There is a light and whistle for attracting attention.” A phrase that rings with easy familiarity for anyone who chooses air travel. But why is it the title of a piece of theatre? The copy for this production was a little opaque – to the point that it felt deliberate. Which, of course, turned out to be the case in this simply brilliant production by Play Nicely Theatre. The stage is set, intriguingly, with a chest of drawers and small wooden boxes off stage left and right. Th

Tish (Letitia Delish) is stuck. In more or less every sense of the word, in fact. She is increasingly uncertain of her gender and wishes to explore nascent alternative sexuality. Tish is studying musical theatre in Bognor Regis, hardly a hotbed of cosmopolitan acceptance or tolerance. And then there’s also rent to pay. A chance encounter on Grindr (a dating and social app, popular with the LGBTQ+ community) pushes her into highly unexpected territory. Tish decides to become a

Identity  confusion sits at the heart of this re-telling of G. K. Chesterton’s best-known novel. Chesterton is probably most famous as the creator of  Father Brown  to the modern audience, but this is an intriguing revival of  The Man Who Was Thursday  with modern resonance. The year is 1908 and Europe is witnessing political upheaval, which will ultimately lead to the outbreak of World War I. A variety of groups are pushing for reform and governments are increasingly under p

"Are you having a stroke?" Not exactly what inventor Jim (Paul Richards), pitching an idea to his long-term girlfriend Alison (Ruby Florence), wants to hear. But this does not transpire to be Alison’s most devastating line to Jim; it is, however, a microcosm of the personality gap between the pair. The Half A Camel (the upstairs function room of The Joker) is set with a typical domestic scene, except that Jim is miming to Queen’s  We Are The Champions , as part of his morning

How well can you ever really know anyone? How much do we fundamentally understand about someone, and what are the masks and defences we all employ? A stage solely occupied by a keyboard and microphone greets us at the BN1 Arts Centre. But the Dubious Company’s eclectic cast - Emily Hawkins, Jasper Price, Lex Bluecairn, Aoife Pallister Begadon, Annalena Lipinski, Amber Williams and Aisling Hanrahan - soon fill the space, singing and playing, leaning into the style of the moder

The Great Depression really started with the  Wall Street Crash  of 1929. More than merely a recession, it hit everybody in the USA and its contagion spread across the globe (akin to Metternich’s famous “When France sneezes, Europe catches cold”). Its socio-economic effects were devastating. It was a contributory factor in Hitler’s rise to power, though that’s another story. It’s thought that the USA only really emerged from this by setting its economy onto a war footing duri

Should we talk about the impact of the digital world on human beings ? On a macro level, there are grave concerns about the influence of the internet on democracies and the threat of cyber attacks upon institutions, industry and, Heaven help us, nuclear power plants. On-line platforms can amplify views and prejudices, gaining traction exponentially, sometimes with tragic and unforeseen consequences. But Tim Arnold’s seismic  Super Connected  instead examines the effect of dig

William Macready lived a life less ordinary, of this there is no doubt. Born towards the end of the eighteenth century, the son of an actor, he had high hopes of going to Oxford and eventually taking up a position at the bar. Many actors in current times struggle to make ends meet and it was not especially different for Macready’s father, who ended up in a debtor’s prison. This brought about a series of related events, resulting in William Macready having to leave Rugby and s

Barking Hearts Theatre’s production of  El Viaje  (The Journey) intertwines live music, singing and story-telling. It is utterly charming. But we need to contextualise first and to do so, a lightning recap of Cuban history, at least concerning the latter half of the last century. Fulgencio Batista had been elected Cuban leader, but later suspended the constitution and effectively became the head of a military dictatorship. His secret police brutally suppressed any dissenting

The philosopher Santayana observed that those who fail to heed the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them. But if time travel were to be possible, could humankind step back from calamitous, self-destructive, actions ? And crucially, even if they could, would they ? The Lantern Theatre setting is a plain black space, with what appears to be various items of junk in the background. Dryskoll (Malcolm Galea) has been sent back in time as part of an orchestrated attempt t

Every life is a series of days. We enter Rotunda Theatre’s Squeak auditorium to find no set at all : we are presented with a sparse, black space. Christopher Sainton-Clark appears on stage and immediately has the audience in his grip: there is a mortal struggle taking place and he pauses to tell us that this is the story of his death. What follows is the tale of Nathan, a young man in a small town in Ireland in 1958. There was precious little money around : Nathan’s parents b

It’s not news that planet Earth finds itself in a perilous state right now. The issue that successive Governments just will not tackle is that of climate change. They mostly seem to understand though, painfully agreeing wordings of various edicts. The aim of The Paris Agreement was to keep global temperature rises this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. However, scientists seem to be in agreement that this remains unlikely : IPCC scientists, in a curr

It’s been 75 years since the British decided to divide India. Niall Moorjani’s grandfather was a child who lived through that seismic, catastrophic event and we hear his story. The British arrived in India around the turn of the seventeenth century and stayed for 340 years, during which time the sub-continent was irrevocably changed. During the first half of the twentieth century, Europe reeled from two devastating wars, which inevitably spilled over to many other parts of th

Trouble In The Square  is an international collective at the beginning of their theatrical journey, who present  Il Burattino  at Rotunda’s Bubble tent. We meet Tino (Miguel Mota), an orphan in  Piemonte, North West Italy,  living in the rural foothills of the Alps, close to the Swiss border.  It is 1942 - Europe is in the midst of a devastating war, one that, as it transpires, will cast a shadow over the continent for next half of a century. Tino’s closest friend, Romero (As

Giulia Menichelli charmingly performs as Giulia Tofana, a seventeenth century Sicilian courtesan, turned poisoner. We enter the Friends’ Meeting House performance room, greeted by Menichelli, obviously at ease with receiving visitors, welcoming the audience. The atmosphere is enhanced by clever use of fragrances (candles, incense sticks) and the Mediterranean feel is neatly completed by oranges being placed at every audience chair. It is immediately sensual and inviting. Tofa

An intelligent, affable, man approaching middle age at first glance has found his place in the world. He has a job he seems to enjoy and be good at ; moreover is trusted by his employers. He is in a committed relationship and has a circle of friends (though it’s by no means certain how wide this is). But is all as it seems ? The audience enters The Rotunda’s Squeak tent to find the performer awaiting, attired in semi-formal business dress. The set is simple – a chair and a ta