The writer of the acclaimed Patricia Gets Ready… returns with a lockdown-inspired comedy drama about a drug dealer having a power cutThe trigger for a play can be many things: a moral dilemma or a political event, a true-life story or a misheard anecdo…
Continue ReadingThe standup has successfully used laughter as a balm, creating a safe space for himself and the audience to engage with this most difficult of subjectsThe death of a loved one. It’s the least funny thing in the world, right? Try telling that to Sam Mor…
Continue ReadingAs she tours her latest show, the sanguine standup talks about trolls, deafness and finding joy through performingAs a BBC regular Angela Barnes is used to triggering the anti-Auntie trolls, be it her political views, voice, appearance or – in one biza…
Continue ReadingPleasance theatre, LondonA doctor himself, the standup delivers breezy tales along with on-the-nose points on how black medics are viewedAll standups operating in the space between medicine and comedy now do so in the shadow of Adam Kay’s all-conquerin…
Continue ReadingUplifting documentary allows its funny, flawed and likable subject to tell the poignant story of how she came to realise who she wasIn 2016, the comedian Julia Scotti auditioned for America’s Got Talent and brought the house down. Once the applause had…
Continue ReadingNot Dead Yet addresses the return of Godley’s ovarian cancer. But mostly it is a celebratory farewell from a performer who has welcomed the crowd into her remarkable lifeNot Dead Yet is Janey Godley’s last tour, she has announced. She was diagnosed wit…
Continue ReadingRich Hardisty cut himself, Harriet Dyer numbed her pain with drugs. A new wave of comics are working out their issues in their acts. But is it really helping them? And should we be laughing?The first and maybe only rule of comedy is that it has to be f…
Continue ReadingThe Vaults, LondonKatie Arnstein’s captivating show about her mum’s treatment for cancer lies somewhere between storytelling and standupThe crowd carries you along in a marathon, says Katie Arnstein towards the end of this winning show about family and…
Continue ReadingHer cat-tastic stage show is a riff on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical that swerves into emotionally raw territory. The Edinburgh fringe sensation talks about trauma, taboos and the importance of being disgustingWas there ever a cat so clever? Move over …
Continue ReadingJoke by joke, standup sensation Sherihan El Hadwa is challenging lazy stereotypes about victimhoodOn a small stage in Tulkarm, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank, Sherihan El Hadwa emerges from the wings to a Palestinian pop song. Dancing an…
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