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‘The Last Five Years’ at the Ustinov Studio review – ‘transcendent and beautiful’
The Last Five Years is the Ustinov Studio’s Christmas show for 2025. I was very excited to see it as a long-time fan of the 2015 film adaptation soundtrack, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. By Jason Robert Brown, it is the semi-autobiographical story of the relationship between Jamie, a newly successful writer, and Cathy, an…
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Josie Long: Now Is The Time of Monsters review – ‘endearingly intimate and vigorously potent’
Josie Long visits the Old Vic with her acclaimed 2025 Fringe show, ‘Now Is The Time of Monsters.’ It’s lovely to see comedy in the Old Vic, as it’s such a beautiful venue, and since winter has apparently arrived in Bristol at 11am today, it feels appropriately cosy to go to the theatre and watch…
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Julie Masli: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha review – ‘enigmatic charisma’
Julie Masli brings her acclaimed show ‘ha ha ha ha ha ha ha,’ to the Old Vic. The show has had huge success, being voted the Most Innovative Show by the Offies and winning the 2023 Best Show Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, among considerable other recognition. The show’s blurb is ‘ hahahahahahahahahaha…
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Helen Bauer: Bless Her review – ‘effortless charisma and magnetism’
It’s a great night for comedy on North St on this drizzly September Sunday; Ahir Shah is doing a double work-in-progress show at Bar 57, and just ten minutes away, Helen Bauer brings her tour show ‘Bless Her,’ to the Tobacco Factory. I head to the latter, where the usual large stage area has been…
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‘Second Summer of Love,’ by Emmy Happisburgh review: ‘anchored by vitality and charisma’
Second Summer of Love is the debut play from actor and teacher Emmy Happisburgh, about a former raver and now parent reminiscing about her time on the 1980s rave scene. Happisburgh arrives onstage in a neon and black bodysuit. She is almost immediately confronted by her aggrieved teenage daughter Molly (Rosa Strudwick, her real-life daughter)…
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Interview with ‘Second Summer of Love’ writer and performer Emmy Habbisburgh
Emmy Happisburgh trained at the Poor School and Guildford School of Acting. Her debut play Second of Summer of Love, about 90s rave culture, parenthood and coming of age, is following on from a successful Edinburgh Fringe run with a UK tour, stoppping at the Alma Tavern on the 12th and 13th September. Tickets here.…
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Ozzy Algar: Speed Queen at Cellar Pleasance Courtyard review – ‘Algar is dynamite’
A mere 30 hours after my first Fringe show – but physically and mentally feeling as if I’d aged several years – I returned to the room where I’d seen Just The Two Of Us for my penultimate one, Ozzy Algar’s Fringe debut Speed Queen. A student of renowned clown teacher Philipe Gaulier and 2024…
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Kathy Maniura: Cycling Man at Attic Pleasance Courtyard – ‘incredibly vivid and deeply silly’
Like a lot of my Fringe calendar, Kathy Maniura’s character comedy show, ‘Cycling Man,’ came recommended to me from the Instagram stories of Lorna Rose Treen, who is doing a sterling job of using her large following to platform some of the more bonkers comedy on offer. Like almost all of the shows I saw,…
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Alice Cockayne: Licensed. Professional. Qualified. Trained at Pleasance Courtyard – ‘a surreal dream’
After a review-less break in the balmy waters of Rajiv Karia’s show – in which I truly did not know what to do with my hands without a pen and a notebook – we returned to the same room at the Pleasance Courtyard for Alice Cockayne’s show. Cockayne is a working-class, Northern character comedian, who…
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Alice-India: See You In Hell at Underbelly Bristo Square review – ‘casual, fun and effortless’
I last saw Alice-India perform at the (sadly) now-deceased Cowgirl Comedy in Bristol several years ago. She headlined a weird but fun show (also featuring an embryonic Sam Williams), and had a compellingly relaxed and confessional presence, so I was intrigued to see how her material and persona had developed. Fast-forward to 2025 and she’s…
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