Review: The Fix

The Union Theatre
Thursday 28 July 2016

A tiny British theatre has turned its attentions to a much greater land in this production of The Fix, John Dempsey’s star-spangled political musical that premiered at the Donmar in 1997. That is to say, The Union’s Artistic Director, Sasha Regan, has got her creative powerhouse remeasured and relocated to a roomer space just over the road – and here, like the subject of a Gok Wan documentary who’s been wearing the same M&S undies since 1998, the overachieving venue is pulling its bangers into roomier, more fitting surroundings.

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Review: Leave Hitler To Me, Lad

Above the Arts, Tuesday 6 October 2015

Brian is the ultimate poster child for the displaced children of the Second World War, in more ways than initially meet the eye. Still unclaimed by his family, left in an Essex school seven years after World War Two, the small nervous boy with his wide, earnest eyes and tendency to wet the bed is a reminder that while “Operation Pied Piper” took children to safety, it didn’t always grant them security.

REVIEW: PENETRATOR

The Hope Theatre, Thursday 6 August 2015

Twenty one years has brought a new sense of distance onto one of the earliest examples of In-yer-face theatre. Anthony Neilson’s Penetrator, which premiered at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 1994, may thrust deeply into some hard-hitting themes – rape, homophobia, porn, bestiality and violence, to name just a few – but time has corroded the impact of the piece. Now, despite a modern injection of internet porn, iPlayer and Julian Assange, there’s something positivity kitsch about the play’s foolhardy application of controversial ideas.

Review: The Bald Prima Donna

Slip of the Lip Theatre, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Saturday 25th July (matinee)

In Paris’s 5th arrondissement, there’s a little theatre where you can catch Eugène Ionesco’s “Anti-Play”, The Bald Prima Donna, in permanent repetition as part of a repertoire of just three works. In London, you’ll have to work a lot harder to see anything by the great Romanian absurdist, so it’s a true and immediate joy to see this British adaptation, from Slip of the Lip Theatre, making its way around the London fringe.

Review: My Perfect Mind

Those artful jokers at Told By An Idiot are entering dangerous ground with My Perfect Mind, a unique retelling of how ultimate thesp Edward Petherbridge suffered a stroke during rehearsals for his eponymous role in King Lear. Less of a ‘play within a play’, and more of a ‘play torn up and thrown back to stain the wall while the players narrowly avoid falling into the trapdoor’ firecracker of a piece, My Perfect Mind shows how daring this company is as it brings Told By An Idiot’s signature sharp-witted silliness back to the home ground of the theatre.