Crocodile Fever

From the outside, Alannah seems content: her home is in pristine condition, keeping her occupied for the best part of each day. It’s a quiet existence – all the more so with her sister Fianna’s long absence. But is she really happy? And could there be a deadly dark secret ready to burst out of […]

A Midsummer Night’s Droll

With the sheer volume of theatre available to us these days, it’s hard to imagine that it could ever be outlawed. But at the height of Puritanism, theatre was indeed banned – and from around 1642 you could only find elite actors in plays abroad, and the part-time actors returned to focus on their livelihoods. […]

The Red

Marcus Brigstocke’s debut play, The Red, was initially commissioned for BBC Radio 4,and it has now headed up to Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a stage run across the whole month. Brigstocke also directs this deeply personal two-hander that looks into what it is to be addicted – and what recovery really means. Benedict is an […]

EFF 2019: preview

After last year’s baptism of fire, I definitely learnt some lessons. Though some of my planning has been slightly last-minute again, I did at least recognise the need to dedicate a significant period of time to just sifting through all of the shows. Yes, I could just use the plentiful ‘top shows to see’ posts […]

Before 30: “Writing a play is cheaper than therapy”

Last year, writer and actor Tom Hartwell brought his latest play to the stage at Theatre N16; a solo show about the modern generation entering their thirties, Before 30 made it to my top shows of 2018. It came back for a brief run at Waterloo East Theatre earlier this year, and is now making […]

2019 mid-year update

Once again things started off steadily and sensibly, but then too much interesting sounding stuff (both in & out of London) came up and ended up taking over my diary… I may have again gone down in terms of the amount of shows I’ve seen in six months (103 different shows, 126 individual visits to theatres), but I […]

Never Mind The Blog… Here’s Spring/Summer 2019

You may remember that last year I provided you with one of these big preview posts every month. Whilst it was interesting to find out what was going on across the country (and remind myself of things I still needed to see), the self-imposed pressure of compiling so much every few weeks started to cause […]

Coming up in 2019…

Once again I start off with the intention of looking after myself more – it worked for a short while in 2018, but I very quickly slipped back into old habits… I have at least blocked out regular nights off for half of the year already, so fingers crossed I can stick to that. This […]

Most popular posts of 2018

I’m always fascinated by the stats page here – in particular, which of my posts end up attracting the most hits! It definitely can take you by surprise at times. So, here are the top 15 most viewed posts from 2018… 15. Section 2 Teamed with No One Is Coming To Save You is Paper […]

End of 2018 report

Gone are the days of one show or one venue to rule them all! Obviously I will still happily make repeat visits to shows – or follow them around on tour – if I really enjoy them, but variety has very much been the spice of life in 2018. That covers venue as much as […]