Favourite shows 2022

You didn’t think I’d share my least favourite shows of the year and just leave it at that, did you? Obviously not. As well as continuing to follow Wuthering Heights across the country, and making regular appointments with Operation Mincemeat in its two 2022 homes, I managed to see 78 different shows (repeat visits – […]

Worst shows 2022

I hate to say it, but I’ve missed writing these. Since theatres first closed and then reopened, the standard of productions has been exceptionally high so there hasn’t been any call for a ‘worst of’ list. Though, as always, when I say ‘worst’ I really mean ‘least favourite’ – but that’s just less snappy. 2022 […]

Out of 2021 – Into 2022

I’m slightly more ahead of the game this year than last year, as this is my official follow-up to my ‘favourite things‘, favourite digital shows & favourite in-person shows posts; a round-up of 2021 and a glance ahead to 2022. The main thing dominating the blog in 2021 was motivation – or lack thereof. It’s […]

Favourite shows 2021 (in-person)

It’s quite nice to go back to this, although when I had a look through my list of shows it wasn’t too hard to choose a top 10 – the hardest thing was getting them in the right order… I haven’t seen all of the shows that have been put on since things reopened, for […]

Love Theatre Day 2021: Brave new world?

Happy Love Theatre Day, everyone! This year I actually feel like marking it, not because all of London’s West End theatres are now back open for business (though that is obviously excellent news), but because I’m just about working out where theatre of all kinds fits into my peri-pandemic routine – note that I’m not […]

Out of 2020 – Into 2021

I’ve ummed and ahhed over doing this sort of post, but (now the end of January is in sight) I’ve finally decided that I might as well follow up my ‘favourite things‘ post with a bit of a round-up – and some kind of look forward. One thing that I did manage was to get […]

2020 mid-year update

Against my usual penchant for starting off slowly and then steadily heading for entropy, I went straight in at the deep end this year: my first week back in London (& the first full week of the year) was set down as #MindTheMusicals 2020! That means, of course, I began my theatregoing year by […]

Coming up in 2020…

What I’d usually do here is say I’m aiming to be sensible again, but that clearly doesn’t work – at the most it lasts about one or two months and then anything goes… So I’ll just say that I’ll think carefully about my reviewing commitments, and then everything else can sort itself out organically. What […]

Arthur Miller 2019: a summary

Before this, I’ve taken on Shakespeare, puppetry and Emma Rice; thanks to an early pattern in theatre scheduling, I decided this year had to focus on Arthur Miller. I started off really enthusiastically – it definitely helped that I was rather spoilt for choice in terms of productions of Arthur Miller’s plays in the first […]

Never Mind The Blog… Here’s Autumn/Winter 2019

The slightest of delays in getting this one out – but if you were dealing with unco-operative internet, a laptop whose keyboard still won’t work, and a manic month at work to prepare for, you’d be in the same boat. News Tower Theatre in Stoke Newington is celebrating its first anniversary, and will be […]