Category: Reviews

Since it is well known that art imitates life, it is no surprise that if you search ‘alpha podcast’ on your phone’s relevant app you are going to find more than one listening option called “The Alpha Podcast” or similar. Although there must be other podcasts that do, none of these seem to share the… Continue reading The Alpha Podcast

If the long history of Adam Kay’s enduring popularity can attest to anything, it’s that there’s some serious depths of comedy that can be plumbed from being a doctor and a comedian. It’s into this zone that Stefania Licari, a practising anaesthetist and sometime actress, has stepped into with her show Medico. Of course, while… Continue reading Stefania Licari: Medico

It is easy to live our lives in a place without ever being aware of its particular ecosystem, the special historical context that made it what it is and even shaped the way we lead our lives. In an ambitious, at times lyrical monologue, Jenny Witzel pays homage to Deptford, “a London neighbourhood on the… Continue reading CREEKSHOW

Verdi’s fifth opera may feature the sort of implausibility that gives the genre a bad name, but it also contains such a succession of rich melodies, forceful duets, trios and choruses that make it all worthwhile. The rebel Ernani and Elvira are lovers, but she is also desired by Don Silva and no less than… Continue reading Ernani

Bang is the story of Joan Vollmer, one of the pivotal women in the group that defined the Beat Generation who, despite being one of the keenest intellects in the seminal group of writers and poets, died tragically young after a bitter life. It’s a tale of drug addiction, mental illness, incarceration and tragedy opening… Continue reading Bang

The foyer and theatre are decked out for a wedding with balloons, pink and blue ribbons and flowers; there is a wedding cake on the table just inside the theatre, the audience are the guests. “We’ve been here before,” do I hear you say? No. It’s not another immersive show, at least not that wedding… Continue reading A Mirror

Internal is a new work by Canadian Tania Tuusa, who also performs this solo show about a painfully lonely and unconfident young woman. The story is an engaging tale of finding the inner courage to live the life you want. For the majority, being able to be oneself is an entitlement we are brought up… Continue reading Internal

British Youth Musical Theatre is returning to Birmingham Hippodrome’s Patrick Studio to present a new musical, #50 Days. Performed by a company of 14- to 21-year-olds from across the UK with a number from Birmingham, #50 Days retells the story of the 50-day period that led to the outbreak of the British civil wars. With parallels to Brexit,… Continue reading Birmingham to host new young people’s musical

This clever relocation of Dickens’s well-known story to India at the turn of the twentieth century when the British were trying to partition Bengal retains the story and characters of the original—some renamed—but stands up well by itself, with the setting integrating well rather than seeming grafted on. As the play opens in an incense-filled… Continue reading Great Expectations

Written and performed by Chris Brannick and Karen Kirkup, I Believe in One Bach is a psychological drama following Alan Gottelib, a 2nd violinist being slowly edged out of the orchestra as his skill and sanity are waning away. It’s a play inspired by, imbued with and somewhat structured and built around Bach’s triumphant and… Continue reading I Believe in One Bach