Baron’s Court Theatre I really wanted to enjoy So It Goes Theatre’s The Fatal Eggs. I really really did. Having thoroughly enjoyed their reworking of Dante’s Divine Comedy at the same venue previously, I was hopeful that returning again would give witness to another piece of creative theatre. And yes, much like Divine Comedy, they make use of the compact space available, incorporating some lovely visual trickery and some rather subversive direction in an attempt to bring the story to life. But ...

A rapid return to the Old Red Lion in Islington is always a welcome diversion. A delicious moo pie and pint set me up nicely for Little Potatoes, a tale of matchmaking mums at the Shanghai marraige market, as they aim to get their children hitched. Liuyang (Sarah Curwen) is a teacher and striving to get her daughter Meihua married off. Family Planning Officer Hong (Michelle Wen Lee) has a game-obsessed son who dreams of being an artist. The two ...

Bridewell Theatre Taking place at company Sedos’ own residence at Bridewell Theatre on the edge of the City, the not-so-amateur collective brings their rendering of Terence Rattigan’s inter-war drama, After the Dance, to life. The play was written on the eve of the Second World War, and suffered as a result – the looming declaration of the war caused audiences to fizzle out after its debut, and it took a 90s BBC TV adaptation to reanimate it, and a prominent ...

Tabard Theatre There is a fine line between being clever and being a little too clever for your own good. The Last Will and Testament of Henry Van Dyke is a play that tiptoes precariously along that line, spending time on either side through its 50-minute duration. Without doubt writer Karrim Jalali manages to create two well rounded characters, simply called Person 1 and Person 2. Both are beautifully brought to life by the chemistry between actors Nathan Wright and ...

The Pitchfork Disney, Philip Ridley’s debut 1991 play, aims to do two things. Firstly, to disturb the audience (it was credited with introducing “in-yer-face” theatre following its 1991 debut) and secondly, to leave you questioning what it was all about.  Somna Theatre Company, clearly working on a shoestring budget, make a good effort to do both in the small confines of the Upstairs Theatre at Oval House. From the moment we enter our two siblings, Presley and Haley Stray (Pip ...

The Noises, Old Red Lion Theatre In the pet stakes no animal comes remotely close to dogs; man’s best friend has become a fully-fledged member of the family. No longer bred for a purely functional purpose, dogs have assimilated human characteristics and a unique personality. This heavily socialised world of a canine is explored in The Noises, a story that concentrates on a dog called Luna, played by Lucy McAllister. Luna’s been a very naughty dog and is now locked ...

A warm and poignant tribute to a great man

Park Theatre “What is your relationship to this man?” It’s a question that recurs through Tom Coash’s play, and it’s one that neatly keeps the focus on the two central characters. These are Nicholas (Marc Antolin), a British academic working in Egypt, and his native lover Mohammed (James El-Sharawy). His name having been “on a list” since some political cartoons in his student days drew him to the attention of the authorities, the play begins with Mohammed, newly released from ...

The Bunker Theatre Social inequality is the theme that binds Killymuck and Box Clever together, a double bill of one woman shows at The Bunker. But there is so much else that links these shows. Both have powerful performances from their sole actor, exploring the lives of young women affected by the simple fact they were born into poverty and social inequality, and both are a mixture of laughter and seriousness as they try to present their topics in a ...

Wolfie is a play that is surely destined for a longer life than its few weeks at Theatre503