The Reality is one of those ‘Marmite effect’ plays. If you enjoy your philosophy lessons and revel in conversations that have a more confusing end than beginning, then you’ll probably love it. However, if you run away from grandiose discourses and are allergic to mysticisms, this show may not be your cup of tea. Twin sisters Lucy and Andromeda (Maite Jáuregui) have very different approaches to life. While Lucy decided to move to India to embrace meditation and Buddhist teachings, ...

Zoe Cooper’s Jess and Joe Forever, premiered in 2016, was my favourite show of the year. An exuberant hit of sweet, sticky romcom, and a nourishing examination of class, gender and rural English life, it fizzed with the joy of potential: both for the lives of its eponymous protagonists and the power of telling their story. Returning to the round of the Orange Tree Theatre, Cooper’s latest, Out of Water, revisits these themes and introduces us to a new trio ...

Is mental health funny? Is it acceptable to laugh about depression? Fledgling Theatre, makers of Neck or Nothing, definitely vote yes.  The good news is they have created a warm, accessible and laugh-out-loud show as a result. It might well prompt a few of the ‘checking in’ conversations men are increasingly encouraged to have with their mates too. This is presumably why charity CALMZone has backed the project and why there are Q&As with them about the issue planned at ...

If you’ll forgive the ad pitch, flowers suit nearly every occasion. A loving declaration, celebratory congratulations, or a sorrowful consolation. Living things that bloom and die, flowers represent beauty and sorrow, life and death. In Funeral Flowers they represent something else – the chance at something new. Funeral Flowers is a powerfully personal, utterly involving tale of a girl’s struggle to achieve her dream. Written and performed by Emma Dennis-Edwards, Funeral Flowers tells the story of Angelique, a 17-year-old whose ...

Emily Hutt’s tell-all cabaret on the 1930’s limelight icon Mae West follows almost pedantically the chronology of her life events, to the detriment of a sought-after dramatic climax. West – embodied by the talented Bella Bevan – takes centre stage with the accompaniment of pianist Kieran Stallard, and alternates tales from her past with some of her most recognisable songs. A promising opening scene involves some of the biting one-liners that made the artist famous, smattered with sexual innuendos and ...

I really wanted to enjoy So It Goes Theatre’s The Fatal Eggs. I really really did. Having thoroughly enjoyed their reworking of Dante’s Divine Comedy at the same venue previously, I was hopeful that returning again would give witness to another piece of creative theatre. And yes, much like Divine Comedy, they make use of the compact space available, incorporating some lovely visual trickery and some rather subversive direction in an attempt to bring the story to life. But it just doesn’t ...

A rapid return to the Old Red Lion in Islington is always a welcome diversion. A delicious moo pie and pint set me up nicely for Little Potatoes, a tale of matchmaking mums at the Shanghai marraige market, as they aim to get their children hitched. Liuyang (Sarah Curwen) is a teacher and striving to get her daughter Meihua married off. Family Planning Officer Hong (Michelle Wen Lee) has a game-obsessed son who dreams of being an artist. The two ...

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 ...

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 ...