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Somewhere that's green: Potty the Plant at Wiltons Music Hall

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"I'm Potty the Plant," sings a potted plant in this odd little fringe concept of a show. It's hard not to get the tune out of your head, even if the show is brief. It's an earworm for a show that features a worm-like plant as a puppet. And given the show's brevity, running at only an hour, it's hard to get too annoyed by a lack of a coherent story, even if it still seems like the show could use a bit more development (which is underway). It has made its London debut at Wilton's Music Hall. The premise is that Potty, the plant, lives in the hospital office of Dr Acula (geddit?) and dreams of a life with the cleaning lady Miss Lacey (Lucy Appleton). But Dr Acula might be responsible for why all these children are disappearing while trying to romance Miss Lacey for her family's money that she doesn't have. Three nurses are on the case, trying to solve the mystery.  If the show settled on a convincing plot, location and set of characters, it could ...

Bang pop kapow: Big Guns @YardTheatre


 It's bad enough walking about the back streets of Hackney alone on a quiet mid-week evening without having to worry about a man with a gun. But after seeing Big Guns at The Yard Theatre that's all I was thinking about.

The man with a gun features a lot in writer Nina Segal's piece. It's part fear and part celebration of a culture of violence. Actually it is mostly fear. With a backdrop of pop culture references, pornography, terrorism, milkshakes and popcorn.

It's all topical as the banter moves between one violent act and the next. It is a two hander and opens with Two (Debra Baker) and One (Jessy Romeo) sitting in what could be a cinema. Wearing 3D glasses and stuffing their faces with popcorn.


But as the piece progresses the fear sets in. You can smell it (along with what appears to be wafting into the audience from the rubbery set). Words and scenes are pelted at you with such vigour you cannot escape. From the trolling of a video blogger to random acts of violence passed off as terrorist atrocities.

Eventually the repetition of fear and loathing starts to impact. But perhaps not as always intended. But there is no time to dwell too much here as the piece moves quick.

And the man with a gun will linger in your mind. If only to ponder that it seems quaint to fear something that is so scarce in this country. I'd like to see a piece about fearing the man with the rental car from Birmingham. That's a little bit closer to reality.

Directed by Dan Hutton, Big Guns is at The Yard until 8 April.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎



Photos by Mark Douet

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