“Is anyone having trouble following the plot of The Tempest?” queries aging 19th Century character actress Mrs Kemble halfway through her tour de force play reading. Well, yes – she is. Everyone else in the room is too delighted by the show to care.
Billed as her last reading ever, the true tempest tonight is the [...]

continue reading.....

Japanese punk singer and ”Kamisaibai Ya” (paper theatre) practitioner Kazuko Hohki wants to tell you a story. Partly it’s a traditional Japanese folk tale about a man who falls in love with a crane. Partly it’s the true (-ish) story of how Hohki fell in love with an Englishman, who may also be a duck, [...]

continue reading.....

As the overture kicks in and the youthful company burst onto stage for the uplifting opening number, getting up at 9am suddenly seemed worthwhile. If only this initial surge could have been maintained over 90 minutes. There are good elements in this production of Maltby & Shire’s musical about three couples in different life stages [...]

continue reading.....

Part art installation, part devised memory play, this is an image-based, site-specific promenade. If those words make you wince, don’t go. It would be a shame as this is a spectacular example of its genre.
The walls of 32 Abercrombie Place are stripped bare. Wires criss-cross to countless hidden telephones, breaking oppressive silences with disturbing [...]

continue reading.....

Ivan is not a slug. He’s a man who’s a bit sluggish, and greedy (not a trait traditionally associated with invertebrates, but there you go). This is explained to us by the puppeteer in person.
Like many good puppeteers, he seems self-conscious when on stage himself. In this case, attempting to explain metaphorical anthropomorphism to seven-year-olds, [...]

continue reading.....

This portmanteau of adaptations of three stories by Neil Gaiman is a mixed bag. The writing is superb – a series of timeless fables and morality tales in Gaiman’s distinctive dark whimsy – and the performances are solid. However, each story suffers from a similar problem, a sense of over-anticipation.
The first tale, The White Road, [...]

continue reading.....

There is no doubt that this emotionally charged and provocative play will sell out, and rightly so. Book your ticket now for the end of the run and you’ll see a five star show, as the few niggles should have been addressed by then and ironed out.
Reginald Rose’s play is a justified classic, the impassioned [...]

continue reading.....

Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen, for an evening of decadent sumptuousness, where you can drown in the dark velvet folds of beautiful music. This is a gothic gem of a show, with a four-piece acoustic band who put the carne into carnival.
Utterly gorgeous and faultless in performance, the songs range from heart-rending ballads [...]

continue reading.....

If Paul Daniels were a stick of rock, he’d have ‘spirit of the Fringe’ written all the way through. He’s there before the show starts, chatting to practically everyone, putting people at ease, and he maintains this self-assured banter throughout, with repeated heartfelt and positive claims that “this is what the festival is all about”. [...]

continue reading.....

Race to get to the front row of this charming and precision-sculptured two-hander. You’ll enjoy the show from the back row too, but up close you’ll see the twinkling footwork of two performers enjoying themselves tremendously.
Trick Boxing is the story of a sting in the seedy world of American boxing. Naïve Daniel Danielovic is picked [...]

continue reading.....