An enjoyable and funny tale about women, war and human morality.

Very much a promising work-in-progress, but great fun and hopefully it will return more polished next time out

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 ...

A well-meaning but overly ambitious first outing by new theatre company Unshaded Arts.

Pros: It’s not often you can say that an office chair put in a sterling performance, but here it almost steals the whole show.  Cons:  Still very much a work in progress, and there is an imbalance that will need addressing. Roddy Frame’s ‘Loneliness and being alone don’t always mean the same’ has always been a song line that plays in my head regularly.  But it wasn’t a line I expected to come to mind whilst watching Jake, the debut show from ...

Pros: A potted history of artistic life in early 20th century Vienna, seen through the eyes of a 21st century writer. Music, architecture, art and psychoanalysis. From Freud to Jung, Klimt to Kokoschka, they all get a look in. Cons: Words get the better of everyone, on and off Sigmund’s couch. If music is the food of love, here both are thwarted in this tale of two composers, one triumphant, the other downtrodden. Gustav Mahler and Sigmund Freud meet in Leiden and ...

A charming little play that can't help but make you laugh and smile with the familiarity it will bring to mind, but it feels like it needs a little more body.

Pros: Sharp writing and good performances characterise this collection of scenes set in a tube train Cons: The lack of connection between the stories means we’re constantly having to get to know new characters “Make sure you take your belongings with you when you leave this life.” So runs the announcement that introduces this sharply observational piece set entirely on a tube train. The young cast each play multiple roles, as we eavesdrop on conversations and snatched exchanges between strangers; tight direction ...

A pleasant but not particularly memorable trip down musical theatre lane.

What looked a good concept on paper never really comes to life, the story lost in its efforts to be a musical.