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

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 ...

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 ...

Only last week I was writing “how adults can instil a sense of adventure into children”. Those words rung even more true tonight as a packed audience watched in pure delight this group of youths perform; a group so clearly inspired by people such as Conrad Murray, one of the men behind BAC Beatbox Academy, the makers and performers of Frankenstein. Conrad acted like the proud father as he introduced not just the show but other members of the academy, ...

Reminds us that the world can be such a wonderful place.

A bare footed lady, head to foot in black, slowly walks from behind us to the stage. It’s a compelling sight to open any play. But it’s not the first thing that stands out for Everything Theatre’s first visit to Ram Jam Records in Kingston. Before the show even starts there is the delight of discovering this venue, hidden away behind the Grey Horse Pub, just a couple of minutes’ walk from both bus and train stations. For a lover of good ...

Mark (Sam Frenchum) is from a typical East End family, working class to the core.  Except Mark has gone off the rails with too many drugs, and has been kicked out of the family home.  After the death of his dad his mum (Sarah Finigan) wants him home, because after all, family is everything and it’s his duty to be at the front of the funeral; people have to see him there to show the family strength.  The problem is ...

There is something exhilarating about seeing a work in progress, especially when it’s from a team surely only just out of their teens!  There’s an energy created you just don’t get at normal press nights. Ok, so that’s because the place is full of friends and family along to support, but that means an excitable youthful atmosphere that is just so joyous to be part of.  Secondly, the anticipation that you might be witnessing something special that may one day ...

It seems every time you step into Jermyn Street Theatre you step back in time.  Tonight, we are transported to around 1900. It’s a time when a woman separated from her husband would be perceived as damaged goods. It’s also a time when any play challenging perceived acceptable behaviour would likely be banned. It’s possibly because of this fact that writer Harley Granville Barker never let this play be performed.  Instead it sat collecting dust for over one hundred years, ...

Primal Theatre state that their aim is to create pieces that reflect human experience at their core. Whether having a hedgehog alive in your head meets that aim is something that we could debate all evening. And the reason why a hedgehog is alive in Molly’s head is at the heart of Headhog, as she first tries to come to terms with this strange fact, asking ‘how did it get there?’ Then slowly as she bonds with it, her question changes ...