101 stories by "Lauren Mooney"
It isn't easy to juggle the demands of being a superhero with marriage, fatherhood and a job at B&Q. Bruntwood prize-winning writer Alistair McDowall excels in this intelligent and warml…
(2/5 Stars) Dr. Maisah Sobaihi, an academic who works at a University in Jeddah, wants to challenge our perceptions about life in Saudi Arabia. Saudi-born but American-accented, having spent…
(3/5 Stars) In this new play by Darren Richman and Garrett Millerick, a group of traffic wardens, a Police Community Support Officer and a chemist are not so much 'first against the wall whe…
(4/5 stars) This fast-paced adaptation of Stephen Kelman's acclaimed novel is the perfect showcase for its young cast's diverse range of talents. Harri, played by Daniel C. Johnson, guides t…
(2/5 Stars) London can be a vast and terrifying city for the uninitiated " but after coming down for the funeral of the father he never knew, Tom decides to stay put. Some might say that thi…
(4/5 stars) Stuart Shorter was a troubled man in so many complicated, inter-connected ways, from drug abuse to homelessness to violent episodes, that it must have been almost impossible to p…
(4/5 Stars) In a not-too-distant future, where technological advances have created total gender fluidity, people transition between sexes " referred to as “becoming New” " as man…
(2/5 stars) Children's theatre isn't easy and it's naïve to assume that a littler audience will automatically be a kinder one. Lincoln Company is about 75% of the way to a properly good k…
(1/5 stars) An angry young woman is spending New Year's Eve alone for unspecified, but presumably quite miserable, reasons. She’s oddly misanthropic when it comes to real people, but l…
(2/5 stars) Cartwheels is a play of two halves. Not temporally, in the usual way, but quite literally: the stage is divided into two separate, equal halves. On the left is the Dining Table o…
(3/5 stars) A storm in the darkness, the roar of the sea and a boy in the water: Vessel's opening moments set the tone for the physical theatre sections that return throughout, as well as th…
(4/5 posts) A few years ago, Take it Interns wouldn't have existed; it concerns a curiously modern phenomenon. The people who fought for workers' rights such as minimum wage would have been …
(4/5 Stars) Some men, as that guy in Batman once said, just want to watch the world burn; others are less keen to get in on the burning but would love to be in charge of the resultant admin.…
(4/5 stars) To say that The Pearl is a lovely show sounds reductive, like damning with faint praise. But ‘lovely’ is an underrated, over-used word that can mean moving and charmi…
(4/5 stars) Packed with ingenuity and visual brilliance, The Boy Who Kicked Pigs is a dark, inverted fairytale, sprung from the mind of Tom Baker and staged by Kill the Beast theatre company…
(3/5 stars) The title of Party Piece is kind of a misnomer: this play is not so much about the party as it is the morning after. In the opening moments, the cast cover the set with empty bot…
(3/5 stars) As a comedy of awkwardness and manners, The Babysitter shows huge promise: the young cast are confident and talented, the script punchy and quick, the setting well-established. S…
(4/5 stars) The closing moments of Ballad of the Burning Star may be among the most moving and powerful that I have ever seen. The ending is a gut-punch, a game-changer, it will make you re-…
(4/5 stars) Inari is a superhero in training and if only he could get some of his powers to work, he’d be absolutely sorted. Miserable and friendless at secondary school, he frequently…
(2/5 Stars) The opening sequence of The Secret Agent owes a little something to music hall, as Verloc, the secret agent of the title, addresses the audience in a style reminiscent of a music…
(3/5 Stars) 2013 marks the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth. To commemorate his life and works, Aldeburgh Music has commissioned current musicians to compose in his style; Conor Mitchel…
(2/5 stars) Harry Blake and Alice Keedwell have combined both their surnames and their musical talents to create Book of Blakewell, a show comprising a series of songs, sung by Keedwell, wit…
(4/5 stars) There can’t be many shows at this year’s Fringe with a madder premise than Threeway. What opens as a naturalistic comedy of manners and sexual adventure soon becomes …
3/5 stars One of the first things we must understand, according to John-Luke Roberts, is that ghosts are not light. They don’t float up flights of stairs or hover over beds, they skulk…
3/5 stars It's hard to know what to expect from Birdhouse. Taking its inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock's classic and beloved film The Birds, Jammy Voo iz concerned with a small group of wom…
