Mary Pearson greets us in her dressing gown at the entrance to the Nightingale Theatre, as if she were just out on her front doorstep one morning and had found a bunch of neighbours milling around. The questions are innocuous at first, then a little more searching (going from ‘How are you?’ to ‘How is […]

The Fantasist opens with Theatre Témoin’s signature mix of the realistic and the surreal as the powerfully played protagonist, Louisa, writhes and tosses against the white sheet background that is her bed – a first scene that captures the unease of disturbed sleep as well as creating suspense as to what will happen next. As she performs […]

Franko B’s Because of Love is the closest encounter I have had with Joseph Conrad’s Colonel Kurtz to date. Like a seemingly disciplined inmate, the performer paces up and down along the celluloid wall of his recollection cell, readying himself for a confrontation to come rather than sparring with images of televised conflicts, military parades or 1960s […]

A tiny theatre, in a quirky pub in Kentish Town, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, hosted the first of what will be a monthly programme of Cloud Dance Sundays. Confronting harrowing subject matter, the billing was far from laid back, proving that Cloud Dance is serious in its initiative to reach new audiences (an ambition […]

Chris Cresswell’s persona in Qua Qua Qua, his homage to Jaques Tati, is a long, long way from the Chris Creswell who plays the booming frontman and impresario of the wacky high energy cabaret Voodoo Vaudeville, or from Creswell’s alter ego in that show, the unctuous and knowing Baby Warhol hand puppet, floating in a picture frame […]