3+ hour, 3+ min ago (476+ words) The comedians on their first meeting, pissing each other off, and a shared obsession with Pride and Prejudice I met Rachel through the comedian Amy Cooke-Hodgson, who one day said to me, "Rachel Parris is thinking of doing Jane Austen improv, are you interested?" I assumed it was a stage name. Rachel Parris? With two Rs? I'nearly didn't go, thinking it might all be bullshit. But as soon as I walked into the rehearsal room and watched the group improvising, I realised they were brilliant. Over the years, I have played Rachel's sister, mother, cousin, aunt and child. Out of all of them, I'd say our bond is like cousins who really like'each other. I was surrounded by boys growing up, so to finally find someone that I could have a'conversation with about blusher with'nobody interjecting "This is pathetic" was…...

3+ hour, 51+ min ago (508+ words) Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonAfrobeat-tinged music, an AI love interest, Elon Musk as a panto villain, and a cast who are clearly having a ball mean there is something for everyone in this flashy festive showElon Musk as a pantomime villain? That's a sight with which we're all familiar. But panto villain as Elon Musk? Maybe that's a first for Vikki Stone and Tonderai Munyevu's Christmas show, which doesn't stint on satirical sideswipes " nor, I am happy to report, on boisterous festive fun. Musk makes his appearance spooking our three heroes when they hijack a rocket at SpaceX to rescue Gary the Goose from interstellar (for some reason) captivity. Formerly owned by the good fairy WTF, he has been birdnapped by her frenemy BFF " and if those two are giving strong Glinda and Elphaba vibes, well, I don't think it's…...

12+ hour, 3+ min ago (707+ words) Before she was a TV mainstay, Judi Love was a single mum juggling standup with care work. Now she's back on stage for a show that finds humour in past trauma: "It's laughter that helped me', she says. She starts by twerking her way into the spotlight, before riffing on her career as a social worker and trading "chicken and chips for champagne and ceviche. Interspersed are opening bouts of sharp crowd work " Love at her free-wheeling best. Next, she's at college, studying IT, but mostly "going into the games room looking for boys. It's here that Love meets this unnamed lad. "He was damn crazy, Love tells me over Zoom a few days later. She's stuck at home in south-west London, waiting for a delivery. "We didn't do red flags then. He just had some issues, but I wanted…...

23+ hour, 15+ min ago (231+ words) The questing Czech-born playwright gave us plays that explored arcadias, utopias and affecting notions of home Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88 Tom Stoppard " a life in pictures Where to start with Tom Stoppard: from Brazil to Leopoldstadt The play that might reflect his day-to-day life most accurately " The Real Thing (1982), which centres on a celebrated London playwright, agonising over his music selection of Desert Island Discs " is, to my mind, one of his least interesting. Far more engaging are works that roam over time and space " prerevolutionary Russia, colonial India, Georgian Britain and various points of Mittel Europe. The Real Thing (1982) is often thought to mark a shift in Stoppard's work " where the clever-clogs brain decides to share the stage with the aching heart. That isn't quite fair " Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's lost-puppy bewilderment, the…...

1+ day, 4+ hour ago (878+ words) The great playwright had a 60-year career in the theatre and also wrote scripts for radio and the screen " here are some of his very bestWith his restless imagination, Tom Stoppard showed us a mind on the moveTom Stoppard: a brilliant dramatist who always raised the temperature of the roomSelections of excellence are traditionally a Top 10. However, given Sir Tom Stoppard's great love of cricket " which features in one of his most celebrated speeches " it seems fitting to choose a first XI among his works for stage, screen, TV and radio. There is no order of precedence: in cricket, any number on the card can be a gamechanger. (Most scripts are published by Faber; streaming details where available.) Continue reading... Where to start with Tom Stoppard: from Brazil to Leopoldstadt The great playwright had a 60-year career in the theatre…...

1+ day, 11+ hour ago (10+ words) Continue reading... Preparing for (nuclear) winter: the Becky Barnicoat cartoon...

1+ day, 15+ hour ago (451+ words) One line from Ridley Scott's classic movie was the shove I needed to walk out on my husband after years of his controlling behaviour It was 1991, I was in my early 40s, living in the south of England and trapped in a marriage that had long since curdled into something quietly suffocating. My husband had become controlling, first'with money, then with almost everything else: what I wore, who I'saw, what I said. It crept up so slowly that I didn't quite realise what was happening. We had met as students in the early 1970s, both from working-class, northern families and feeling slightly out of place at a university full of public school accents. We shared politics, music and a sense of being outsiders together. For years, life felt full of promise. When our first child arrived, I gave up my local government…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago (620+ words) Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonDirector Holly Race Roughan transposes the summer tale into the darkest of winters as the fairies" feud over the stolen child leaves the snow smeared with bloodPuck snatches the lovers" breath from their bodies. They stop mid-sentence, floating under his spell, lanterns shining in the frozen night. Sergo Vares" malevolent clown, dressed in half tux, half tutu, has chaos in his veins. In this wintery co-production between Headlong and the Globe, comedy and horror sit cheek by jowl, as director Holly Race Roughan conjures a nightmarish take on Shakespeare"s classic dream.Vares" crow-like Puck, a nimble shapeshifter, may be the face of the dark deeds in this frosty landscape, but Michael Marcus"s Oberon is the vengeful controller, his every action designed to get his hands on the young girl (Pria Kalsi) in Titania"s care....

2+ day, 4+ hour ago (342+ words) Beauty and the Beast or Wolf Alice? Queen Marie Antoinette or Count Arthur Strong? Come and behold: the holiday season offers stage, film, music and art that's worth singing about Ebony ScroogeSadler's Wells East, London, to4January A brand new Christmas show from ZooNation, the company known for itship-hop rewrites of classic titles. This one puts a new (head)spin on Dickens's A Christmas Carol, with Scrooge as a formidable fashion label boss who needs to learn some lessons about the true meaning of happiness. A feelgood, family-friendly show. Lindsey Winship Silent Night, Deadly NightOut 12 December You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why: Billy (Rohan Campbell) theseasonal killing spree maniac is coming to town. Per Billy's traumatic backstory as established in the gritty 1984 original, Christmas is a time for stabbing and shivving, while…...

2+ day, 5+ hour ago (448+ words) The Lucky Chance, FromeJoy radiates from the stage as an ensemble cast from the Emma Rice Company bring Thomas's twinkling poem to lifeDylan Thomas's beautiful Christmas poem has that amazing ability to slow life down. It's a poem to rest inside, with its gently tumbling sentences and twinkling memories of Christmases past. Emma Rice's exquisite adaptation shares these qualities. There are just five performers " one pianist and four actors " but they bring a flurry of characters to life. There is a little bit of magic in every scene, all of which glow with a very Thomas-esque combination of hope and melancholy.The ensemble performs in the Emma Rice Company's new home, a converted church in Frome. It's tiny. The audience sits on plastic chairs and " perhaps this is just Thomas's poem casting its spell on me " but it feels like…...