Everything Theatre An honest and unpretentious guide to the London theatre scene.

There is something exhilarating about seeing a work in progress, especially when it’s from a team surely only just out of their teens!  There’s an energy created you just don’t get at normal press nights. Ok, so that’s because the place is full of friends and family along to support, but that means an excitable youthful atmosphere that is just so joyous to be part of.  Secondly, the anticipation that you might be witnessing something special that may one day ...

It seems every time you step into Jermyn Street Theatre you step back in time.  Tonight, we are transported to around 1900. It’s a time when a woman separated from her husband would be perceived as damaged goods. It’s also a time when any play challenging perceived acceptable behaviour would likely be banned. It’s possibly because of this fact that writer Harley Granville Barker never let this play be performed.  Instead it sat collecting dust for over one hundred years, ...

Primal Theatre state that their aim is to create pieces that reflect human experience at their core. Whether having a hedgehog alive in your head meets that aim is something that we could debate all evening. And the reason why a hedgehog is alive in Molly’s head is at the heart of Headhog, as she first tries to come to terms with this strange fact, asking ‘how did it get there?’ Then slowly as she bonds with it, her question changes ...

Pros: Full of honesty, humour and a word perfect performance, the sound and strength of Imogen Stirling’s words create a landscape that restores the faith in middle class privilege. Cons: Spoken word performance is not for everyone. Spoken word performance may not be everyone’s cup of tea. For many it brings to mind images of bearded hipsters in berets; rest assured that only occurs once tonight, and in a most amusing of ways. But if you were to consider spoken ...

Pros: A beautiful insight into the minds of four teen girls as they come of age. Cons: More work is required to make the conversations feel much more natural. Eve, Robbie, Misha and Looby: four teenage girls protected from much of the world due to the privilege of their private education. Of course that also means protected from boys. So it’s no surprise that much of Walk Swiftly and with Purpose explores that aspect of any teens life, the opposite ...

An enjoyable show that tries to address serious topics in the #MeToo era, but it's hard to judge how well that message is received.

Pros: It’s not often you can say that an office chair put in a sterling performance, but here it almost steals the whole show.  Cons:  Still very much a work in progress, and there is an imbalance that will need addressing. Roddy Frame’s ‘Loneliness and being alone don’t always mean the same’ has always been a song line that plays in my head regularly.  But it wasn’t a line I expected to come to mind whilst watching Jake, the debut show from ...

POT is Heaven Can Wait set on an inner city council estate. It’s bleak, desolate, and full of abject hopelessness. It’s also essential viewing for anyone who cares.

Pros:  The lighting director, Simeon Miller, should stand up and take a bow. The same goes for newcomer Alice Dillon. Cons:  The writing lets everything else down. Gaman translates as “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”. Watching The Art of Gaman at Theatre503 certainly felt like an act of endurance at times, but like a good audience member I endured, politely watching as my confusion grew and my patience was severely tested. The Art of Gaman isn’t a ...

Pros: A great comic turn from Cariad Lloyd, bouncing (sometimes literally) off an equally fine Rob Crouch. Cons: It’s not a title that slips of the tongue is it!  And if the title offends, then so will the play. So let’s start by getting that title out of the way.  I mean really, why would any sane person call a play A funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Of New York? Perhaps ...