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You can’t stop the boats: Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea @ParkTheatre

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Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea by Italian playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi and translated by Marco Young, has made a topical return to London at the Park Theatre after playing earlier this summer at the Seven Dials Playhouse. In a week when leaders and leaders in waiting were talking about illegal immigration, it seemed like a topical choice . It also has one hell of an evocative title. The piece opens with Adriano Celantano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol , which sets the scene for what we are about to see. After all, a song about communication barriers seems perfect for a play about people trafficking and illegal immigration. One side doesn’t understand why they happen, and the other still comes regardless of the latest government announcement / slogan .  However, the twist here is that the crossing is undertaken the other way. People are fleeing Europe instead of escaping war or poverty in Africa or the Middle East. It’s set sometime in the not-too-distant future. There is a crisis causing p

Swinging and projecting: Soho @PeacockTheatre #sohotheshow


A journey through London's soho with its street workers, artists, drag queens and everyday people is the theme of Soho. It is a  physical movement spectacular at the Peacock Theatre for a brief run.

Acrobats, dance and projections combine with a throbbing soundtrack to make for a breathtaking evening.

At times there is so much going on that it's hard to know where to look. But it's a slick piece of circus artisty and projections


It's a great ensemble with a mix of different circus specialists and dance experts.

There's martial artist Anton Simpson-Tidy, hip hop dancer hair-ography expert Kayla Lomas-Kirton. Alessio Motta serves as the everyman of the piece but also wows the audience with a thrilling performance on the Chinese pole. Big guy Charlee Rico DeBolla has some great scenes flexing his beefcake and showing off on the aerial straps.


Aerial tissue and drag artist Danny Ash should get a special achievement for singing while hanging upside down and struggling with a wig.


But Xander Taylor and Mélanie Dupuis steal the show with a romantic and gravity defying performance on the doubles trapeze.

The soundtrack is a mixtape of old and new music featuring the Sex Pistols, Bowie, Daft Punk and Etta James. It's pulled together with new compositions by Peter Coyte.



Perhaps it goes on for a bit. Not all the projections and lighting highlighted the work of the performers. The intermission seemed to interrupt the flow of the evening. And it would have been fun to have a segment on the clone shops and luxury developments changing the face of Soho.

But it's better to say its a circus in Soho.  Directed by Abigail Yates, Soho is at the Peacock Theatre until 20 May.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

Photos by Stufish.


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