Eastern promise meets Carry On. Mawaan Rizwan, whose sketches on Youtube have reached over 20 million views, emerges from behind the curtain with clothespegs attached to each finger like fake nail talons, wriggles seductively to Thai restaurant muzac, and proceeds to try, using the pegs, to pick popcorn out of a bag, throw it unsuccessfully […]

Black. Black room, black bed, black lamps, black piano, black performer. The title of this piece reflects the strong and driving theme singer Le Gateau Chocolate (British-born but brought up in Nigeria) seeks to challenge: What does black mean? In descriptions of mental health. In the battle between good and evil, light and dark. And […]

Having seen some of Sleeping Trees’ previous shows, my expectations were high for this comedy-theatre performance, presented in a rotating bill parodying either the ‘mafia’ or ‘western’ genre. The inclusion of a live three-piece, The Physics House Band, on stage made this production particularly distinctive. First, spatially, as the set-up immediately becomes more gig-like than […]

Headlock Theatre, a young company founded by Sheffield University students in 2010, have created an energetic and very physical devised adaptation of the classic fairytale Bluebeard. Their narrative centres on Blue, a young woman and distant relation of the titular Bluebeard, a man renowned for killing his young brides when they dissatisfy him. Soon Blue […]

There is a drummer at his drum kit, dim light, smoke, and three performers dressed in grubby wartime hotel worker uniforms. There’s a large square of canvas on a rolling scaffold at the back and an air of suspense, intent, and unease. Stefan Zweig’s novel The Royal Game tells a tale of love, loss, solitary […]