Apollo Theatre

Ryan Calais Cameron’s Retrograde is set in 1950s Hollywood, but don’t be fooled. It’s urgently present. A young Sidney Poitier is offered his breakout role; if he’ll denounce Paul Robeson, a friend and Black activist. It’s not just a loyalty oath. It’s a loyalty test. And like all real tests under capitalism, it’s not about talent; it’s about compliance.

Harold Pinter Theatre

And still, a few weeks after seeing this play, I’m not just thinking of the characters; I’m thinking of the real women I’ve known. The ones who scrubbed and wept and laughed and stitched their lives out of whatever was at hand. I thought of my mother, still caring. My aunties, still holding the line. I thought of how little space the world gives their stories, and how essential it is to write them, to speak them, to stage them..

Sadler’s Wells

In one instant, performers splash water joyfully, seeming to revel in their own sense of liberation. In the next moment, they appear isolated and contemplative, grappling with vulnerability and the need for connection. A reminder of how life can be at once exhilarating and overwhelming, how something beautiful can also bring chaos.

Sadler’s Wells East

Their movement feels instinctive yet otherworldly, stripping away the intellectual elitism that often surrounds contemporary dance. No need to “get it”—just feel it. In a time of constant noise and pressure, the show felt like a rare invitation to pause, let go, and reconnect with something beyond the chaos. If you need a reset, this is it.

Peacock Theatre

A show that turns climate catastrophe into absurd, deeply human spectacle. The Belgian theatre collectives Chaliwaté and Focus strip away statistics and slogans, offering instead a surreal, darkly comic vision of a world unraveling in slow motion. No speeches, no villains; just ordinary people carrying on as if nothing is happening while the walls around them collapse.

Charing Cross Theatre

Mrs President presents itself as a bold reclamation of Mary Todd Lincoln’s story, yet it ultimately reinforces the very inequities it claims to challenge. Beneath its historical framing lies a self-indulgent spectacle, where unchecked privilege overshadows depth, and artificial grandeur masks a lack of real substance.

Kiln Theatre

A visceral exploration of migration, exclusion, and resilience, this production is as urgent now as ever. It strips history down to its rawest truths, mirroring today’s hostile immigration debates and the relentless struggle for belonging.

Young Vic Theatre

The Young Vic's new production of The Little Foxes—Lillian Hellman's 1939 play about a greedy Southern family tearing itself apart—is being praised as a bold takedown of capitalism and exploitation.

But watching it, I couldn't help noticing how the production seems tailored to avoid truly challenging its audience.

Royal Court Theatre

The play transforms Sutara Gayle's personal journey into a riveting meditation on identity and resistance.

National Theatre

Max Webster's production isn't content with mere wit; it excavates the raw humanity beneath Wilde's satirical surface.

Kiln Theatre

The Purists dives boldly into the complexities of race, sexuality, and identity, particularly within hip-hop culture. It challenges toxic masculinity and explores underrepresented topics like age and intimacy in queer lives, while also addressing the nuanced intersections of masculinity and suppressed sexual identity.

Battersea Arts Centre

Through fight choreography that repeats, resets, and lingers on the aftermath, Chillingsworth doesn’t merely entertain or disturb; they confront us with an image, one splattered with the blood we so readily consume, and force us to recognize ourselves within it.

National Theatre

This play took me right into the heart of grief. Inspired by Antigone, it follows Annie’s defiant return home to protect her father’s ashes, clashing with her uncle’s wish to move on. But this story is less about the ashes and more about the raw, chaotic emotions loss brings to the surface.

Duke of York’s Theatre

Watching Barcelona by Bess Wohl, now playing in London, was an experience filled with dual emotions—a blend of intrigue for its premise and frustration for what felt like a missed opportunity for deeper exploration.