Guidelines at The New Diorama

Guidelines at the New Diorama Theatre, tucked away in the business district off Hampstead Road near Euston, was really good tonight. It was part performance art, part theatre and designed to challenge us about our algorithm fuelled world and the real implications of that on young minds in particular. The sound effects, soundtrack and lighting were particularly impressive for such a small venue and the performances from the two actors were fantastic... Strong delivery from both of them, great movement and coordination. The staging was strong too and gave me Kenrex vibes (although not as ambitious as Kenrex).

I'm still debating the ending in my head. It didn't quite land for me but the whole thing is giving me pause for thought and as such, means the play has done its job.

It was billed as scary, but it's more absurdist thriller than horror and there's no gore or disturbing visuals to worry about, but there are disturbing themes. There was plenty of atmosphere through the impressive soundscapes. 

There's much to applaud about this hour of experimental theatre. If you're looking for something a bit different that has something to say about the dystopian side of our internet culture, this will fit the bill.

Recommended.

Booking until 14/2 

https://newdiorama.com/whats-on/guidelines Both shows on Saturday are "pay what you can".

Writer - Pip Williams 

Director - James Nash

Sound Designer - Patch Middleton 

Lighting Designer - Adi Currie

Movement Director - Ken Nakajima

Producer - Moya Matthews

Dramaturg - Louise Irwin

Facilitator - Alessandra Zavagno

Opening Composition and vocalist - AJ Turner

Consultant Producer - Ella Dale

Stage Manager Sam Thornton 

Young Makers - Eva Martin-Smith, Abdullahi Ahmed Ibrahim, Rue Millwood & Mya Patel

Cast - Rachel-Leah Hosker and Alex McCauley 

My year in theatre - 2025

The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London

I've seen more shows in one year than most people see in a lifetime and my life is all the richer for it. I don't read many books (I never have) so my exposure to new ideas is primarily through theatre and I'm as happy seeing a West End blockbuster as a fringe gem. I'm also happy to try new formats and genres, although I'm still on the fence with 'immersive' theatre but I'll keep trying. I've reviewed a number of shows this year and I'm slowly adding all the ones with my name on them to my blog (I've ghost written and co-written a few as well but am not credited).

Anyway, this is a summary of my year in theatre:

163 shows seen (not including concerts)

Most visited venue - The National Theatre (where I'll be again next week watching Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves in End) but fringe venues also get a decent look-in. 

My smallest venue was the etcetera theatre in Camden with just 42 seats and the biggest, the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith with over 3,000. The Museum of Comedy was a newly discovered gem - a lovely, intimate,, basement venue in Bloomsbury.

About a third of what I see are musicals. I thought it would have been more than that as I do love a good musical.

January and April were my busiest months with 20 and 22 shows seen respectively. November was my quietest month with only 8 shows, but that was down to being away for work for half the month.

And I've even ventured out of London to see a couple of things (must make more of an effort for out-of-London trips next year)

So what's been good, what's been not good and what am I looking forward to in 2026...

Plays: 

1. Punch (Young Vic/West End) (hard hitting, emotional, great writing and a true story from my favourite contemporary playwright, James Graham - a schools tour is coming soon)

2. Kenrex at The Other Palace (booking until end Jan) (I was riveted throughout. Just wow. Also based on a true story)

3. Much Ado About Nothing at Drury Lane  (About the most perfect version of any Shakespeare play I've ever seen and supersedes my previous favourite, The Bridge Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream)

Honourable mentions: Kyoto (RSC), Til The Stars Come Down (National), Dear England (National)

Musicals:

1. Just for One Day (booking until February at The Shaftesbury Theatre) - it's a great retelling of an important part of modern cultural history with fantastic music. I've seen it three times!

2. Evita - Jamie Lloyd did what he does best with Evita. He threw all his motifs at it, but they all worked. Rachel Zegler and Diego Rodriguez were fabulous in the lead roles. I also saw the balcony scene twice which was also wonderful.

3. The Producers (booking until at least the Spring) - fast-paced and utterly hilarious. I laughed so much that the next day it felt like I'd done a workout!

Honourable mentions: Shucked (Regents Park), London Road (National), Oliver (Simon Lipkin makes a great Fagin in this faithful restaging of the familiar story and it's booking for 12 months-ish so it's doing well) and Tina Turner (now on tour)

Off West End /Fringe

1. Murmuration Level 2 at The Peacock theatre was a clever and beautiful dance production. The cast moved as one organism. Quite something to behold. You can find out more about them here.

2. Dimanche was gorgeous with wonderful puppetry and movement and was part of the annual MimeLondon season (there were many treats as part of the festival such as Moby Dick and Manekine).

3. Sing Street was a lot of fun with youthful energy and great music (I hear rumours of a West End transfer)

Honourable mentions: Salty Brine (Soho Theatre), Tones A Hip Hop Opera by Gerel Falconer at Brixton House, In The Dark (back in the Spring with new immersive music experiences), Ada Campe's Behind The Nightlight (who has a show coming up at Crazy Coqs soon)

Worst show

1. Bacchanalia at Hoxton was not a good experience, not least witnessing some punters and their sordid voyeurism leering at the young cast. Even without that, it summed up everything I dislike about the 'immersive' genre. 

2. Bettie Page (the musical) - good idea in principal but poorly executed. There is a story in there to be told but this version wasn't it. 

3. Stiletto was one of those that looked good on paper and had high production values - the set and costumes were lush with a good band and one of the largest casts I've seen at Charing Cross Theatre. However, this musical lurched back and forth between drama and parody and ended up being neither. And it was so overblown. And why is no-one talking about the 'Thriller' style zombie dance? What on earth was that about? And why wasn't there a counter-tenor on stage? I know they're not that common, but they do exist.

(Dis)honourable mentions: Salome, Saving Mozart 

Overall favourites 

1. Punch

2. Kenrex

3. Just for One Day

Most looking forward to:

1 Paddington - I have my ticket but it's months and months away!

2. Something Rotten - I saw the concert version with Jason Manford and Richard Fleeshman in the leading roles and can't wait to see them again.

3. Waitress - I've never seen the whole thing, only clips on YouTube and I love the song She Used To Be Mine so I'm looking forward to catching it on tour.

4. Avenue Q - I never saw it in the West End but know some of the songs which are so funny.

5. Cats - I never saw it back in the day but know all the songs and I need to expunge the dreadful movie version with something (hopefully) much better from Drew Maconie at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.

Interview at Riverside Studios

I was lucky enough to be asked to press night to see Interview starring Robert Sean Leonard and Paten Hughes and I was genuinely excited - it's an interesting premise, has a strong pedigree from the creative team and a highly relevant topic, especially in today's climate of cancel culture and the battle between not just Boomers / Generation X and GenZ but also old vs new media and gives an insight into the world of a modern-day 'influencer'. 

Although there was much to like about the play: The set is great. I loved the visuals. The music maintained the tension and there were some great moments. However, the production overall didn't quite hang together for me. 

It's still worth a watch because the topic will give you pause for thought if you have even the slightest interest in culture, politics or media. And if I were to give it a star rating, it would be 3*. (Arguably, it will be better now that they're a bit further into the limited run.)

You can read my full review over on 1883 Magazine. I saw the show on 28 August 2025.

One of the best things about the night were the people I met there and got talking to. Not only were two good friends there who are also active theatre reviewers, but I also made two new friends. Gotta love the theatre for bringing people together. And thank you to the PR team for the complimentary ticket.

Till The Stars Come Down at Theatre Royal, Haymarket

I first saw Till The Stars Come Down by Beth Steel at The Dorfman. I watched it on the last weekend where I'd managed to buy a single ticket, in, possibly, one of the worst seats in the house! I'm usually better organised when buying tickets at The National Theatre but this one had slipped through my fingers.

Despite the frustration of having a head in front of me blocking my view half of the time, I was still totally rapt throughout. It's exciting writing, refreshing to hear new voices on stage and a poignant story. Therefore, I was absolutely delighted to be invited to see the show again and to review it on behalf of 1883 Magazine. 

It still hits the spot - hilarious and thought-provoking in equal measure. I missed the intimacy of the setting in The Dorfman, but that's a minor niggle rather than a complaint so if you do go and see it (and I recommend you do), then try to get one of the on-stage seats where you will get to experience that better than from a seat further away. 

Recommended. Booking until 27 September.

My full review is over on 1883 Magazine. Show seen on 11 July 2025. Thank you to the PR for the complimentary tickets.

City of Floating Sounds by Huang Ruo and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Southbank Centre

You're going to pique my interest immediately when you have a performance that combines mobile technology with art, music or theatre. I've been working in mobile technology for 25 years and I love to see and experience new ways of using existing technologies in an effective, interesting, useful or unusual way. So when I saw the following blurb, you can imagine I was interested to know more:

"Picture the scene: dozens of strangers meet at select locations around London and walk through the city together, playing different strands of Huang Ruo’s City of Floating Sounds out loud from a bespoke app,creating a full symphony as they go. Sound intriguing? Grab your phone and some comfy shoes and join a moving orchestra!"

I rallied a few friends, organised our tickets and we met on a gorgeous, sunny, warm evening at Victoria Embankment Gardens and joined the crowd to form this so-called moving orchestra. The weather could not have been better for it. I can't imagine it would be much fun in the rain. We set off in a somewhat higgledy piggledy fashion along the north bank. We weren't given any instructions although there were clearly visible Southbank reps on hand. A QR code with a link to download the app would have been useful. A reminder that the sound would be better if we stayed closer together (after all, each phone was playing a different sound) and that you needed to have your volume on full and your screen on low to conserve battery power would have been helpful. As we walked along the road to Embankment Gardens, it was hard to hear any music due to traffic noises, other pedestrians and lots of chatting amongst ourselves. Maybe that's the point that we just heard snippets at this point as we adjusted to the immersive nature of the experience. 

Once we hit the gardens, the experience was infinitely better. We had more critical mass in terms of people together and there was much less traffic noise to contend with. It was also really fun to walk past bemused people in the park wondering what it was that they were witnessing. Some paid no attention whatsoever and carried on with their conversations, phone calls and doom scrolling but others were really intrigued and were watching us quite intently. 

As we headed towards Hungerford Bridge, we lost critical mass again as people dispersed across the bridge at different speeds. This was a shame, but my group did get talking to passers by to explain what it was they were witnessing. At the culmination in front of the Southbank, the sound grew. There were large speakers on the terrace, and the sound grew as people arrived. However, many people turned the app off or put their phones away once they arrived at the Southbank which was a shame. Our phones were still playing different things, and if more people had kept their phones out playing the music, the experience would have been better. Again, signage, a QR code and encouraging those milling around the Southbank to join in might have been good.

After a short break, we headed into the concert itself, where we enjoyed a full, live orchestra performance of the piece by composer Huang Ruo. We also heard two shorter pieces by Advaith Jagannath and Arvo Part. The acoustics in the Festival Hall are fantastic so it's always a pleasure to experience a full orchestra in there. For the two shorter pieces, we were treated to fantastic percussion. I do love a bit of timpani. 

I find writing about music quite hard. Although I sing a bit, play piano (albeit extremely rustily) and can read music, I don't have the vocabulary or depth of knowledge to truly describe it to someone else. The main piece was meditative - multiple loops that fitted together but were ever so slightly discordant. Not dissimilar to many of our lived experiences being in a city. We can wonder at the majesty of the River Thames, admire the skill and beauty of the architecture and art around us, yet baulk at the sweaty tube, busy roads and grumpy people around us. It's every so slightly jarring, and I felt that in the music. The structure of the piece sounded like it was perhaps in rounds, with repetition of themes. It made me wonder if you could create a similar effect using a loop or sampler pedal. The overall effect of the music felt representative of a tidal river, perhaps, as it ebbs and flows or even the microcurrents that may exist within it. Ultimately, it was a meditation on city life.

The immersive element of the programme was my favourite part, and it would have been good if more could have been made of what was almost like a flashmob. Would I listen to Ruo's piece again? Possibly not but I would most definitely participate in another mobile phone moving orchestra.

Tending - Riverside Studios

Tending, written by and starring El Blackwood, staged at Riverside Studios this week and last week, is a piece of verbatim theatre drawn from 70 interviews with real NHS nurses. With just three actors - El Blackwood, Anjelica Serra and Ben Lynn - and a simple set consisting of three chairs, a striplight and a surgical-style curtain as a backdrop, the production lets the words do the work.

The nurses' testimonies chart their journeys into the profession, their day-to-day work in the NHS, and the challenges they faced - firstly as newly qualified nurses ('they told me I'd be crying every day for the first 6 months and they were right') and then as early and mid-career nurses. Their roles made all the more challenging by funding cuts, relentless demand, and the long shadow of COVID. Their stories are by turns funny, harrowing and deeply moving, and as someone who has been both a patient and a visitor in hospital, I found many of the images they conjured very familiar, some of them painfully so.

The acting was outstanding - honest, nuanced and emotional. This was as powerful as anything I’ve seen in the West End, despite having none of the budget. Through raw, direct storytelling, the cast revealed what it really means to be a nurse in Britain today and also how they witness the human condition in all its forms from the sublime to the ridiculous. There were moments that certainly brought a lump to my throat, especially around palliative care (something I know about from being my late mother's carer), but the piece was never heavy-handed. The writing allowed for light and shade, making space for hope and humour alongside sorrow.

That said, the way the play ended felt strangely unresolved. Given the strength of the voices we’d just heard, I was left wondering what we were meant to do with it all. It felt like a missed opportunity—an ending that offered no direction. Instead, my friends and I came away feeling a bit despairing and helpless. 

Still, this was poignant, urgent, and vital theatre and shares more insight into the realities of the NHS than any episode of Casualty or Holby City. Tending is a moving reminder of the human faces behind the hospital scrubs and how critical the NHS is to our society here in the UK. 

You can still catch it until Sunday 4th May.

Ordinary Days - Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Ordinary Days, a musical by Adam Gwon, follows four New Yorkers as they navigate daily life in the big city. Two of them are a couple whose relationship slowly unravels before us; the other two are strangers, one an aspiring academic, the other a young man who is muddling through life, who connect through a lost item. During the show, all four characters reveal what brought them to New York and what they're searching for to create the lives they dream of. They reveal hopes and fears and the daily dramas in seemingly trivial things. Ultimately, we see how they find meaning, joy, and connection in an increasingly complicated world.

This production, from Birmingham’s Old Joint Stock Theatre, was staged Upstairs at The Gatehouse with a strikingly minimalist set: a few moveable boxes, some carefully placed props, and a single picture frame. Accompanied by a live pianist, the four actors—Aidan Cutler, Melissa Camba, James Edge, and Dora Gee—perform the entire show without spoken dialogue. The songs carry the narrative, giving the piece a lyrical, flowing rhythm.

Despite being written over 15 years ago, the musical feels fresh and timely. Cutler’s comic timing is impeccable, bringing warmth and real vulnerability to Warren, his oddball optimist of a character. Dora Gee is a standout as Deb, delivering razor-sharp humour with ease. All four performers are strong vocalists, and the pianist deserves credit for underpinning the show beautifully.

The sparse set and well-judged lighting effects enhanced rather than distracted, allowing the characters and music to take centre stage. The staging was excellent and the small cast used every inch of space giving the audience a feeling that we were in a much bigger space. Given that Ordinary Days requires only four actors and a pianist, it deserves to travel further. This production told its story with heart, humour and a quiet originality and despite it's relatively light tone, it felt life-affirming and I certainly came away feeling a little lighter than when I arrived. I hope it isn’t the last we see of it. Ordinary Days is anything but ordinary.