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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...
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Once more without feeling: Again @Trafstudios

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The nuclear family seems to be a little unstable in Again. Presented by Mongrel Thumb , Stephanie Jacob’s intriguing new play explores the underbelly and soft belly of family relationships. Just as you think everyone’s coming together they explode into rage. Or crack a bad joke. And then they do it all over again. But with less rage, more rage or acceptance. It’s currently running at Trafalgar Studios. Presented as a family reunion after a period of estrangement, nothing is what it seems to be. Scenes start and then restart as multiple perspectives play out. Is it the mother’s wish, the son’s wish, the father or the daughter? In the end you can’t be sure any of it happened. But slowly it pieces together a story of fractured family determined to get things right. Or get their own way.  Tom (Chris Larkin) has deserted his wife Louise (Natasha Little) for a younger woman. Their son (Charles Reston) spends most of his life in the library and studies poetry. Their daughter (Rosie Day) i...
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What does the fox say: Run The Beast Down @Finborough

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It is a hedonistic and hectic life in this one-hander about a man called Charlie. He can't sleep. He lost his job and there is this fox following him about. It's playing now at the Finborough Theatre . Played by Ben Aldridge , you are never quite sure what is real and illusory. But there's a thrilling and pulsating soundtrack by Chris Bartholomew underscoring the madness that makes it a trip worth taking down the foxhole. It opens with Charlie finding that his girlfriend has left him and he lost his city job. He is living in a partially gentrified council estate and the neighbours cat has gone missing. But after that things begin to get a bit weird. The nights become something for his imagination to run wild. Soon paranoia, fear and destruction take over.
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Monkey business and other catastrophes: The Dead Monkey @ParkTheatre @Mongrelthumb

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The sphincter of modern life as viewed from a grimy, and gritty (well they live by the beach so sand in the house must be hell) American marriage is both absurd and fascinating in Mongrel Thumb’s production of The Dead Monkey . From the minute you enter the smaller space of the Park Theatre it is as if you are transported to California where the sun, sand and surf are so enticing that people just drop out of life. Sure you may be living in poverty but what a lifestyle with linoleum floors, distressed furniture, an endless supply of oranges. But it is all incredibly evocative and alluring. 
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