103 stories by "Veronica Aloess"
Facehunters is mental. It’s a proper rave, The Hungry Bitches (yes that is the company name) know how to party – the floor was vibrating at one point. Not even Rock of Ages manag…
I’ve seen three of Fourth Monkey repertory shows now, and this is my favourite. The Elephant Man is a real story about Joseph Merrick, a man cursed with a severe disfigurement. Joseph …
Veronica Aloess speaks to ex-marine Cassidy Little, who has learnt to walk again while taking part in this rehabilitation project for wounded, injured and sick armed services personnel.
Do you get the title? Boo Lingerie " boulangerie " get it? I think it’s brilliant because it sort of embodies what the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre (now there’s a mouthf…
Is there such a thing as ordered chaos? Because I think Fourth Monkey’s off-West End nominated production of 4.48 Psychosis is it. Most theatregoers will be familiar with Sarah Kane…
I find this a very difficult play to review. All plays have something which ties them to reality, however far they seem from it. But The Two Worlds of Charlie F is as close to reality theatr…
Fourth Monkey Theatre Company have a reputation for working with classical content. With Natalie Katson’s script and direction, the Greek myth of the Minotaur is innovatively delivered…
Keogh explores the highs and lows of the industry in the wake of his performance in Ridley's Mercury Fur at the Trafalgar Studios.
My high hopes rapidly descended for this opera. The Wolves Descend is advertised to promise something gothic and sinister, but instead it spirals into farce. The cheesily named 'The House of…
The Rover: sponsored by Ann Summers. Is it not? Woops. Well, it most definitely should be with this X-rated production from Artluxe. Artluxe most definitely embrace the bawdiness of the Rest…
Hamlet is arguably the most popular play in the world. A prequel was always going to divide opinion. Some may say that writing a prequel is a form of treason. But I can't see how this interp…
The last shows of the Connections Festival are both drawn from stories we know by heart: Hamlet, and in this show: Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. This story has been told by traditiona…
Socialism is Great is not a show for young actors, it's a show for the world. It is played by the young theatre company Group 64 with as much strength as any professional adult company could…
The programme describes Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me as “a chilling psychological drama”. I wouldn't go that far, but am impressed by the complex way in which writer Hilary Bell …
The Fix (written by John Dempsey and composed by Dana P.Rowe) hasn't had many revivals since its premiere at the Donmar Warehouse in 1997, and that's a real shame. This musical is catchy as …
Shakespeare gets in your head, according to Michael Lesslie, whose Hamlet prequel, Prince of Denmark, plays at the National as part of NT Connections this week. He tells us more.
There's a moment in Tender Napalm " one of many " when your stomach clenches, and the friend I came along with droped all pretensions and had to clutch my hand for support. This is the typic…
MEAT is a play that takes a while to get your teeth into, but once you do, it's tough content to chew. With the first physical confrontation, the initial humdrum kitchen sink drama it's dres…
Sitting back in the comfy, cosy Criterion Theatre as the lights go down, I can't help but already feel a sense of contentment wash over me. Through these late night staged readings, Stories …
A beast, by definition, is something with more animal than human characteristics: it's savage and instinctive. It will rip you to pieces. This play doesn't do that. Natasha Pryce's direction…
Deep down in a World War II bunker in Dalston, I sit down at the last supper and become a part of the greatest story ever told. Steven Berkoff's The Messiah is an interpretation of the last …
The Irish Giant tackles the age-old rivalry between science and religion, focusing upon the question of whether or not man has a soul: a mighty problem for this little cast. This is explored…
Forgive my ignorance of a genre which was at its pinnacle two centuries ago, but I have never experienced music hall, the genre which The Mystery of Edwin Drood resurrects to celebrate  D…
Jekyll and Hyde is a favourite musical for a lot of people, including myself, so it's a brave move to take something so firmly set in the Victorian era and bring it into the twenty-first …
Brimstone and Treacle is arguably not so controversial now as when it was originally written for TV in 1976 (but still wasn't screened until ten years later as the Director of Programmes tho…
