Stuart King
05 Feb
Reviews 
Review: MRS PRESIDENT at Charing Cross Theatre
By Stuart King Wednesday, February 5 2025, 08:57
There are occasions in a reviewer’s life, when we are exposed to a nugget of political history which encapsulates sufficient intrigue that we yearn for it to receive the attentions of an accomplished playwright. Such writers can often weave the factual nuggets into an interesting and compelling yarn. The best are brim full of wit, wisdom and relatable characters with stories and opinions which inspire, unnerve, interest and elicit (from those of us with our bums on seats) oodles of empathy, envy, compassion and admiration. Unfortunately John Ransom Phillips’ homage to the feisty and oft maligned Mary Lincoln (wife of President Abraham Lincoln) achieves few of these.
Miriam Grace Edwards and Sam Jenkins-Shaw in Mrs President (credit Pamela Raith)
04 Feb
Reviews
Review: SECOND BEST at Riverside Studios
By Stuart King Tuesday, February 4 2025, 08:47
Asa Butterfield has carved quite a niche for himself playing naively innocent and quirky misfits (notably in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and more recently as Otis in Sex Education). His one-man performance has largely sold-out the Riverside Studios where SECOND BEST opened this evening marking the young actor’s stage debut.
Asa Butterfield in Second Best. Photo Hugo Glendinning
02 Feb
Reviews
Review: PLAY ON! at Lyric Hammersmith
By Stuart King Sunday, February 2 2025, 22:02
A thinly woven amalgamation of love stories centred around Harlem’s Cotton Club, form the basis for an evening of rumbustious hoofing and competitive lung blasting as PLAY ON! opens at the Lyric Hammersmith.
Play On!, Ensemble - Copyright Ciara Hillyer.
31 Jan
Reviews
Review: AS LONG AS WE ARE BREATHING at the Arcola
By Stuart King Friday, January 31 2025, 10:47
A cloying pungency of lavender oil permeates the Arcola’s subterranean stairway (and your nostrils), long before you reach the playing area. As you enter, a man (Matthew James Hinchliffe) plays a calmly resonant percussion instrument, as though we are about to enjoy a collective massage. Our meditation on the Jewish condition begins with the reflections of an elderly woman Miriam (Caroline Gruber) who we learn survived her harrowing adolescence in Bratislava.
Caroline Gruber in As Long As We Are Breathing at the Arcola Theatre. Copyright Lidia Crisafulli
29 Jan
Reviews
Review: THE GIFT at Park Theatre
By Stuart King Wednesday, January 29 2025, 10:26
Park Theatre presents the world premier of Dave Florez’ comedy drama THE GIFT, in which obsessive Colin is destined to fixate and generally unravel as a consequence of receiving a mysterious box through the mail… Or at least that is what his concerned sister Lisa and her partner Brian are convinced will happen, and they speak from considerable experience of Colin’s neurotic foibles.
Alex Price, Nicholas Burns and Laura Haddock in The Gift at Park Theatre. Credit Rich Southgate
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