Rosa Garland: Primal Bog review – a slippery dive into desire with live tattooing

Soho theatre, LondonFearlessly provocative and covered in gunk, Garland delivers a wild and elusive show about queerness and carnality‘It’s divisive.” Well, you’d think so, a “kink performance art” clown show with nudity, bodily fluids, worms and, er, …

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The best theatre to stream this month: a decade of Dom Coyote’s spellbinding stage music

The composer’s new album features tracks from Hamlet and Everyman, while The Importance of Being Earnest with Ncuti Gatwa has a free week on YouTubeDom Coyote says “electronics, acoustics, voice and story collide” in his compositions for theatre. His n…

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The best theatre to stream this month: a decade of Dom Coyote’s spellbinding stage music

The composer’s new album features tracks from Hamlet and Everyman, while The Importance of Being Earnest with Ncuti Gatwa has a free week on YouTubeDom Coyote says “electronics, acoustics, voice and story collide” in his compositions for theatre. His n…

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Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door review – in search of Macca’s Mull of Kintyre hideaway

Òran Mór, GlasgowAn anecdote about a trip to find Paul McCartney’s Scottish retreat turns into a sweet-natured two-handerMilly Sweeney is a young writer gaining traction. Staged in Pitlochry last year, her play Water Colour, about the changing states o…

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Palestine Comedy Club review – roving performance collective finds light in darkness

This portrait of a multi-ethnic comic troupe could do with more unpicking, but its reflections on the grind of war, life on the road and the reactive nature of comedy are insightfulIt must surely, sometimes, seem to everyone involved that the name shou…

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Mike Wozniak: ‘An RAF officer didn’t like my sketch about the Queen Mum so he set off the fire alarm’

The comedian on non-verbal heckles, one-legged dancing before gigs and his new show about benchesWhy did you get into comedy?I was told the only copy of a map to the lost, golden city of Paititi was hidden in the green-room toilet (ie, sink) of a UK co…

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Maria Bamford review – an unflinching comedian in complete command of every joke and every step

Soho Theatre Walthamstow, LondonShe draws us in with bursts of manic physical expression and never stops poking fun at her own quirks and compulsions‘Why did Americans decide to elect a dictator for a second time?” a freshly post-somersaulted Maria Bam…

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‘OK, talk, but don’t make any sound!’: Philippe Gaulier’s illustrious students on his clowning glory

Comedians, theatre-makers and actors including Rachel Weisz, Sally Phillips and Simon Munnery recall the late teacher’s alarming lessonsPhilippe Gaulier, clown guru, dies aged 82Louise Brealey Continue reading…

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‘Oh my God, what a brutal existence!’ Haley McGee on her global hit about growing old (and white pubic hair)

The Canadian performer visited hospices, mystics and cemeteries to research Age Is a Feeling. The show, which has now been performed in 10 languages, has reduced men in their 70s to tearsIt is the summer of 2024 and Haley McGee is performing Age Is a F…

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Josh Sharp: ta-da! review – 2,000 slides and one ‘weenie massage’ in a show that’s big on laughs

Soho theatre, LondonThe former child magician from New York combines PowerPoint and personal trauma in an off-Broadway import that packs a considerable punchTwo species of modern standup jostle for pre-eminence in Josh Sharp’s hit off-Broadway import t…

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