Reviews

Alan Bennett’s 1991 part history lesson, part comedy is a curious beast that may well owe its popularity and awards to the performance of the character of King George himself.  Here the title role is played by Mark Gatiss (possibly most familiar to audiences via his role as Mycroft Holmes in the television series Sherlock, of which he is also co-creator).  Mr Gatiss’ performance is truly astonishing: a sustained tour de force, he gives us a character who is eccentric, embarrassing but somehow – and so importantly – admirable and endearing, and then

House of Dracula, billed as “A Monster Hit”, is a romp of a show that gathers your favourite characters from gothic literature in an unlikely situation and ties it all together with a collection of campy hijinks and gags.

Like West Side Story and its original inspiration, Puccini’s La Bohème, Rent doesn’t date.  Despite its specificity – 1996, East Village, New York, the aspirations of the characters, and the persisting stigma and threat of the scourge of AIDS – audiences respond as if the story were yesterday.  The depiction of LGBTQI characters is more ‘acceptable’ to the mainstream, but AIDS isn’t ‘over’, and the show’s themes are as contemporary as ever: loyalty, friendship, the search for and risks of

The WonderWombs is performed by an all-female troupe, The Dust Palace, who hail from New Zealand. Established by circus and physical theatre aficionados, Eve Gordon and Mike Edward, they have been performing together for nearly 10 years. The WonderWombs starts as a kind of cabaret with a difference – this being the Wonderland Festival, it is a definite difference. With wicked Kiwi humour, the host introducing the show is a man in a suit – well, a pregnant Jess Holey Bates (who also directs) playing a man in a suit, an MC stuck for words.