
Reviews
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Dongmeng Chen/ Zhaoyi Ying
Chicken Dropping
A cosy kitchen. A perfect couple. And a war of chickens.
Chicken Dropping unfolds over a series of everyday breakfasts, exposing how easily we become spectators to war, who refresh the news, pick a side, sit down to eat, and maybe even take advantage of the consequences.
Nance Turner
WOMEN IN THE NOW: THE NEXT CHAPTER
Eight new stories. One evening celebrating women today.
Award-nominated Northern Spirit Theatre Company returns to the King's Head Theatreon Sunday 6th September 2026 with Women in the Now: The Next Chapter, an evening of eight original short plays exploring the realities, challenges, humour, heart and complexities of women's lives today.
Qi Huazheng
THE BECOMING: STONE
This proposal presents THE BECOMING: STONE as a new-media dance-theatre work where choreography and space co-produce each other. Space of Becoming frames space as a shifting process shaped by movement, perception, and time. In an immersive cave setting, rock surfaces become screens; light, projection, AI imagery, and sound actively press into the dancer’s field. Weight, breath, and tempo “measure” depth, texture, and proximity, so space seems to open and resist.
Blue Eyes
Backstage
After a cabaret performance aboard a luxury cruise ship, Lena is invited backstage for what should be a brief tour. But no one can tell her how to return. Blending psychological suspense, live magic, dark comedy and surreal theatre, Backstageexplores identity, belonging and the quiet ways we can lose ourselves inside places that feel unexpectedly like home.
Wandi Liu
The Death of Hundun
A young girl undergoes four "carvings" of her soul, with each cut revealing her deepest fears and struggles. This is a soul-stirring journey, an ultimate voyage toward self-destruction and rebirth. It takes the audience across the boundaries of reason and chaos, experiencing the intense collision of emotions, philosophy, and the limits of the body.
Rudra Bhawadwaj
Jack In The Box
Is it fair to stop living for something that's dying?
Sixteen months ago, the doctor said six. Jack is still here.
Changing diapers. Counting pills. Watching the person who raised them disappear one night at a time, one bell at a time, while their own life waits somewhere outside the door.
Jonas Feind
This Year I Am Going To Die
Through a funeral hosted by the soon-to-be-deceased, this one-man show finds an approachable, light-hearted way to explore the reality of life with anxiety. Follow Jojo on his farewell tour, as he meets with the chaotic characters that pave his roadmap back to life.
More relevant than ever, this new work speaks to a familiar tension across our theatre community: anxiety about the world, awareness of how we’re more fortunate than most, and the determination to keep going. Speaking on the goal of the show, playwright and performer Jonas Feind says, ‘I want the audience to laugh and feel like they can let go of some of their fears. I want them to feel more hopeful towards life’.
Dario Fo
MISTERO BUFFO
This unique work uses the deepest level of the popular tradition, reviving it and keeping it relevant in the present day by making references to contemporary life; the sacred enactments become opportunities to salvage the cultural heritage of the down-trodden, the lower classes, who can only respond with laughter and comedy.
Eugenio Allegri directs Matthias Martelli, a talented young actor of the Teatro della Caduta, in this popular jester play, which has been the inspiration for the story-telling theatre of the last twenty years.
‘In Mistero Buffo, the actor is alone on stage, with no deceptions, aiming to involve the audience in the theatrical action.
Chen Minghao
City of Fiction
At sunset, on the rooftop of the Lone Library by the sea in Aranya, a group of people are having a party. From here, the story begins.
Inspired by Yu Hua’s novel 'City of Fiction', the performance traces a world from a century ago. In this imagined landscape, Lin Xiangfu, a man from the North, and A Qiang and Xiao Mei, a wild brother and sister from the South, are brought together by the currents of fate. Only the three of them know of a place called Wencheng — a place that truly exists, holding within it both suffering and love.
Sarah Moeremans
Not Quichot
Carried by moving music, the audience will experience the world of the composer Franz Schubert. We encounter the shy genius caught between restless love and speechlessness, and follow him into an imagined space filled with spoken word and music. As Schubert sets out to conquer music-loving Vienna, he embarks on a trip to the Viennese countryside with his friends. In Peter Turrini’s tragicomic play, the composer appears as the “descending god of music,” yet also as a shy and reserved human being. His unrequited love for the builder’s daughter troubles him, while his friend urges him to finally confess his feelings. But the timid musical genius freezes in her presence. Will he overcome his fears?
Youssef Sweid / Isabella Sedlak
Between the River and the Sea
Yousef was raised as a Christian-Arab-Palestinian-Israeli kid in Haifa, and is now raising two Jewish-Arab-Austrian kids in Berlin. Only he’s facing a custody battle, so things are getting complicated...
A story about family, fear, and imagining a future beyond borders.
Written by Yousef Sweid and Isabella Sedlak, Between The River And The Sea comes to the Royal Court following international acclaim, originally produced by the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Rosas danst Rosas
In 1983, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker had her international breakthrough with 'Rosas danst Rosas', a performance that has since become a benchmark in the history of postmodern dance. 'Rosas danst Rosas' builds on the minimalism initiated in 'Fase' (1982): abstract movements constitute the basis of a layered choreographic structure in which repetition plays the lead role. The fierceness of these movements is countered by small everyday gestures. In 1983, 'Rosas danst Rosas' was viewed as explicitly female; a feminist statement. Four female dancers dance ‘themselves', over and over again. Their perseverance and exhaustion create an emotional charge that contrasts sharply with the rigorous structure of the choreography. The repetitive, “maximalist” music by Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch was created concurrently with the choreography. The film version of 'Rosas danst Rosas', recorded in 1997 by De Mey, quickly became as iconic as the performance itself.
Noemi Vasileiadou
ΚΛΗΜΕΝΤΙΝΕΣ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΚΟΥΚΟΥΤΣΙ
The performance by actress and director Noemi Vasileiadou belonging to the new generation of Greek theatre, cobbles together a unique stage “agora” that is assembled, dismantled, and distorted before our eyes. Political and social questions give way to tips on picking the best potato of them all, gaudy jokes turn into street philosophies, a crate of prunes seeks a buyer, and a troupe haggles over its own imperfect existence.
The farmer’s street market: the most genuine public space ritual par excellence. A liminal site that spells theatre more than the theatre itself. A space of exchange entirely predicated on human interaction—perhaps one of the last of its kind.
Interlink Theatre
NEITHER HERE NOR THERE
Who am I? Where do I belong?
Neither Here Nor There is a documentary theatre inspired by verbatim and autobiographical material with shadow puppetry . It follows two women—one second-generation Chinese-Spanish, the other mixed-race Danish, Nigerian, and Italian—each navigating multiple worlds.
Wangjiayu Chu (Stephanie)
July 15th to…
Have you ever broken down in the dark, or felt an unstoppable surge of energy to keep dancing?
July15to… is a physical theatre performance exploring trauma, memory, and the possibility of healing.
For anyone drawn to stories of emotion and renewal, where turbulence becomes a path to self-reconciliation, and movement, light, and rhythm tell a story of hope.
Daniel York Loh/Xie Rong
Mountains and Seas – Song of Today
This work was born from grief and urgency. Over the past two years we have witnessed relentless violence in Gaza, the rise of fascism, and chants of “send them back” echoing across the UK, the US, and beyond. When Dr. Refaat Alareer a Palestinian academic, writer, poet, and activist was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on December 6, 2023, his poem If I Must Die stayed with me — a reminder that when reality offers no hope, we loosen our flesh and only ideas remain.
Jingkun Chinese Arts
Chunxiang’s Schoolroom Prank
Chunxiang’s Schoolroom Prank, adapted from Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion, brings classical Kunqu to life through humour and elegant physical storytelling. In a traditional schoolroom, mischievous Chunxiang challenges her strict teacher through playful gestures and comic timing, revealing the timeless wit and rebellious spirit within this centuries-old Chinese theatrical tradition.
The Central Academy of Drama · Ge Yuanliang
love in the cracks
Love in the Cracks follows Lin Chuan, an artificial intelligence scientist who has developed “Shadow of Nüwa”, a digital personality-generation system designed to reconstruct a human presence from photographs, voices, videos, diaries and memories.
Aimee (Jiahe) Yue
The Silk Road (Kinda)
Both Peking Opera’s Yuji (Aimee Yue) and Oscar Wilde’s Salome (Megan Winstanley) have died 10000 times on stage, and suddenly find themselves in a liminal space, apparently brought together for a holiday to celebrate their ten thousandth deaths. Total strangers from the East and West, unsure of who they even are outside their roles…
Luke Ofield
Gammelstad
It’s 1860, in the cold, lonely north of Sweden. Birgitta and her brother Bror arrive at their family’s cottage in the ‘church town’ of Gammelstad, seeking refuge from the harsh climate of their family life. Between cold, dark winter days and sweet, bright summer times, Birgitta and Bror battle to forge their own identities. A new, one-act, coming-of-age play, Gammelstad explores the power of chosen family and celebrates the unique strength of sibling bonds.
NTNUGIPA
Mountains and Seas: A Rock Musical
Based on the script by Gao Xingjian, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000, NTNUGIPA from Taiwan performs the sell-out musical Mountains and Seas this year, presenting the ancient mythologies in a modern rock'n’roll style. Describing events from the world's beginning to the first emperor, the musical will reveal the secrets of human origin featuring interactive projection, superb acting and powerful singing. With 15 outstanding performers, the epic scenes of the show will share the legends of the greatness of our ancestors.
Nicole Abraham & Toby Clarke
PUNCH ME THEN
She plays an English teacher who is brilliant at her job—until one lesson changes everything. With audience members invited to sit on stage as students, the production offers an intimate and immersive theatrical experience, exploring trauma, masculinity, and the pressures faced by those tasked with shaping the next generation.
Susu
Bury Me Before You Marry Me
In some parts of Asia, there is a belief: when a young man dies unmarried, his parents will find him a bride and hold a ghost wedding to accompany him in death. Sometimes, the bride is a corpse. Sometimes, the woman being buried is still alive.
This is a dark comedy interactive theatre experience. The audience is not just watching the story, they become part of it.
Alexander Paul Kubelka
Schubert, für immer und Ewig
Carried by moving music, the audience will experience the world of the composer Franz Schubert. We encounter the shy genius caught between restless love and speechlessness, and follow him into an imagined space filled with spoken word and music. As Schubert sets out to conquer music-loving Vienna, he embarks on a trip to the Viennese countryside with his friends. In Peter Turrini’s tragicomic play, the composer appears as the “descending god of music,” yet also as a shy and reserved human being. His unrequited love for the builder’s daughter troubles him, while his friend urges him to finally confess his feelings. But the timid musical genius freezes in her presence. Will he overcome his fears?
Hermes Gaido
Un poyo rojo
Two men and a live radio broadcast in a locker room confront, challenge, fight. An interesting crossover between dance and sport. A play that uses body language to explore the limits of this contemporary language, with regards to movement and its subsequent interpretations. A provocation, an invitation for us to laugh at ourselves and, at the same time, to accept ourselves entirely. Un poyo rojo, is a mixture of acrobatics and humour. It may be seen as naive, kitsch, cliché or any of the other numerous interpretations that can be thrown at it, however it still remains a striking show of the array of man’s physical and spiritual possibilities.
Su Xiaogang
Paradies spielen
Paradies Spielen, the final part of Thomas Köck’s “Climate Trilogy,” unfolds aboard a high-speed train that never stops. As the journey accelerates without end, its passengers spiral into collective panic and psychological disorientation.
Running in parallel are interwoven narratives: the migration of Chinese tailors travelling from Zhengzhou to Prato in Italy, and a daughter’s anguished monologue beside her father in a burn intensive care unit.
Matthew Totaro and Tamara Fernando
Juliette & Roméo - jusqu'au dernier souffle
The show 'Juliette & Roméo - jusqu'au dernier souffle' reimagines the Shakespearean myth as a contemporary ballet. Three characters inhabit the stage: Juliette, rebellious and free; Romeo, young and defiant; Sister Laurence, a narrator and slam poet. A forbidden love blossoms in a city ravaged by hatred. They want to escape, defy the rules, live freely. Sister Laurence’s slam poetry reveals hidden thoughts and tensions. The words crackle, the bodies respond: urgency, desire, tragedy. Each slam echoes a gesture, each gesture prolongs a word. Fabrice Aboulker’s neo-classical music underpins the dramatic intensity, whilst Tamara Fernando and Matthew Totaro’s direction and choreography blend contemporary and urban dance. A love story danced, slamed, and marked by fate.
Bartosz Szydłowski
Czerwone i czarne
“The Red and the Black” is a contemporary theatrical reinterpretation of Stendhal’s classic novel, framed as an investigation into the death of Julien Sorel – a young man of modest origins whose ambition drives him to challenge the rigid hierarchies of society. Through a sequence of interrogations, testimonies, and reconstructed memories, the performance gradually reveals the complex web of social expectations, personal desires, and institutional forces that shaped his fate. The performance unfolds within a highly stylised environment dominated by deep red tones, reflective surfaces, and carefully composed light.
Ning Wang/RuoSong Huang/Yi Qu
Landscape Trilogy
Landscape Trilogy is a physical theatre work composed of three independent yet closely connected chapters: Landscape Society, The Net of the City, and Textured Room. Using the body as its brush, the work draws a spiritual landscape of contemporary urban life: people dance within landscapes, think within the city, and awaken within the room.
Sam Grabiner / James Macdonald
Christmas Day
There’s something perverted about a Christmas tree.
They’ve got an aura.
It looks perverted and it gives me the creeps.
In an abandoned building somewhere above the Northern Line, with foxes prowling the deserted streets outside, a Jewish family gathers on Christmas Day.
A viciously funny new play about identity, belonging, and the rituals we perform with the people we love.
Nomereach Theatre
Rip Current
Rip Current is a puppetry piece about experiencing the world out of sync. A neurodivergent protagonist escapes overwhelming noise and follows a strange squeak into a surreal inner world, meeting ants in unison, a compulsive badger, and a scatter-minded rabbit. The piece immerses audiences in her sensory rhythm, guided by an unseen current uniquely her own.
Jacob
Abyss
Abyss is an improvisation-driven performance blending physical theatre, live sound, and responsive lighting to explore identity, embodiment, and resistance. Created by movement artist Jacob Zang and sound artist Bryan Wu, the piece unfolds through six abstract phases where body, music, and light shape one another in real time. Rejecting narrative, it becomes a shifting, sensory journey of collapse and emergence.
Nomereach Theatre
Blacked-out Blocks
Blacked-Out Blocks is a black satire about how creative ownership erodes under collaboration and market forces. As novelist Philo adapts her own work, she clashes with her producer amid reversals, meta-theatre, and broken fourth walls. The play exposes how resistance is absorbed and repackaged—turning even anger and rebellion into fuel for the very system being fought.
One Shot Theatre
Narcosis
Narcosis is an experimental solo performance adapted from the indie video game of the same name, blending psychological thriller, deep-sea survival, and the disorienting logic of a mind under pressure. Audiences are immersed in the solitary world of a diver trapped in the ocean’s depths, witnessing his struggle with death, memory, and the shifting boundaries of reality.
This is not only a theatrical descent and a fight for escape, but also a journey through consciousness and sensation.
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