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

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 2010 revival ...

“Cigarette, dear?”“No thank you, dear.”“I think I might have a cigarette, dear.”“No you won’t, dear.”“Very well, dear.” And so the scene is set: in two inflatable armchairs, presided over by a goldfish on a gold pedestal, sit Mr and Mrs Fox. She – in a luminous, captivating performance by Alice Marshall – is domineering, supercilious, wilfully mispronouncing words and oblivious to the feelings of those around her; he – a foppish, Wooster-like Jack J Fairley – is an ineffectual, waistcoated ...

At a time when Westminster, it seems, can’t look as far as next week with any confidence, asking a group of fifteen young people from Deptford to look fifty years into the future feels a timely political act. Indeed, WOW Everything is Amazing is a headliner of Battersea Arts Centre’s Homegrown: Occupy Festival which focuses on under-represented communities. So far so worthy. It seems, however, the ‘worthy memo’ didn’t quite reach the show’s diverse ensemble (aged 12-21) who devised the performance as ...

Mischief Theatre’s third West End production is three years old tonight. From the team that brought us The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong comes another huge hit in the form of a farcical American crime caper. When two felons hatch a plan to break out of the British Columbia Penitentiary in an attempt to steal a prized diamond, it seems that everyone wants a piece of the action and to come along for the ride. Like ...

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 Niall Murphy. ...

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 ...

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 in what appears to be the ...

A warm and poignant tribute to a great man

I volunteered to cover this without knowing anything about it, and when I had a quick look at some blurb claiming that it was yet another Brexit-themed piece I admit my heart sank a little.  Fear not.  Yes, Brexit is talked about, argued over and looming in the background, as it probably has for the majority of the UK population over the last couple of years, but I wouldn’t say it was the focal point.  It is a very amusing ...

In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a week-long press conference from their bed in a hotel in Montreal. Set in the round, in the intimate space of the Cockpit Theatre, Bed Peace opens with the narrator, an exuberant and likeable Helen Foster, outlining the setting in rhyming couplets. It hurtles through some personal history, from Yoko’s miscarriage, through the couple’s wedding in Gibraltar, to their eventual bed-in in Montreal (although, curiously, ...