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

A dark comedy about ageing that sails exceptionally close to the wind.

The Astonishing Singing Fish! is sweet, charming, and tremendously funny.

A stunning cast and pitch-perfect delivery that’s full of clever ideas. This is an exemplar of Shakespearean theatre.

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 ...

For Plays, three identical urns contain a man, his wife and his mistress as they relive their perspectives of the affair in rapid and eccentric fashion. It’s quirky, and so off the wall, but also captivating and charming. Three actors hide inside futuristic yet simple egg-pod like compost bins, with only their heads visible as they reel off Play’s dialogue. That everyone is covered in dusky blue paint, with unexplained aquatic-type scales adhering to their skin, provides an unplaceable yet otherworldly ...

The Dip has the distinct honour of being the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen although, full disclaimer, I’m not really sure what it is that I saw. I think that might be the point of the piece. It’s 70 minutes of a psychedelic acid trip with an (extremely loose) narrative around a young man, Al, who is questioning and exploring his sexuality and attraction to his friend Nick. The audience are with Al on every step of this bizarre, largely ...

Pros: Smart, well-written, and extremely well-acted. Cons: Elements around life and afterlife aren’t always clear, and some familiarity with the story is helpful. This is an energetic and enjoyable production which looks at the true life story of Gerda Taro, the first female photographer killed in action. Taro was a force of nature and she’s brought to life wonderfully in this production. Born Gerta Pohorylle (a Jewish woman in Stuttgart pre-second world war), she moved to Paris in the midst ...

Pros: Tremendous acting, wonderful writing, and a fantastic look into the past of an incredible woman. Cons: There are some slight questions around the character development. If you ever needed a reason to venture into South East London, Gentleman Jack at the Brockley Jack theatre is it. This true story of a remarkable female pioneer is inspiring, absorbing, and deserves a full house at every performance. The story of Anne Lister is set across three different decades in the 1800s, ...

We laughed, we cried, we loved it.

Pros: An innovative storytelling technique that boosts the audience’s imagination. Cons: There’s a lot unsaid and unexplained here – it would benefit from more context It’s the future – and it’s not looking too bright. There are blackouts, and people keep disappearing without explanation. Steph, a schoolgirl, is on a mission to find her missing friend Charlie. She finds herself out of her comfort zone in the bar where Charlie was last seen. There she meets Bell, a jaded and ...