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

Pros: The opportunity to see, as a part of the Fringe Festival, productions that come from different cultural and geographical backgrounds. Cons: The frantic delivery, which spoils the dramatic intensity of the play. Endesha Ida Mae Holland was born in 1944 in Greenwood, on the Mississippi Delta. She never knew her father, whilst her mother was a well-respected midwife called ‘Ain’t Baby’ by everyone in town. Nobody knew her real name. Raped at the age of eleven, Holland was later ...

Pros: The importance of keeping the memory alive on the centenary of the end of WWI. Cons: This is a work in progress, which could benefit from the contribution of a dramaturg. When Winifred Lucy Hall died in 1978, her two daughters found a shoebox hidden in her wardrobe, which was full of letters she received from the front during the First World War. She was only 19 when the war ended, and, in the final months of the conflict ...

Pros: It’s fun and makes time go fast. Cons: The storyline can be enriched with more comedic material. Two lads wake up in an unfamiliar room lit in violet, dressed only with an hospital gown and covered up to their faces with a white sheet. One of them (Mark Olszewski) sneezes, as the room is visibly chilly. When he gets up, he notices a paper tag tied around his big toe, which reads “Vince Parker”. ‘Am I a birthday present?’ ...

Pros: The acting is very intense. Cons: The plot and the characters are too stereotypical. Handmade Theatre‘s abridged production of Di & Viv & Rose is structured like a situation comedy. The story follows the lives of three young girls, who move in together to go to university and, even with the odd skirmish, unconditionally support each other when life throws at them the most horrible things. Despite the recurring dramas, the play is cheerful, with a warm atmosphere and, ...

Pros: The topic is weighty. Cons: The show didn’t make me feel any wiser. Suicide is a particularly important issue in Britain, where it is the leading cause of death for men under 45. That’s why it has become an increasingly recurrent topic in fringe theatre, where it is covered from many different angles. In this new piece, written and directed by Eve Walton, the subject is developed in the form of a dark comedy, with a quite unexpected final twist. ...

Pros: The fin-de-siècle atmosphere generated by a superb combination of production elements. Cons: The raked stalls tend to obstruct Salvi’s flamboyant interaction with the audience. Often typecast in the role of a mad woman, Royal Academy of Music graduate Monica Salvi started to develop a strange sympathy for her characters, which eventually led to a nervous breakdown. Now safely locked away in a mental asylum, she makes the most of her recreational hour by introducing her fellow inmates to the ...

Pros: Simon Evans’s close-up magic tricks are brilliant. Cons: Those who are led to believe that there will be a vanishing act performed on stage might feel disappointed. Drawing from the life of Edwardian magician Hugo Cedar, theatre veterans Simon Evans and David Aula try to deconstruct on stage with The Vanishing Man the greatest magic trick ever performed and never revealed. In the early morning of June 20th 1930, Cedar stood silent and motionless on London Bridge for over ...

Pros: Set and costumes are the most inspired outcome of the company’s joint effort. Cons: An overstretched, overlong production which should shed a third of its weight to hold audience engagement. Taken from his family when he was a toddler, Mowgli (Nnamdi Oli) is adopted by a family of wolves and raised in the Indian jungle as a part of the pack. Responsibility for his education lies with the bear Baloo (Paul Robinson) and the black panther Bagheera (Joe Newton), who teach him ...

Pros: The design is well polished. Cons: Everything else. In 1991, tabloid columnist Andrew Morton was approached by one of Princess Diana’s closest friends with a daunting request that he couldn’t refuse. He was asked to write her biography. Tired of suffering in silence, the wife of the heir to the British throne wanted to expose her husband’s wrongdoings and the devious scheming of the royal family and, to do so, she had chosen a journalist with a background as ...

With music, dance and comedy, a group of LAMDA fresh grads hit the most common feminist-related arguments right on the head.