London Archives - Page 18 of 181

17Jun

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

RON – Riverside Studios

RON is one of those rare productions that refuses to stay in a single genre and is all the better for it. What begins as something familiar, a stand-up comedy act, quickly spirals into an increasingly surreal, dark comedy that constantly keeps its audience guessing. Every time you think you've understood where the story is heading, it gleefully pulls the rug from beneath you and quite literally lifts the curtain on a wildly inventive theatrical experience. The direction (Ted Walliker and Lev Govorovski) is razor sharp, maintaining an impressive pace while allowing every twist to land with maximum impact. There is a real confidence behind the production, balancing absurd comedy with moments of genuine unease without ever feeling forced. It is an ambitious piece that could easily have col...

Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x) – Soho Theatre

17Jun

By Saloni SanwalkaNo Comments

London

Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x) – Soho Theatre

Jade Franks’ one-woman show, Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x), has had a fairytale run. Its sold-out debut at Edinburgh Fringe last year marked Franks out as a breakout talent and the excitement has carried her from London to Melbourne and even Netflix offices. Its return to the Soho Theatre this June is accompanied by a similar buzz which, for the most part, is warranted. The semi-autobiographical show is sharply written and draws the audience into the world of Jade, a Liverpudlian scholar, as she navigates her first year at Cambridge University. It is a caustic commentary on the cultural and class-based divisions which overwhelm her experience, almost to the point of caricature. The posh students are ignorant and nasty, and the professors are technologically challenged crows. ...

A Life in Four Seasons – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

16Jun

By Saloni SanwalkaNo Comments

London

A Life in Four Seasons – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

As the last of Vivaldi’s descending runs in L’inverno (“Winter”) hurtles towards a ritardando at cliff’s edge, bringing the show to a close, every single person in Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is on their feet. The 16-dancer ensemble stands arms-linked and beaming and even the birds chirp their appreciation. It is the most inevitable of standing ovations for a triumphant showcase of dance, music, and theatre. A Life in Four Seasons, set to the eponymous work by Antonio Vivaldi, is a production in four segments, with each part representing a season in one’s life and the forces which determine their course. Spring marks the beginning and introduces us to the Heart, the Head, and the Gut at the point of self-discovery. They move with the awkwardness and buoyancy of youth, all-smiles and ...

13Jun

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

War Horse – National Theatre

War Horse is a two hour twenty-minute spectacle of sublime animated visuals and skilful puppetry. A story that gets to the heart of the atrocities and impact of World War 1 on the men, families and the cavalry horses involved in conflict. The play introduces Joey as a foal a horse bred to become a fine racing horse who finds his way to a farm. In the mists of desperation, the family need to earn a living, Joey now needs to become a draft horse ploughing fields and supporting the family. Ted and Rose Narracott task their 16yr old son Albert to care for and train Joey to perform the enviable duties of ploughing, hauling and work as an agricultural horse. As time moved on Albert and Joey form a special bond of shared love, friendship and survival At the time of the outbreak of the first...

11Jun

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Allegra – Richmond Theatre

“Given all the misery around… if you spend the day smiling, there must be something wrong with you.” That is the diagnosis for the ever-singing, always happy Allegra. She sings at home, at the baker’s, at the library, in the café, and even to her neighbours at 3 in the morning. In this new play by Peter Quilter, directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear, Maureen Lipman plays the titular role. Allegra lives by herself in a village where everyone is seemingly infuriated with her habit of breaking into song. Her fridge and cupboards might be empty (save some old cocoa and flour tins that hold her father’s ashes), but her mind is bursting with music and colourful imaginations. Her brother Ronen (John Middleton) looks in on her regularly, brings her food, and attempts to reign in her ene...

Teeth ‘N’ Smiles – Duke of York’s Theatre

9Jun

By Nathan DunnNo Comments

London

Teeth ‘N’ Smiles – Duke of York’s Theatre

Teeth ‘N’ Smiles has enjoyed a lengthy run during this 2026 revival at the Duke of York theatre, celebrating 50 years since prolific writer David Hare’s rock and roll musical took to the stage starring Helen Mirren as the work’s darkly charismatic protagonist Maggie Frisby. Similarly, this production brings some star-studded value to the cast with pop artist Rebecca Lucy Taylor (formerly of Slow Club fame), now professional performing as ‘Self Esteem’. How does Hare’s work stand now? This production is pleasantly refined - its large cast are handled with great balance inside a great space, which playfully leans into the immersive qualities of the venue as the late 1960’s rockers burst in and out of the stalls doors that flank the audience with an amusingly entropic quality. Chloe Lamfor...

9Jun

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Shantify – Underbelly Boulevard Soho

Some theatre productions are clever; others are musically impressive. The truly special ones manage to be both, while embracing an utterly absurd premise with complete confidence. ‘Shantify’ [jazz hands essential] is one of those rare productions. It is utterly joyous, inventive and irresistibly entertaining, and will leave you grinning long after the curtain falls, with its brilliantly reimagined sea shanties still playing on repeat in your head for days afterwards! The premise alone sounds improbable: take chart-topping pop hits, musical theatre favourites and traditional sea shanties, throw them together aboard a nautical adventure, and somehow make it all work. Yet against all odds, it works brilliantly, from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, from the Spice Girls to Hamilton and Six, familia...

9Jun

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Are You Watching – Royal Court

A ten-foot pool of blood spilling across a white-tiled floor is the final image in Georgie Dettmer’s professional playwriting debut at the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. In it, two teenage girls are playing: they are reimagining the end of Gisèle Pelicot’s story. In the girls’ fictionalised version of events, Pelicot gets her revenge by shooting and killing her husband. They find their catharsis and go to sleep covered in blood. Are You Watching? follows a number of stories in vignettes, all of which have to do with voyeurism in some form. The stories look at sexual violence in the age of the Internet and AI — sometimes digital in origin, always physical and bodily in effect. A son finds deepfake porn, made using his own childhood pictures, on his father’s iPad; a famous ac...

4Jun

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Waiting for Godot – Arches Lane Theatre

In a place where time seems to have lost meaning, where memory plays games with the mind, two men wait endlessly under a barren tree. They talk, they quarrel, they make up, they are bored, but they dare not leave. This week, a new production of Samuel Beckett’s most popular play takes to the stage. Directed by Leo Bacica, it has Rich Allen playing Vladimir and Steve Broad as Estragon. Together, the men wait for the mysterious, unseen Godot. Between uncomfortable boots, pockets full of turnip, and kidney trouble, the two men kill their time talking about the mundane and the spiritual, the philosophical and the nostalgic. The monotony of their wait is broken by the rather disruptive entrance of Pozzo and his servant Lucky. Lucky has a rope tied around him, which is controlled by...

Dark of the Moon – Charing Cross Theatre

2Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Dark of the Moon – Charing Cross Theatre

This new musical version by Lindy Robbins, Dave Bassett and Steve Robson is the latest in a long series of versions of this piece. It was first performed as a play in 1942 and a substantially revised version transferred to Broadway in 1945. It was produced in London at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1948 and the Ambassadors Theatre in 1949. The story has not been updated. It is effectively a fairytale about a rural Appalachian community who live in close proximity to a coven of witches in the nearby Smoky Mountains. One of the witches, John (Witch Boy), is enamoured with one of the human girls, Barbara Allen, and seeks to develop a relationship with her, to the dismay of both communities. Its theme is the clash between cultures with the boy/ girl relationsh...