Despite announcing a break back in September, A Younger Theatre still has plans to come back stronger than ever. Here’s an update from Managing Director Sam. Sometimes I still feel like I’m stuck in my pokey London flat, circa 2020, doing anything but consider the completely opaque, poisonous shit storm gathering outside and having no control over what it swiftly and deliberately chews up. I’m imagining that 1996 film Twister or a scene from The Hunger Games. Right now, it feels like not a lot has changed, especially for the arts. Four months ago, I decided that because of financial reasons, A ..read more

Review: Dear Elizabeth, the Gate at Theatro Technis 4.0Overall Score Reader Rating 0 Votes If ever a show deserved to be written about exclusively in the present tense, it is the Gate’s Dear Elizabeth. A love letter to the concept of live theatre, the production is unapologetically quirky and alive, while still presenting a meaningful exploration of human kinship. Conceptually ambitious, each night, Dear Elizabeth stars two different actors. Both them and the audience have never seen or heard the script before, and thus everyone in the room unravels the story of Elizabeth Bi ..read more

Review: Cailleach, Mull Theatre and Sonder Circus 4.0Overall Score Cailleach is a performance-based piece created in partnership between the Mull Theatre and Sonder Circus. It is played and performed by Lauren Jamieson, with Joanna Vymeris as the Bride and Ashley Smith as the Narrator. The trio encapsulate the mythological battle of the seasons, which has been subtly going on for generations. The Cailleach is originally from Gaelic dialect, with the word literally meaning “old woman, hag”, but was incorporated within Highland mythology to represent a being who reigns over the winter seasons ..read more

Review: Look, No Hands, Pleasance Online 4.0Overall Score Lila Clements has come to the Pleasance Theatre to share her story with us. There is just one little problem: she does not remember what happened. In the witness box she is to testify on something she has no memory of, and her one-woman show serves as an attempt to put the pieces together. Look, No Hands, directed by Anna Ryder is a gripping solo performance of how the actress’ life changed from one day to the other. Clements enjoys the attention she is receiving from the audience. She fills the space with her story and vividly paints ..read more

Review: Rough Sleeper, Online @ the Actors Centre 2.0Overall Score The streets are empty and all we see is a deserted English main street in the opening of Jo Emery’s Rough Sleeper. The filmed version of the play which premiered in 2019 is directed by Ian Hylands and presented by the Actors Centre. Developed in association with Crisis, it tells the story of homelessness; of what it means to be a rough sleeper in England and how our protagonist got to where he is. The man (Haydon Davis) has been a rough sleeper for a few years now. Sleeping, people watching, and drinking make up most of his d ..read more

Review: Damage Control, Riverside Studios 5.0Overall Score Here is a show unlike anything else in London at the moment: an interactive exhibition that sees punters wander around an array of bronze statues, as an audioplay recounts stories of unimaginable human suffering over the past 400 years.  Writer-director Polly Wiseman immerses us in the trials faced by the destitute over London’s long history. Most notably, it draws two distinct parallels between the Great Fire of 1666 and the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 (situated not far from the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith), and also betwe ..read more

Review: The Memory of Water, Hampstead Theatre 5.0Overall Score The mind is a fickle thing: sometimes we struggle to recall a name or a word that we have used a hundred times over; on other occasions, we so vividly remember something that never actually happened to us; and, if you’re anything like me, then you may be prone to leaving all manner of things in the fridge that simply don’t belong there. But the worst thing the mind can do is to allow disease to erase all semblance of recollection from you, as is the case with Alzheimer’s Disease, something truly harrowing not only for the afflic ..read more

In the final list of opportunities for young underrepresented people in the arts before our break next week, you’ll find some crackers from Clean Break, a treat for nature writers and several jobs via the Kickstart scheme for 18-24 year olds. Good luck! Whisper TV want to meet disabled people interested in working behind the scenes in sports TV. More info here:https://www.whisper.tv/news/whisper-aims-to-increase-disability-representation-in-sports-production Graeae are running a new short course to help disabled theatre-makers develop their theatre-making skills, and with the aim of fostering ..read more

Review: Tal, online@theSpaceUk 3.0Overall Score Eerie music, a stage drained of colour and a broken cot mark the opening of Tal – an original dance performance. A creature is crouched on the bed, wrapped in the bedsheet, and she only starts moving when the music changes and the colours return to the imagery. Tal is a dance theatre performance by Tal Levy Cohen. Exploring the darkest moments of her life, she takes us on a journey as she reimagines her parents’ divorce and her loss of self. As she creates beautiful shapes and figures with her body under the red and blue lights of the minimalis ..read more

Review: White Witch, Bloomsbury Theatre 2.0Overall Score There is enormous potential for Barry Reckord’s play White Witch. He is a celebrated Jamaican writer, and the piece returns to the London stage after a successful run at the Chelsea Theatre in 2015. The story in itself also catches my attention – “based on a true story, set around Rose Hall [….] White Witch is a tale of mysticism, love, cruelty and revenge, cast against the Atlantic slave trade.” Palmer (a slave owner played by Robert Maskell) brings his new wife Annie (Georgina Baillie) back to his plantation in Jamaica. Rumours of ma ..read more