Review: BRACE BRACE, Royal Court Theatre
Digging deep into human nature, Oli Forsyth’s Brace Brace combines the pace and excitement of a thriller with an unexpectedly perceptive intelligence. Ambitiously designed and skillfully directed, it’s a deeply engrossing piece of theatre writes our critic.
Review: KING TROLL (THE FAWN), New Diorama
This co-production between the New Diorama Theatre and Kali Theatre is a visceral investigation of how migrant communities transform under the layers of anger, fear, and resilience they adopt - products of survival in a vexatious state.
Review: NOWHERE, Battersea Arts Centre
The world is a dark place. Every day, we seem to edge closer to the start of another global conflict. Nowhere is safe. War and destruction have become steady protagonists on our television screens, to the point where we’re growing increasingly desensitised to violence.
Review: THE REAL ONES, Bush Theatre
At once intimate and expansive, The Real Ones follows the friendship of Zaid and Neelam from age nineteen to thirty-six. Once kindred spirits, moving in sync, they fall out of step when the harsh reality of adult life sends them in different directions. Waleed Akhtar (Olivier winner for The P Word) pens a sharply observed look into whether platonic love can last.
Review: DEATH OF ENGLAND: CLOSING TIME, @sohoplace
It only premiered last October, but Death of England: Closing Time, the final chapter in Roy Williams and Clint Dyer’s state of the nation triptych, not only retains its spine-frosting freshness, but feels more dangerous than ever.
Review: DEATH OF ENGLAND: DELROY, @sohoplace
Some actors can play a role. Sure. Only a handful can inhabit it living and breathing. Even fewer are so convincing that you can’t imagine anyone else in their shoes. Paapa Essiedu is the latter. Without a doubt. Not even a second of doubt.
Review: DEATH OF ENGLAND: MICHAEL, @sohoplace
The guns fire loud and sonorous for the opening salvos of Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’s Death of England trilogy. A staggered premiere over four years at The National Theatre from 2020, new kid on the theatreland block @sohoplace (it’s really called that) have collated the trilogy (Michael, Delroy, and Closing Time) in rep in the West End.
Review: THE PROMISE, Minerva Theatre, Chichester
'To promise nearly fifty million people truly universal health care - ‘cradle to the grave’ - is crackers.' Despite this quote featuring quite prominently in promotional material, and the poster image showing a pair of midwives, The Promise isn’t wholly about the founding of the NHS. Paul Unwin’s new play instead depicts the rise of Clement Attlee’s Labour Party in the wake of the Second World War, and their attempts to create unity and growth in the years that follow.
Review: THE HOT WING KING, National Theatre
When food takes centre stage, it is usually as a conduit for humanity. Somewhere in the pseudo religiosity of ritual and the flurry of flavours we summon stories of cultures, families, histories across time and geography.
Review: A CHILD OF SCIENCE, Bristol Old Vic
Ultimately, A Child of Science offers a vivid portrayal of the intersection between scientific pursuit and human longing. It’s a testament to the extraordinary efforts behind ordinary miracles. And how the path to creating life can be as intricate and moving as the lives it aims to bring into the world.