An admirable OCD awareness agenda and an enthusiastic team is hampered by a guest acting challenge and a patchy story.

Pros: A perfectly executed adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel, with endlessly inventive choreography and the best use of a vacuum cleaner you’ll ever see on stage. Cons: None – it’s a solid all-rounder. Have you ever seen a vacuum cleaner become a coat stand, a bar, a phone and a dog? All these are possible, and many more transformations too, in Our Man in Havana, by Spies Like Us. Here, the household prop, which is sold by a vacuum salesman ...

Pros: Quirky characterisation of four daters, and fair scrutiny of the modern dating scene. Cons: Audience numbers and logistics affect the speed dating process, which feels slightly disjointed from the plays. The Finnish connection isn’t obvious, either. This show belongs to the Start to Finnish events programme, celebrating Finland’s culture in honour of 100 years of Finnish independence. However, it’s hard to see traces of Finland in the script of these two interconnected plays, except in references to one character’s love ...

Pros: Great music and sound, riveting movement, a lot of vitamin C Cons: More guidance about context before the show would have enhanced the experience. We filed into the space as two performers (one male, one female) danced beside each other to the kind of insistent Dancehall beat that tempts surreptitious chair-dancing. Both were dressed the same, in clothes that hid nothing: fishnet body stockings, matching trainers, tiny nipple shields. Naked equals. The atmosphere was intimate but inward-looking, devoid of ...

Affecting and lyrical story of families existing in the wake of a loved one’s disappearance.

Pros: Dolan holds the audience in the palm of her hand, with a monologue that never loses pace or relevance. Cons: The plot may be too far-fetched for more sceptical audience members. Monica Dolan confirms she is still one of Britain’s most versatile actors (best known for roles in Witness for the Prosecution, W1A and Appropriate Adult), but also shows her writing talent in this timely piece. Dolan takes on the self-written role of a psychotherapist tackling a high-profile case ...

A mad dash through some of pop culture’s most iconic Drag moments.

Pros: Captures the era with plenty of funny moments. Cons: Too convoluted to follow. Inspired by film noir of the 1940’s, including classics Mildred Pierce and The Third Man, Fatale Femme give us America’s No.1 Detective Agency, a comedic outing to the world of private eyes, gangsters, and the seedier side of Hollywood. Vivian O’Connell was the best detective this side of Los Angeles. Until, that is, the Wallace Case exploded, and Bobby Monroe took her title and all the good cases ...

A well-written piece of laugh-out-loud theatre that isn’t as deep as it might want to be, but is funny enough that that really doesn’t matter.

A deservedly dramatised final episode of George Orwell’s life, and the lives of those around him, with heightened tension and a dash of humour.