★★★★Into The Unknown

Simon Ward reviews A Beginner’s Guide To Widowhood at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre Created by Omar Khan, based on his mother Nancy’s story, and written by Rae Mainwaring, this one woman…

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★★★Vanilla Ice

Simon Ward reviews Beige at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre Written by Jessica Nlabu, who also plays Joy, this feels like an all-too realistic insight into what it must be like to be a performer today…

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★★★★Working Class Heroes

Simon Ward reviews Sunrise For The Blind at the Cockpit Theatre Written by Lee Lomas, who also plays Nathan, the lynchpin around whom the story evolves, although it is very much an ensemble piece. …

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★★★★Agoraphobia Blues

Simon Ward reviews The Whisper Comes Before The Plant at the Hen and Chickens Theatre Nia Braidford’s new play, in which she also plays the role of Faith, is an ambitious and compelling explo…

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★★★The Appearance of Reality

Simon Ward reviews I’m A Philosopher Why The #@$% Am I Here? It is a very funny premise for a comedy show. Take a bunch of philosophers, whose stock in trade is to unpick the differences betw…

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★★★Maybe Baby

Simon Ward reviews Baby Brain at the Bridewell Theatre I have done a few reviews over the years where the subject matter is so much more important than my opinion of the show that it feels almost i…

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★★★Oh No! London Has Fallen

Simon Ward reviews Londongrad :Tech Takeover at the Courtyard Theatre One has to feel for political satirists writing in the current febrile climate. No sooner has one scandal broken than there is …

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★★★★Giggling In Church

Simon Ward reviews Pews At Ten at the Hope Theatre The tiny city of St David’s or Tyddewi in Wales, has a population of well under two thousand, but is home to a rather splendid cathedral. An…

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★★★Near-Death Experience

Simon Ward reviews This Year I Am Going To Die at the Hen and Chickens Theatre As this one man show begins, the audience are attendees at the funeral of Jojo (Jonas Feind). He is prostrate on the f…

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★★Sound and Fury

Simon Ward reviews Philosophy of the World at the Yard Theatre The newly refurbished Yard Theatre re-opens with a show that was a big hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe – Philosophy of…

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★★★★Intimately Effective

Simon Ward reviews The Effect at the Old Red Lion Theatre Many people, your reviewer included, will have seen writer Lucy Prebble’s The Effect during one of its runs at the National Theatre. …

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★★★Utterly Bananas

Simon Ward reviews -320°F at Sadler’s Wells Theatre This is an all-out assault on the senses which it is all but impossible to sensibly review without some grounding in Japanese theatrical cu…

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★★Truth Or Dare?

Simon Ward reviews Persona at the King’s Head Theatre Another day, another play set in a posh-dinner-party-gone-wrong, see last month’s ★★★Dinner Party From Hell for details. There must…

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★★★★★All You Need Is Love

Simon Ward reviews Love’s Labour’s Lost in Charterhouse Square, London EC1 There is something undeniably magical about seeing Shakespeare performed in the open air on a summer’s e…

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★★★★Joyous Epiphany

Simon Ward reviews Watershed at Playhouse East Emma Hickman’s witty play shares some ideas with movies like The Truman Show and The Lego Movie – the world presented here is carefully ch…

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★★★Dinner Party From Hell

SImon Ward reviews Are You There Moriarty? at Playhouse East Running as part of a double bill with Watershed at Playhouse East, which looks like a flat-roofed pub repurposed as a cafe/bar with a th…

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★★★★Enduring Solidarity

Simon Ward reviews Kaddish (How To Be A Sanctuary) at the Old Red Lion Theatre Following an award-winning run at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, Sam Sherman brings this deeply personal play t…

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★★★Lost Loves

Simon Ward reviews Poison at The Cockpit Theatre The setting of Poison, written by Dutch playwright Lot Vekemans and here translated by Rina Vergano, seems to be set in continental Europe. The fact…

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★★★Stage Fright

Simon Ward reviews Player at the Riverside Studios If Matthew Lyon’s new play has a distinctly Berkoffian look and feel, that is hardly surprising as Lyon explicitly credits Steven Berkoff&#8…

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★★★★Your Worst Nightmare?

Simon Ward reviews Dreamweavers at the Free Association The Free Association is a new comedy club nestling under the Waterloo arches right next to the Union Theatre, adding to the burgeoning list o…

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★★★★★Flushed With Success

Simon Ward reviews FLUSH at the Arcola Theatre Writer and performer April Hope Miller and director Merle Wheldon bring their 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival hit, FLUSH, to the Arcola for a month-lon…

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★★★★End of the World Camp Caper

Simon Ward reviews Stanislavski Can’t Save Me from the Apocalypse at the Barons Court Theatre Written and directed by Maggie Dickinson, Stanislavski Can’t Save Me from the Apocalypse is a dark…

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★★★Heart of the Matter

Simon Ward reviews Core Values at the Hen and Chickens Theatre Written and directed by co-star Alice Dempsey, Core Values is a series of vignettes – snapshots and brief scenes to provide insi…

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★★★★Nobody’s Heroes

Simon Ward reviews Howie The Rookie at The Cockpit Mark O’Rowe’s multi-award winning 1999 play, Howie The Rookie, is brought to the very freshly refurbished Cockpit under the direction …

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★★★★Life Imitates Artifice

Simon Ward reviews The Sequel at the King’s Head Theatre Lucas Closs’s new comedy-drama The Sequel is a hugely entertaining extended riff on what it means to be a writer and what any wr…

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★★★★Small Victory, Big Heart

Simon Ward reviews The Witch and The Whistleblower at The Glitch With all due respect to modern-day followers of Wicca, we would normally associate witches with either fairytales or the distant pas…

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★★★★A Beautiful Tribute

Simon Ward reviews Fickle Eulogy at the Circle & Star Theatre I first encountered Nikol Kollars’s solo show, directed by Javier Galitó-Cava, in August last year (The Long Goodbye). I foun…

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★★★Flashback To Edinburgh

Simon Ward reviews Rowling In It at the King’s Head Theatre Written and performed by Laura Kay Bailey, and directed by Dominic Shaw, Rowling In It is a fictionalised account of what she exper…

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★★★Stuck In The Middle

Simon Ward reviews Concrete at the Hope Theatre Written and directed by Ché Tligui, Concrete is framed as a classic drawing room drama, but with a working class twist, such that the ‘drawing …

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★★★★An Urgent Wake-Up Call

Simon Ward reviews Lifeline at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant Fresh from a run off-Broadway, Lifeline comes to the Southwark Playhouse for the its UK premiere. In various guises it has been aroun…

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