Soho Theatre Archives - Page 2 of 8

29May

By Sadie PearsonNo Comments

London

House of Life – Soho Theatre

Mad, glitzy and totally camp, what a glorious night of theatre House of Life is. A silly show with heaps of heart, The Raverend (Ben Welch) and Trev (Laurence Cole) take their audience on a journey of joyous enlightenment through a 6 step plan to get happy quick. Mad as a concept, the performance is less of a story and more of a cabaret-come-religious-experience, with glorious concoction of house, gospel and a cracking set of pipes (the Raverend in particular knocking it out the park vocally every time). Attacking the audience's insecurities with mantras of radical self love, honesty and community, House of Life’s great success is that it leaves no audience member un-nurtured. Chickens often the theme - an unsubtle metaphor for rebirth - we are offered egg-maracas (as well as f...

A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy – Soho Theatre

15May

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy – Soho Theatre

A Small Enclosed Room With Alfie Murphy is a unique and funny show that sometimes struggles to deliver on its strong themes and ideas. We begin as a one-man style show. Alfie confides in us about his life, telling us about his band ‘The Camden Stoners’ and the struggles he has with his more sociable, but rather shallow bandmate Jai. From the moment our other performer, Anna Constable, puts her head through the curtain (as Alfie’s ghostwriter dressed as a ghost), the show moves at lightning speed. Alfie falls out hard with Jai, travels to India to lose become a guru, and suddenly finds himself thrown into a particularly aggressive talk show interview before the fourth wall comes crashing down as Constable begins to object to all the costumes and roles, she is forced to put on in order to...

All The Happy Things – Soho Theatre Upstairs

10Apr

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

All The Happy Things – Soho Theatre Upstairs

If your sister has died, are you still a sister? All The Happy Things explores the devastating effects of grief and loss. Overwhelmed by grief at the death of her older sister Emily, Sienna struggles with all aspects of her life without her. She imagines that Emily is still there with her, arguing, remembering their past, listening to music. Emily shadows her at work, at home and in her relationships. On top of this delusion, Sienna is dealing with her father's decline into dementia and the likelihood of him having to leave his care home because of his aggressive behaviour. Written by Naomi Denny (who also plays Sienna), All The Happy Things initially sounds like it will be a depressing piece, but it's told with great warmth and plenty of light-hearted moments, e...

The Bollywood Guide to Revenge – Soho Theatre

4Apr

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

The Bollywood Guide to Revenge – Soho Theatre

Where there is Bollywood, there is melodrama. There is song and dance. There are beautiful faces. Shafeeq Shajahan’s cabaret brings all these to the stage and uses them to pick at some scars and talk about healing. And yes, revenge. As his springboard, Shajahan (who is also the writer and director of this performance) picks “Satyam Shivam Sundaram”, a 1978 Hindi movie about Rupa, a woman with a heavily scarred face, and her suitor Rajiv, who fails to see beyond the scars. It forms the backdrop not only to an exploration of his own life, but also to his mother’s, who grew up in Singapore as a neglected dark-skinned girl and found resonance in Rupa’s character. Photo: Marc Sirsi Through songs, storytelling and some playful interaction with the audience, Shajahan talks about his grow...

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God Whoever Reads It First – Soho Theatre

22Mar

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God Whoever Reads It First – Soho Theatre

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson is a brilliant piece of physical storytelling, at times funny, thought-provoking, and touching. It follows two boys, Ace (Natasha Roland) and Grasshopper (Xhloe Rice), who are scouts at the time of the Vietnam War. Through child-like inventions we see the world through their eyes, with the lines between playing soldiers at home and being soldiers at war are blurred. Photo: Morgan McDowell The strength of this show comes through its roots in physical theatre and clowning. Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland, performers and co-creators, use this to evoke the child-like world of their characters. The extent of the ‘set’ is one large, black rubber tyre, but through clowning the two are able to produce so much from this one item: a piece of cover under enemy fire, t...

13Mar

By Sadie PearsonNo Comments

London

Weather Girl – Soho Theatre

A fiery tragicomedy and scorching analysis of our climate crisis, Weather Girl at Soho Theatre is a rallying cry for the necessity of protecting our planet. Weather Girl follows Stacey (Julia McDermott), a Californian weather girl who may look like a bleach-blonde-Barbie ‘perfect woman’, but in reality, is anything but. With a Stanley cup full of Prosecco, she is neurotic, impulsive, and a self-confessed alcoholic. See, California is on fire, and this is a fact which Stacey cannot stomach. As the wildfires consume her home, her life begins to be consumed with it. At the heart of this piece the question: how lost are we from nature, and therefore, from our humanity? Watkins delivers a script which boasts a multi-layered exploration climate change to match it’s multi-layered narrative....

Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip – Soho Theatre

30Jan

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip – Soho Theatre

Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip. That’s both the title of the show and the UK-born American comedian’s very literal mission statement for his kooky comedy hour. Having previously earned him a Best Newcomer Nominee at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2024 for its fringe run, Adejuyigbe’s zany show has arrived at Soho Theatre. A true comedian of the internet age, Adejuyigbe packs the show with powerpoint presentations, songs, a one-man musical in which he threatens to do a Lin-Manuel Miranda-esque rap, and plenty more bits for one sole purpose: to impress his crush. As he builds up to performing his promised singular backflip—because it’s the ultimate way to woo a woman, supposedly—Adejuyigbe goes on to explain his six-part method for winning over a crush, from deliverin...

Amy Gledhill: Make Me Look Fit on the Poster – Soho Theatre

29Jan

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Amy Gledhill: Make Me Look Fit on the Poster – Soho Theatre

As a quadruple Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee with appearances on TV shows such as Live At The Apollo and Would I Lie To You? under her belt, Amy Gledhill has been dubbed one of comedy’s brightest new stars. In her solo show Make Me Look Fit on the Poster, now playing at Soho Theatre, she proves why. The Soho crowd don’t need much warming up (impressive, given it was 9pm on a Tuesday), but Gledhill still kicks things off with brash energy by asking us all to take off our knickers and throw them at her in appreciation. Realising the logistical challenges of her request, she gives us a hand by opening up a box of underwear and chucking them into the audience for us to shower back down on her. Photo: Paul Gilbey This perfectly kicks off a fun and cheeky hour of comedy where Gledhill ...

24Jan

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Santi & Naz – Soho Theatre

Pretty much every person that walked into the dimly lit, intimate space of Soho Theatre paused for a beat at the unusual sight of the actors already being present on the stage. Two young women lay on the floor, tracing lines on the ground and humming to themselves. They waited in that comfortably contemplative state as the audience settled in, like a visual preface. Santi and Naz are the best of friends, having grown up together in a little village in pre-partition India. Their meeting place is by a lake, under the shade of a tree, where they play-act, tell jokes, and talk about the hazy future. Naz is blissfully unaware of the political turmoil, while Santi reads and tries to keep up with what is going on. One Muslim and the other Sikh, neither of them knows just how much the events of...

Anirban Dasgupta: Polite Provocation – Soho Theatre

31Oct

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Anirban Dasgupta: Polite Provocation – Soho Theatre

At the very outset Anirban Dasgupta promises that by the end of the hour, the audience will know a lot more about India than they already do. He stays true to his word, educating the room on the current state of politics of the country, Mahatma Gandhi, the freedom struggle, and the growth of standup comedy and the challenges it faces. While he does eventually segue on to other topics, the best parts of Dasgupta’s set are for the politically aware. It also seems to be what he most enjoys. He brings up some uncomfortable truths about the political and social atmosphere in India with much hilarity. The evening’s show, he says, is “like the Indian media – sold out.” But can he tell these jokes with the same ease back in his home city? Probably not, given what he goes on to tell us ab...