Pros: Lovely gentle comedy Cons: Very much a children’s show – possibly overly simplistic for accompanying adults. Friendship and treasuring the little things are the themes of this charming silent comedy for children ages 3-6. Andy Manley is a warm and clownish figure, asleep on his desk as the audience take their seats. Silliness ensues when he wakes and finds his chair taped to his bottom. Manley says he thought it would be fun to make a show featuring sticky ...

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: Playful and inventive acrobatics from award winning circus company Cons: Transitions between set pieces were sometimes meandering, and spoken text got lost in the large tent space. Award-winning circus company Barely Methodical Troupe’s latest show has a cool, other-worldly feel about it. Four performers, dressed in blue, manipulate what looks like a long tension-band (also blue), as the soundtrack of drips and static reinforces the dreamy, unstable atmosphere. The tension-band was fascinating to watch – catching acrobats like spiders ...

Pros: Soaring harmonies, immersive set design, and some truly terrific choreography throughout Cons: Several questionable directorial decisions plague the production Based on the novel by Jules Verne, Phil Willmott’s adaptation brings a musical theatre version of the Victorian classic to Union Theatre – sewn together by the talent of a young and aspiring cast. This reworking, which sees the addition of a variety of song and dance numbers to keep things interesting, stays true to the original in other respects, ...

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: A topical issue – men’s mental health and the influence of toxic masculinity – that invites further discussion and suits a one-man play dynamic. Cons: The first 20 minutes feel less tight and less thematic; some sub-plotting could be cut. James is a single man in his mid-thirties, sorting his childhood possessions in the attic of the family home, prompted by his mum’s fresh start with irritating new man Roger. Writer and performer Craig Malpass brings all these characters ...

Pros: Accessible storytelling by a fascinating creative. Cons: The simple format can often feel more like a lecture, so might not appeal to everyone. This is a show about the moments when we’re caught off guard: the photos taken when we drop our poses and show our real selves, baggage and all. Volker Gerling, a trained filmmaker, began making flipbooks in 1998 as an experiment. Soon he was touring cafes and bars in Berlin, showing flipbooks from a hawker’s tray ...

Pros: A versatile cast, clever props and a well-rounded piece that delivers lots of humour alongside the take-home message. The cast and crew should be proud. Cons: None. Loneliness is a hot topic that can leave you out in the cold. We’ve known for decades that it affects the elderly, but the media has only discussed loneliness in millennials and upwards in the last few years. Carrie, the protagonist of When the Friendship Has Sailed, has a goldfish to talk ...

Pros: A moving and well-constructed piece of storytelling, with the most unexpectedly beautiful  ending. Cons:  There were issues of visibility when Welsh performed at ground level. Adam Welsh thinks his dad is disappointed in him, and it’s easy to see why he thinks he might not have lived up to his dad’s high hopes.  A quick Google search of his name demonstrates that maybe he hasn’t been as successful as his dad would have hoped. In fact Google brings up endless results for ...