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Death becomes her: A Brief List Of Everyone Who Died @finborough

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For a natural process, death is not a topic that comes up naturally for people. We ask how people are doing but expect the response to be “I’m great”, not “I’m not dead yet”. And so for the main character in A Brief List of Everyone Who Died, Graciela has a death issue. Starting with when she was five and found out only after the matter that her parents had her beloved dog euthanised. So Graciela decides that nobody she loves will die from then on. And so this piece becomes a fruitless attempt at how she spends her life trying to avoid death while it is all around her. It’s currently having its world premiere  at the Finborough Theatre . As the play title suggests, it is a brief list of life moments where death and life intervene for the main character, from the passing of relatives, cancer, suicides, accidents and the loss of parents. Playwright Jacob Marx Rice plots the critical moments of the lives of these characters through their passing or the passing of those around them. Howeve

Santa’s coming for us: The Grotto @draytonarmsSW5


The Grotto is an alternative Christmas show for those who feel there isn’t enough blood, gore, and science fiction in traditional Christmas outings. Or you can’t stomach the usual good cheer this time of year. It plays at the Drayton Arms Theatre to satiate those who want to wish less good tidings to people at this time of year.

It opens at a Santas Grotto in some shopping centre.  Layla and Pete are in some Christmas purgatory—dressed as an elf and Santa, Welcoming in children and taking a photo of them on Santa’s lap. They are on a repeat loop all day to the tune of I wish it could be Christmas every day. The music speeds up as the day continues in a frenzy of desperate Christmas cheer. It’s as if the music starts sounding like, “I wish shit could be Christmas”.


After finishing up for the day in this Christmassy purgatory, Leyla and Pete are visited by a ghostly presence as they have lost their Christmas spirit. Christmas is an endurance event for them of annoying family members and overcooked meat. They were once a couple, but now they have settled down to be friends as they scrape by to earn a living doing temp jobs.  But this is no A Christmas Carol. The ghost has plans for them as the former couple fess up to past mistakes. It becomes a battle to save their souls and escape this Christmassy hell. 

Writer Toby Hampton also plays Pete. He’s a man-child with a heart of bronze. Laurel Marks is the more practical Leyla. They make an amusing couple with some fine comic timing as they open up to each other while opening up bodies and fighting demons. 

It won’t be for all tastes, and the show could have been more fun if the ghost was a more animated Christmas ornament (a puppet or even a pantomime dame, dare one say). But for a show with its very own body cavity search, it’s a bloody alternative Christmas fare.

Written by Toby Hampton and directed by Matthew Parker, The Grotto plays at The Drayton Arms Theatre until 30 December. Merry Christmas!

⭐️⭐️⭐️



Production photos by Cam Harle

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