In The Sick Of It

The National Health Service has been a significant part of the British national, social and political consciousness when it was first established in 1948. Since then, budget cuts, privatization, staff shortages, long waiting lists, underpayment of staff and the COVID-19 pandemic has knocked it off its footing. Wake The Beast’s In The Sick Of It is a verbatim theatre piece devised from interviews with NHS staff across different departments, about their experiences working for the NHS.  

Grace Campbell Is On Heat

There is a catharsis in watching comedy, to watching live performance. Grace Campbell Is On Heat is one such show, where her compelling storytelling and performance drives this hour, where she opens up and reflects about her experience having an abortion, the process and the aftermath that she was left to deal with. 

Rachel Fairburn: Side-Eye

It’s hard to know what to expect from character comedy, but there’s something about Rachel Fairburn’s Side-Eye that is just really satisfying to watch. Maybe it’s the gossip, maybe it’s the drama, maybe it’s just watching some terrible people be terrible, who knows, but Fairburn’s writing and development of these characters is exquisite. 

Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party

Nuclear power has never had a better soundtrack than with Elastic Fantastic’s Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party, where activism, hedonism and techno meet. Written and performed by Jack Mace, Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party is a rollercoaster of a story. 

Alex Prescot: I’ve Got A Song About That

They say the early bird gets the worm, and the worm in this case is Alex Prescot’s I've Got a Song About That, an absolutely delightful, light stand-up show full of music, laughter and good times where he proves that he absolutely does have a song about just about anything.

Kevin James Doyle: After Endgame

Kevin James Doyle’s After Endgame is a humorous storytelling show, where he centers a personal anecdote from which all his tangents and chess lessons spring from (as well as some insight into statistics).

Pierre Novellie: Must We?

In Pierre Novellie’s Must We? we are once more treated to an acerbic dissection of societal phenomena, which is then mixed in with the odd deprecating observation. Novellie has a way of raising flags about things in a way that makes us consider them from a new angle that means we will never look at that object or consider something the same way again.

Steve Bugeja: Self Doubt (I Think)

Steve Bugeja’s Self Doubt (I Think) is a perfect piece of character comedy which uses an anecdotal structure to bookend a filling of observationist humor, creating multiple layers and sources of humor and general comedic possibility. 

Iain Stirling: Relevant

Iain Stirling’s Relevant laces its evocation of nostalgia with a kind of intense, good-natured self and general deprecation. Accidental nostalgia must come with the territory when you’re a beloved children’s tv show presenter, but with Stirling it’s different. It’s not nostalgic like watching Friends 30 years later, but more in line with watching a comedic talent that is still consistently and effortlessly funny no matter how much time has passed since you last saw him that brings a lot of joy.

Little Shop of Horrors

Staging a classic is not an easy task. It comes with the expectation of novelty, of bringing to light another angle, to be edgy, to say something new about the themes or the issues. The Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group’s Little Shop of Horrors takes Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s musical is an incredible show on its own merits, but we can't help feel that there are some missed opportunities here. Tom Beazley and Amy Stinton have created a very gritty show that is fully focused on its critique of the American Dream, but we are really left to make our own connections to how these ideas manifest in the present day ourselves. 

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