London theatre reviews

Polish sci-fi legend Stanisław Lem always grumbled about how the film adaptations of his masterpiece ‘Solaris’ – that’s Tarkovsky in 1972 and Soderbergh in 2002 – ultimately failed to convey the sense that the eponymous sentient planet was story’s main character…

Sabrina Mahfouz’s new play is a ‘gig-lecture’. Meaning, it’s a blend of Ted Talk-style rundowns of Middle Eastern history with segments of song, spoken word poetry and live music, varying from traditional Arabic instruments and electronics to rave and drum and bass…

‘Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats’ transfers to Soho Theatre in October 2019. Like a pair of younger, drunker Louis Therouxs, Becca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole – aka Sh!t Theatre – have a habit of stumbling into situations…

In Richard Gadd’s Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning stand up show ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’, he carefully buried the lede, only revealing towards the end that as a younger man he’d been groomed and sexually abused…

The members of Mischief Theatre could presumably have all retired at 30 on the proceeds of their sleeper smash ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’, the sparky backstage farce that’s been ensconced in the West End for five years…

Alexander Mackendrick’s 1951 film about a chemist in a northern mill town who invents an indestructible fabric is a strange piece of atmospheric post-war gothic…

‘Mephisto [A Rhapsody]’ is probably the most out-and-out fun I’ve had at the Gate in yonks, in large part thanks to a wondrous central performance from Leo Bill as Aymeric…

Anansi the trickster spider went global a long time ago. But Justin Audibert’s inaugural production in charge of the Unicorn takes folklore’s most famous arachnid right back to his roots…

British theatre seems strangely prone to staging talky American exports looking at racism and privilege in their education system…

‘Rwanda is where God goes on holiday’, a local cleric tells a visiting official from the Vatican. The saying rings true in more ways than one in ‘Our Lady of Kibeho’…