Soho Theatre
Helen Hawkins
Jasmine Lee-Jones has a hard act to follow – namely, herself. Her award-winning 2019 debut play, seven methods of killing kylie jenner, announced the arrival at the Royal Court of a blistering writing talent whose two sparring women made the room crackle and pop. Still only 22, she has for her second stage piece opted for something rather different, as if to show she has more than just a sharp ear for great dialogue.Curious, which its author performs solo at the Soho Theatre, begins with a striking image: in a full skirted ballgown, she runs on the spot under strobe lighting, so Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Anuvab Pal may be a new name to some UK audiences (although many will know him from the global satirical podcast The Bugle), but he is well known in his native India. And it is with a wry look at Indian history – and the British role within it – that he begins his show Democracy and Disco Dancing, a version of which he previously brought to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019.Pal introduces himself, saying he looks like “I work for HSBC in risk management” but in reality he's has some thought-provoking and funny gags about the India-Great Britain relationship. He takes us through Partition (“the Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Olga Koch – born in Russia to ethnic German parents, multilingual and now living in London – might fit into the group that Theresa May once dismissed as “citizens of nowhere”, whatever that phrase means. But Koch turns that on its head in her new show as she examines nationality and belonging, and Homecoming is a terrific 60 minutes of personal storytelling and playful sexual politics, delivered with swagger.The show was prompted by Koch recently getting her UK passport – surely a German one would be more useful? – and thereby taking the Life in the UK test, which erroneously suggests that Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Mark Thomas comes on stage unannounced. It's not a show of humility – rather, he told us, amused at his own mistake, that his hearing isn't what it used to be and he had misheard his music cue. It was a modest start to his new show 50 Things About Us, which he is giving a runout at Soho Theatre before touring with it later in the year.It has been 18 months since he last gigged, but there were few signs of rustiness as Thomas described what has been happening to him during his enforced layoff from live performance. He developed Type 2 diabetes, for a start – “the kind you have to overeat for Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Chinese Arts Now was founded in 2005 and aims to produce and present work that explores Chinese themes, stories and art forms in the UK. Its annual festival includes a comedy night (presented in conjunction with Soho Theatre), and this year three comics of Chinese heritage – Evelyn Mok, Ken Cheng and Phil Wang – performed.The event, livestreamed from the comics' homes, was in a novel format; Mok (who was born in Sweden and describes herself as Scandinasian) introduced, and we saw clips of them performing, followed by them discussing the themes in their material.It kicked off with a clip from Read more ...
aleks.sierz
As the events of last year made clear, the police have a problem with race on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, BAME people are more than twice as likely to die in police custody while being forcibly restrained than people from other social groups. Written by award-winning actor and writer Ryan Calais Cameron, Typical is a powerful and inspiring example of how theatre tackles institutional racism. First performed in 2019 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the play then transferred to the Soho Theatre for a sell-out run. Now, during the pandemic, this piece has been filmed on location at Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Daniel KitsonDaniel Kitson, in a rare and welcome move, has released his 2009 Edinburgh Fringe show, The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church, in a version he has edited.Various times, 18-22 Maydanielkitson.comCambridge Footlights Stand-up ShowcaseDoes what it says on the tin: stand-up comedy from one of the oldest and most famous comedy troupes in the UK, written and performed by the current crop of graduating and postgrad students.9pm, 19 May, 2 and 16 Juneadctheatre.com/whats-on/comedy/footlights-stand-up-showcase/Marcus BrigstockeMarcus Brigstocke brings back his gap-yah posho idiot Read more ...
Veronica Lee
“There are places in India where it's safer to be a cow than a woman” is a seemingly innocuous statement, but for Indian comic Aditi Mittal it was a dangerous one to make in a comedy show. It led to her arrest after a man complained that it was offensive to Hindus (and possibly cows, who knows).Yet Mother of Invention, an energetic and engaging hour about where Mittal's feminism comes from, isn't a political show per se. It's silly and often raucous – she's upfront about her sexual life – but the low value placed on women in Indian society is an ever present underscore, and all the more Read more ...
Veronica Lee
You may have seen Lazy Susan's excellent BBC pilot last year; now a series has been commissioned from Freya Parker and Celeste Dring so we can look forward to more sketches, surreal interludes and tiptop visual gags – as well as returning characters including Northern lasses Megan and Michaela, tottering on their heels to a night out where they “don't want any drama”.In Forgive Me, Mother!, their most recent stage show, they make a slight departure from previous work as they allow their stage personas to come to the fore, while establishing a very funny narrative through their wide array Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Shappi Khorsandi's latest show, Skittish Warrior – Confessions of Club Comic, is an enjoyable look back at the stand-up's 20 years in the comedy business. She starts by taking us back to when she was child refugee; her father, a poet and satirist, offended the clerics in Iran, and was even the target of an assassination gang in London.Some of this material is familiar from previous shows, but no matter as her parents sound a hoot – although it's clear she didn't appreciate the disrupted sleep patterns she had from living in a household that was open all hours to other Iranian refuseniks and Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Since 2000, Esther Baker's Synergy Theatre Project has worked with prisoners, ex-offenders and young people at risk of offending to produce powerful dramas about some of the most fraught social situations you can imagine. The latest show, written by playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak and researched in collaboration with Prisoners Abroad, is a verbatim piece about the subject of transatlantic deportation. In the current climate of Brexit trade talks, can this show – an ideal fit for this venue – cast any light on the much-vaunted special relationship between the UK and the USA?In the American Read more ...
Hassan Abdulrazzak
You are at a party having a good time when someone gives you a glass of champagne. You take one and then another and soon the party is over. You get in the car to go home and are driving along when you see a police car in the rearview mirror: how annoying! Now you are regretting that indulgent second glass but what’s done is done. The cop gives you a breathalyzer test and you are exactly at the legal limit. The cop says you have to be below that limit, and you are arrested, charged, imprisoned and deported.This is just one of the stories in my new play, The Special Relationship, based on Read more ...