The adjective “steamy” is often used to describe the plays of Tennessee Williams, as they lift the lid on simmering passions and heated exchanges in sub-tropical settings. The Night of the Iguana, set in a run-down coastal town in the Mexican rainforest, is no exception. It’s hard enough to keep your cool in such a climate, and with the arrival of Lawrence Shannon, played by Clive Owen, things soon start to get heated. This handsome …

To see A Midsummer Night’s Dream on a perfect July evening at the Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park is to ask oneself as Demetrious does “Am I awake, or do I but dream?” A perfect comedy in the most perfect setting is a gift that prompted me to reflect on the riches that London has to offer. A man who is tired of London is tired of life, said Samuel Johnson. Well as long as …

Matilda, watch out for there is a new kid on the musical block: Adrian Mole. The rivalry between these two shows which puts a girl and a boy respectively centre stage is set to become a must-see compare and contrast experience. Intriguingly, a male writer (Roald Dahl 1916-1990) has written a wonderful part for a girl and a female writer (Sue Townsend 1946-2014) has written the definitive portrait of a teenage boy. Based on her …

“Dreams aren’t weightless things, they have a mass,” Charles L Fairbanks Junior tells us, as he fantasises about becoming an astronaut despite growing up in Nowheresville. First performed in 2006, Al Smith’s Radio uses the moon landing as its centre of gravity, but it isn’t just the fiftieth anniversary of this triumph of American engineering that makes it worth a revival. “Pride and protest – they’re lucrative things,” we hear from Fairbanks Jnr. “The worse …

Announced as “a mind-reading show based on the true story of the Cold War’s psychic spies”, The Psychic Project at the Vaults Theatre draws on the genuine story of Stargate, a secret unit established by the American Government’s Defense Intelligence Agency and a private contractor. Stargate was created to investigate and exploit the use of psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence gathering. It’s a story that certainly makes a fascinating backdrop and the magician David Narayan makes good use …