Reality Vaccine Mind Illusion Show

Somewhere between Penn & Teller and that blond guy on The Mentalist who swans about solve crimes by grinning is my idea of a mentalist. An illusionist, but one who depends even more on psychology than on sleight of hand. This is also where Dr. Ian Souch, I believe, places himself.

The Beggar's Opera

Am-dram theatre company YAP present a somewhat updated version of what is still a very funny play, squeezing an almost entirely female cast into flesh-spouting bodices and lacy thingie-things, with three-corner hats to set the period.

Jonah Non Grata

Jonah Non Grata is a series of meaningful non sequiturs giving the impression of leading somewhere momentous before wandering off with a fish on its shoulder. Shunt writer/performer Simon Kane has the curious power to convince an audience to follow him into the wilderness and leave them all blindfolded there, each holding a playing card and waiting for the rest of a magic trick. Several hundred years ago he might have led a popular Crusade into the ocean and exhorted the pilgrims to make love to dolphins.

Bronagh's Big Weekend

O’Brien tells the tale of young Bronagh, a 13-year-old girl competing in the regional dance championships on the day her brother (cousin?) Sean is getting married. Booze, puke, fist-fights, and the police all come into play (Sigh. Ireland. Bless.)

Snapshots

Sarah Robertson’s poems are more like very short stories, often coming across as fan fiction as she imagines hanging out with her favourite celebrities.

Permission to Cry

Upright, uptight, disdainful, utterly correct and transparent junior minister Julia Gibbon is harbouring a secret, a devastating one, if only to a conservative politician. So it’s no surprise that a young, ambitious reporter starts digging away at her dubious moral foundation and hidden life.

Four Women, Nine Tits

The tiny back room at the Sheephaven Bay was packed on a hot summer’s evening with young, beautiful, heavily perspiring people. And one dirty old man in a fleece jumper who appeared to have decided the promise in the Fringe programme blurb of “very little nudity” was still enough for him.

Hamster Town

Darren’s ex-wife thinks he is a bad influence on their young daughter and has denied his visiting rights. She’s taking the girl away to America, leaving Darren feeling abandoned by his own life. On a whim he buys a hamster, and gradually falls into a new, somewhat disturbing existence as the King of Hamster Town.

The Shoemaker's Wonderful Wife

The wife is young and beautiful and knows her charms are wasted on her husband, an older, monkish and romantically hapless shoemaker. The neighbours, nosy and grotesque, circle round her smelling blood and scandal.

Frank Incensed

Frank’s idea of heaven is finding a free naan bread he has only to pick off the bit a car drove over to enjoy. Stacey is his virginal and- for putting up with Frank-saintly girlfriend. God is the presumptious neighbour Who nips by to borrow her womb without asking.

Snipe Highlights

Some popular articles from past years