and haunting imagery, as it navigates the intersections of family, memory, and climate change, to ask: what do we hold on to when the world around us is slipping away? We grabbed an umbrella (just in case it did actually rain) and headed south of the river to ask Wendy a few questions. What can audiences expect from the show? Our audiences will find themselves on a roller coaster of emotion, they will laugh, they will cry, they might identify with the characters. They will certainly find the situations relatable.  Watching three generations of women cope with the revelations of long…

Inclusive family fun and pure imagination – just magical! bOing! is a relaxed annual Family Arts Festival held over two days during the August bank holiday weekend at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre and Kent at Canterbury University campus. Placing inclusivity at the heart of their programme and with no admission charge, the Festival is thoughtfully accessible; it’s highly wheelchair friendly, with chill out spaces, noise cancelling headphones and Changing Rooms toilets available. Alongside established children’s touring theatre, premiering, West End and international productions, the Festival offers a wide range of workshops and relaxed screenings, to allow all curious, playful minds to experience exciting work. Some of the ET team were kindly invited to several of the shows on the second day so here’s a snapshot of our Sunday: 10.00 AM: We are still on Edinburgh Fringe time and come armed with maps, digital tickets and sturdy footwear. Expecting to eat cheese and pickle on the hoof, it is with much delight that we arrive at a chilled campus of fields, meadows, open-walled tents, theatre buildings, acoustic halls and intimate studio spaces: all within walking distance. We are greeted by outdoor bubble machines and chalked pavements full of colour and the…

We all love a mystery, but a mystery concerning the great visionary of ballet Vaslav Nijinsky is particularly intriguing. A brand new exhibition coming to the Well Walk Theatre’s Livingstone Studio now reveals the previously untold tale of a dancer from Nijinsky’s only briefly performed Till Eulenspiegel. The exhibition will be complemented by an illustrated talk and Q&A for two nights at the Well Walk Theatre itself. Valentina Kachouba Back in the early 1990s, ‘dance detectives’ Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer began to reconstruct Nijinsky’s almost lost ballet Till Eulenspiegel. This piece was created while the Ballets Russes was on tour in America, when the hostilities of World War I had closed theatres in Europe. It was the only work in the repertoire of Sergei Diaghilev’s company that was made without him, and Till premiered in New York in the autumn of 1916 before touring the US until spring 1917. Vaslav Nijinsky and Lydia Lopokhova Only a single dancer from Nijinsky’s Till was still surviving as Hodson and Archer set about the reconstruction – Valentina Kachouba, and she generously agreed to assist them in their task. Kachouba was then living in isolation in Madrid, but she shared memories and snapshots…

Basil Twist talks about Book of Mountain and Seas There is some top talent heading to the Edinburgh International Festival this summer, perhaps none more legendary in their field than designer Basil Twist, whose puppetry work on My Neighbour Totoro has taken the West End by storm. Now he is working with acclaimed composer Huang Ruo to bring the contemporary opera Book of Mountain and Seas to the stage. We were intrigued to find out more about this exceptional partnership, so called in for a chat. Hi Basil. Thank you so much for finding time to talk with us about Book of Mountains and Seas. Firstly, can you tell us about the story in this opera and what inspired you to work on it? It was the composer who told me about this story, and I was intrigued by the opportunity to create an original staging for an original piece of music and particularly with this extraordinary group of singers. You’re collaborating with the unique composer and librettist Huang Ruo, which is really exciting – what’s the creative process been like? Huang Ruo really has a vision, and he is very clear about it. This show had many twists and…

Eleanor Higgins on WANTED's Popcorn Award shortlisting