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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Out of the focus group: The Candidate @theatredeli @labcollective


It's well known that key messages espoused by politicians these days are the product of carefully considered focus groups and research. But here in the Candidate, it takes this a step further, suggesting that everything is up for grabs in shaping a new leader, presently bereft of any thought. It proves for an amusing and topical diversion.

Arriving at the rather dreary looking 119 Farringdon Road, the former offices of The Guardian, and home to Theatre Delicatessen, you are ushered into a room and told that you would be taking part in what is described as a unique polling session.

The Candidate, Omar Ibrahim, is seeking views (in this case the unsuspecting audience members) to help shape his ideals, policy and image. He can be whatever you want or need him to be, adjusted to suit the tastes of the theatregoers.


With the help of your mobile phones and some nifty technology, you join a live polling session on various issues and help formulate what type of Candidate you want and receive the real time results on screen.

You are first given a choice of five different Omars to pick from. On Saturday night our audience (or rather, our focus group), selected Omar number five. He turned out to be a bit Ed Miliband-ish in his mannerisms, with a hint of new age mysticism and bisexuality thrown in for good measure. By the end of the evening most of the audience found him rather broad minded and a little bit creepy.

Matthew Flacks plays the spin doctor who gives Omar his lines and weasel words to say and rescue Omar from being overly familiar with audience members.

It is an interesting and amusing premise watching the two spar and engage the audience in what is at first hilarious and then more thought provoking at what makes people consider someone to be worthy of leadership in the political space.

A different sort of theatrical experience. The focus groups continue through to the 16 May. Enrol in one while you can.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

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