Everything Theatre Reviews, interviews and news for theatre lovers, London and beyond

Sitting in a busy Jackson’s Lane auditorium five minutes in to Proteus Theatre’s Macbeth I was smiling, totally convinced by the setting and excited about what was to come. Presumably thanks to the involvement of movement consultant, George Mann, the opening was a tightly choreographed recreation of a 1980’s financial trading floor, full of wit and in-your-face charm. Twenty minutes in, however, an uneasy feeling was growing that the evening might have already peaked. By an hour in, impressive physical ...

Homegrown Festival: Occupy He. She. Him. Her. They.  Such little words but with so much meaning.  But as Elise Heaven tells us, gender is a social construct.  There are people who don’t identify as he or she, otherwise known as non-binary.  Such as Elise Heaven, who isn’t he or she, but as is Elise’s wish, the pronoun to use is “they”.  Except they is singular, not plural.  Well that’s going to mess my editor’s head up, that’s for sure. [Ed: ...

Homegrown Festival: Occupy There is an incredible buzz in the building tonight for the grand opening of Battersea Arts Centre’s Homegrown Festival: Occupy, an almost month-long takeover of this lovely old building, by under represented voices.  There is nothing quite like the hum of so many excited and engaged youngsters to make you smile and savour the energy and joy they can generate.  It’s almost worth going along just to sit and enjoy that feeling, but then again, whilst you ...

Any show suffixed with the words ‘Sings Streisand’ is always likely to fall between two stools. Is it going to be a singer performing her songs, or a tribute act trying to sound like her? Either way I sensed the performer in question might be on a loser. Liza Pulman (pronounced ‘Lyza’) manages to pull it off, but still lands somewhere between the two. A trained opera singer and member of Fascinating Aida, Liza has an impressive vocal range more ...

Shakespeare’s tale of deceit and malice is not an easy one to stage. Even with an interesting re-contextualisation set in the British Raj in 1919, the production at the Union Theatre fails to fully own this mammoth play.  The ‘green-eyed monster’ and the quintessential Machiavellian baddie Iago provide enough juice, drama, and betrayal to make a real meal out of. But to enjoy a meal one needs cutlery (bear with me on this metaphor), and that would be the actors. ...

We Know Now Snowmen Exist takes its inspiration from real life, if very loosely. In 1959 nine people died during a trek in the Dyatlov Pass, Russia, in some very strange circumstances indeed. It’s an incident that has become so infamous that Dyatlov Pass is even named after the leader of the hike. It’s an incident that has been the source of myth and speculation ever since.  Writer Michael Spencer clearly loves a horror yarn, transferring the story from Russia to ...

Actress Alexandra Afryea shares how Proteus Theatre Company's 'Macbeth' offers a "bloody good" take on the Shakespearean classic.

“I am authentic Basildon, I am”, is the phrase with which we are welcomed to the regional premiere of In Basildon, the hit show by David Eldridge, that opened to critical acclaim at the Royal Court in 2012. Although the atmosphere of having this show performed to a local audience was electric, this production leaves a lot to be desired, outside occasional flashes of brilliance. The Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch is an impressive size, but Director Douglas Rintoul has made the ...

The charming Jack Studio Theatre in South East London excels at historic drama productions, and the The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton is another fine string in their bow. Mark Farrelly plays the great English writer Patrick Hamilton (who produced hit plays Rope (filmed by Hitchcock) and Gaslight, and wrote classic novels Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky, Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude) – as well as everyone else in his life in this energetic ...

So what do you do when Claire Foy steals your dream role? Well it’s obvious; you write and perform your own version of The Crown and get your agent to play the male parts. Well at least that’s the plan in the incredibly likeable Crown Dual, now playing at the King’s Head in Islington. Agent Stanley Diamond (Brendon Murphy) had promised client Beth Buckingham (Rosie Holt) an audition for Netflix series The Crown. But he kinda sorta forgot to send ...