The show must go on for the trio of hapless performers in Parolin’s new production Zonder, which finds the funny side in failureContemporary dance and comedy don’t exactly go hand in hand but Ayelen Parolin is a choreographer with funny bones. In her n…
Continue ReadingHampstead theatre, LondonRichard Bean’s new play touches on ageing and alienation, care and family love, but focuses on making us laughYou might guess what kind of night you’re in for by To Have and to Hold’s fabulous opening: the first painstaking ent…
Continue ReadingA mixed bill of standups, presented by the Nanette star and due to be recorded for the streamer, is a valuable response to its Dave Chappelle controversyWhen Dave Chappelle released his Netflix special The Closer, widely condemned for its transphobia, …
Continue ReadingAs her play about toxic secrets and old friends hits the stage, the host of The Guilty Feminist podcast explains how studying Wilde and Shaw showed her the subversive power of laughterI’m a feminist, but … I went to university in 1997 and in those days…
Continue ReadingFresh from this year’s jubilant festival, I’m not the only one hoping that it has given up its addiction to growth“Ticket sales still 19% down on 2019.” “Can the Edinburgh fringe survive?” It was surprising to leave a jam-packed, jubilant festival to r…
Continue ReadingAs the curtain falls on this year’s fringe, we ask performers and producers how it was for themBy the end of the Edinburgh fringe, anyone who has been here all month will tell you how tired they are. There have been highs – after a tentative return las…
Continue ReadingBut if I’m going to watch the Britain I loved expire slowly, I’d rather do it from the top of the Royal Mile in AugustOn Monday I traversed the igneous peaks of the Pentland Hills from Edinburgh to Stratford-upon-Avon, having finished a run of my curre…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghBritt Plummer is waiting to get married to fellow clown Otto in this playful and wistful comedy Clowns at the Edinburgh fringe are proving that banana gags are far from overripe. Bill O’Neill’s pulpy sideshow The Amazing Banana Bro…
Continue ReadingOn Edinburgh fringe stages, pop is eating itself with a series of pastiches and tributes that riff on TV hits and surreal celebrity reimaginingsThis review goes out in honour of Gerard Slevin. He was the theatre director who in 1961 came up with a sugg…
Continue ReadingAssembly @ Dance Base, EdinburghBobak Champion is a storyteller who dances from one character to another in these travels between Bristol and TehranThere is a fragrant scent when you walk in the room, all senses tickled in this show that has a bit of e…
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