Simon Ward reviews Sweet Victory at the Etcetera Theatre In this new play, written and directed by Elise Marra, we are introduced to two combatants in the American Revolutionary war, one on each si…

Simon Ward reviews The Pass at the Pearly Queen Theatre The Bow Bells is a traditional East End pub, which seems to be thriving. The Pearly Queen Theatre is its latest addition – ascend the s…

Simon Ward reviews Griefcase at the Hope Theatre Co-produced by the Hope Theatre and Tailwind Physical Theatre, Griefcase is a profoundly moving examination of grief in all of its manifestations. W…

Simon Ward reviews and I looked at the sky at the Omnibus Theatre It is timely that Tim Stubbs Hughes’s new play should be opening now, when the topic of assisted dying is again on the politi…

Simon Ward reviews Sense and Sensibility at the Arches Lane Theatre Nicky Diss has adapted and also directs Jane Austen’s first novel which contrasts the philosophies and attitudes to life of…

Simon Ward reviews Scar Tissue at the Old Red Lion Theatre Lilwen Faulkner’s thought-provoking new play is a reminder that the early traumatic events of our lives never really leave us, and m…

Simon Ward reviews Tartuffe (Remixed) at the Marylebone Theatre For many years Darren Raymond, the writer and director of Tartuffe (Remixed), has been adapting classic theatrical works to bring the…

Simon Ward reviews Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It at the Soho Theatre Fresh from a triumphant run in Edinburgh and prior to an extended residency in their home town of New York, Xhloe Rice …

Simon Ward reviews There Is A Light And A Whistle For Attracting Attention at the Hen and Chickens Theatre Coming to London after a summer tour across the country, There Is A Light And A Whistle Fo…

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…

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…

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. …

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…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

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…

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…

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. …

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

Simon Ward reviews Riki Lindhome: Dead Inside at the Soho Theatre Riki Lindhome brings her Edinburgh Fringe hit to Soho. She is known for her roles in the Netflix series Wednesday as well…

Simon Ward reviews Monologues of Men at the Old Red Lion Theatre Long time collaborators Francis Saunders and Dean Stalham have teamed up again, this time with Saunders writing and performing, and …

Simon Ward reviews Poppies at the Camden People’s Theatre Running as part of this year’s SPRINT Festival for new work at the Camden People’s Theatre, Poppies is an intensely perso…

Simon Ward reviews Miraculous at the Old Red Lion Theatre Luke Stiles’s new play, in which he also plays Josh, has its roots in the American tradition of children and older teenagers spending…

Simon Ward reviews Grit, Glitter and Gaslight -The Sarah McGuinness Story at the Circle and Star Theatre The Circle and Star Theatre is the latest incarnation of one of the godfathers of London&#82…

Simon Ward reviews Two Strangers and a Clipboard at the Etcetera Theatre Written and directed by Maria Speight, this is a piece presented as workshop preview prior to a planned summer festival run.…

Simon Ward reviews SALT at the Riverside Studios The company Contemporary Ritual Theatre (CRT), who here present Beau Hopkins’s play SALT, are based in Great Yarmouth, but this tale long pred…

Simon Ward reviews The Red Prince at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre The term ‘Red Prince’ was first used as a tongue-in-cheek epithet for the sons of Labour grandees who had decided to go…

Simon Ward reviews Werewolf Sighted In Port Talbot at the Old Red Lion Theatre Following a successful run as part of GrimFest in October last year, Andy Sellers’s debut dark comedy returns to…

Simon Ward reviews The Sound Of Absence at the Omnibus Theatre The Peg is approached to review many more shows than we can possibly cover, so there has to be a sifting process to choose which ones …

Simon Ward reviews EXPÖSED at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre My heart usually sinks at the prospect of a play written by its cast. It is hard to make a piece work as a coherent whole when everyone is…