Pros: The main characters were phenomenal, especially for being ages 16-21. Not a note, dance move or line out of place. Truly professionals. Cons: The band was way too loud and drowned out the performers. In The Heights, the popular musical by Lin Manuel Miranda, has been chosen by RicNic Theatre Company for their summer show. It tells the story of a group of Latinos living in Washington Heights, New York and the journey they all take, learning about themselves, each other and their ...

If theatre is meant to provoke a reaction, this is an absolute masterpiece.

Pros: Laugh-out-loud funny. Cons: There are some seriously icky scenes. Best friends Lydia (Evangeline Dickson) and Megan (Flora London) are partying in a club, when the latter realises that her period has suddenly started and she hasn’t got any sanitary products. The toilet attendant Winnie (Savanna Griffiths) wants to charge her £2.50 for a tampon, but the young girls don’t have any cash and the bar’s card reader doesn’t work. The only choice for Megan is to wait inside the ...

Pros: A brilliant cast and a magnificently scripted story provide the perfect combination. Cons: The musical interludes are all too brief, and annoyingly clipped to make way for more detail in the script. The Rise and Fall of Little Voice was released as a film in 1997 and featured a starry cast including Michael Caine and Brenda Blethyn, with Jane Horrocks in the title role. There’s always a dilemma seeing the stage version after you’ve seen the film: you naturally miss the  expansive ...

Pros: The final twist is pretty clever. Cons: This show didn’t stand up to its name and made very little impact on me. The narrator of this drama is smartly dressed and has distinct manners. When he walks in, he puts his briefcase on the floor behind his chair, and invites us to pick some envelopes from a rack. These contain victim impact statements, talking about the aftermath of a big tragedy: loss, grief, and the inability to forgive. Then the ...

A living room drama which portrays the lives of three hopeless millennials but requires a brisk revision to realise its full potential.

Pros: A silent but expressive, accordion-toting Verges Cons: Too many cicadas It’s common these days to watch ‘high’ culture in a ‘low’ setting: Mayerling at the local multiplex, Hamlet on catch-up, in PJs. Watching Antic Disposition’s Much Ado About Nothing is the opposite experience. It’s a sort of cheesy sitcom (with shades of honour killing), in the pannelled and stained-glassed splendour of Gray’s Inn Hall. This cheesy sitcom is set in France, 1945. There are pretty girls in tea dresses ...

The swinging friendship of two heroin addicts is used to expose one of the biggest failures of Thatcherism.

Pros: A great combination of theatre and history. Cons: More polished storytelling required. When it comes down to walking tours I consider myself an expert – this is my favourite way to get to know a city. That’s why I was very excited to join The Cloak and Dagger Show, a first-time Fringe act with a well-established older sibling in London. The company’s mission is to share with their audience the surviving stories from the Jacobean period that revolve around ...

Pros: Painfully autobiographical. Cons: This show is not for those seeking entertainment. Have you ever wondered what happens inside the head of a person diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? How many times have you made jokes about ‘having OCD’ after lining up the pens on your desk or organising your wardrobe in chromatic order? I did this many times, and attending Sam Ross’s devised performance Can’t Stop Can’t Stop gave me a rare insight of how debilitating the actual condition ...