Oliver Simmonds

Surprisingly perceptive, Greg Wohead’s work is an overall tender analysis of a cynical moment in pop history. This tenderness is crucial, as what Comeback Special could so easily be—and does slip into sporadically—is a easy deconstruction of low-hanging fruit. Elvis Presley’s ‘68 Comeback Special was a TV performance of the fabled singer’s greatest hits, orchestrated […]

  Oliver Simmonds

It is always stimulating to see drama from an area that British theatre usually does not touch. Post-apartheid South Africa is perfect center for such drama, investigating the tension between what was fought for and what is. Mongiwekhaya has used this tension to create I See You, a play that has much to say and […]

  Oliver Simmonds

I liken this play to violent videos available on the internet: they are tempting to watch, may be objects of temporary immersion, yet they are ultimately unedifying. They instill little in us other than a general contempt, for their structure and perspective are highly objective and therefore contrast rather soullessly to the personal and spiritual […]

  Oliver Simmonds

A partial standing ovation followed the press night of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing and that is what it deserves, for this one-woman performance is almost a triumph. It is the story of a maturing Girl (Aoife Duffin) in priggish 20th-century Ireland; however, it is a botched bildungsroman, for we witness her uncle’s sexual […]

  Oliver Simmonds

Daniel Foxsmith’s new play gives up plot in the pursuit of character relationships, and unfortunately the two are more connected than one would like to think. Weald, presented by Snuff Box Theatre, simultaneously generates decent insights into a forgotten lifestyle while having little to make of narrative tension. The two-hander concerns Jim, a mid-twenties runaway […]

  Oliver Simmonds

Started in May 2015, London is MyTheatre’s youngest branch. We have only six months and sixty-three reviews under our belt yet, even without a full year to cover, there’s been so much going on in London since May that we had plenty to choose from when it came time to join the My Entertainment World […]

  Oliver Simmonds

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s latest drama does not need its constant extremes—its actors are accomplished enough that they could make any scenario something exceptional. Myanna Burling and Laura Donnelly deliver realistic performances not only through the play’s dialogue, but also in spite of it. The Wasp is class conflict at its heart: the audience sees wealthy […]

  Oliver Simmonds

Mia Chung’s original work is good at provoking feeling although it does this at the cost of character. Set in the modern day, You For Me For You is the story of two sisters, Minhee (Wendy Kweh) and Junhee (Katie Leung), the latter of whom escapes from her home country of North Korea while the […]