Soho Theatre Archives - North West End UK

Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip – Soho Theatre

30Jan

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip – Soho Theatre

Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip. That’s both the title of the show and the UK-born American comedian’s very literal mission statement for his kooky comedy hour. Having previously earned him a Best Newcomer Nominee at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2024 for its fringe run, Adejuyigbe’s zany show has arrived at Soho Theatre. A true comedian of the internet age, Adejuyigbe packs the show with powerpoint presentations, songs, a one-man musical in which he threatens to do a Lin-Manuel Miranda-esque rap, and plenty more bits for one sole purpose: to impress his crush. As he builds up to performing his promised singular backflip—because it’s the ultimate way to woo a woman, supposedly—Adejuyigbe goes on to explain his six-part method for winning over a crush, from deliverin...

Amy Gledhill: Make Me Look Fit on the Poster – Soho Theatre

29Jan

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Amy Gledhill: Make Me Look Fit on the Poster – Soho Theatre

As a quadruple Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee with appearances on TV shows such as Live At The Apollo and Would I Lie To You? under her belt, Amy Gledhill has been dubbed one of comedy’s brightest new stars. In her solo show Make Me Look Fit on the Poster, now playing at Soho Theatre, she proves why. The Soho crowd don’t need much warming up (impressive, given it was 9pm on a Tuesday), but Gledhill still kicks things off with brash energy by asking us all to take off our knickers and throw them at her in appreciation. Realising the logistical challenges of her request, she gives us a hand by opening up a box of underwear and chucking them into the audience for us to shower back down on her. Photo: Paul Gilbey This perfectly kicks off a fun and cheeky hour of comedy where Gledhill ...

24Jan

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Santi & Naz – Soho Theatre

Pretty much every person that walked into the dimly lit, intimate space of Soho Theatre paused for a beat at the unusual sight of the actors already being present on the stage. Two young women lay on the floor, tracing lines on the ground and humming to themselves. They waited in that comfortably contemplative state as the audience settled in, like a visual preface. Santi and Naz are the best of friends, having grown up together in a little village in pre-partition India. Their meeting place is by a lake, under the shade of a tree, where they play-act, tell jokes, and talk about the hazy future. Naz is blissfully unaware of the political turmoil, while Santi reads and tries to keep up with what is going on. One Muslim and the other Sikh, neither of them knows just how much the events of...

Anirban Dasgupta: Polite Provocation – Soho Theatre

31Oct

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Anirban Dasgupta: Polite Provocation – Soho Theatre

At the very outset Anirban Dasgupta promises that by the end of the hour, the audience will know a lot more about India than they already do. He stays true to his word, educating the room on the current state of politics of the country, Mahatma Gandhi, the freedom struggle, and the growth of standup comedy and the challenges it faces. While he does eventually segue on to other topics, the best parts of Dasgupta’s set are for the politically aware. It also seems to be what he most enjoys. He brings up some uncomfortable truths about the political and social atmosphere in India with much hilarity. The evening’s show, he says, is “like the Indian media – sold out.” But can he tell these jokes with the same ease back in his home city? Probably not, given what he goes on to tell us ab...

5Oct

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

The Gentlemen’s Club – Soho Theatre

If you want to experience drag cabaret Bollywood style woven into a well-crafted narrative about freedom, community and possibility, The Gentlemen’s Club is the place to be! Co-presented by the National Centre of Performing Arts and Soho Theatre, London’s finest cabaret-meets-theatre venue, The Gentlemen’s Club is not only Patchwork Ensemble’s debut in the UK but also India’s first Drag King show. The Gentlemen’s Club opens with a nostalgic act by Rocky aka Shamsher (Puja Sarup) playing a tribute to the legendary Shammi Kapoor and the golden era of Hindi cinema- performed to absolute perfection. As a senior among an ensemble of drag artists (Sheena Khalid, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, Srishti Dixit and Amey Mehta) performing at the club, Rocky is both warmly welcoming and a lightly pat...

11Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Interview with the Vamp – Soho Theatre

A love letter to the lost and found art of vamping, this rambunctious queer son-cycle has it all. We get logos in a well-reasoned critique of the sinister ascendance hyper realistic cakes, ethos in the unimpeachable credentials provided by Dr Adam Perchard’s perfect hair, and just almost surfeiting pathos in ten top notch cabaret songs each braver, funnier, and filthier than the last. Perchard’s uneasy chemistry with composer and pianist Richard Thomas juxtaposes well with their easy command of the eager audience instantly won over by their unique mixture of sheepish charm and operatic bravado all bundled up in a scintillating gold trained over gown that can’t help but sparkle. Composed of a lot of singing and a little talking, Interview with the Vamp comprises about an hour’s w...

The Dao of Unrepresentative British Chinese Experience – Soho Theatre

24Jun

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

The Dao of Unrepresentative British Chinese Experience – Soho Theatre

Daniel York Loh’s semi-autobiographical piece, new to the Soho Theatre is a non-linear experience following a young British Chinese young person growing up in the West Country. Their experience is washed with extreme racism in the playground, difficulty with exclusion which leads to an unhealthy drug habit and after stealing a car has to deal with a racist police officer believing they ‘will be dead by 21’. Our two actors (Melody Chikakane Brown and Aruhan Galieva) bring this story to life supported by Daniel himself on the side, guitar in hand. An important part of this story is its rage through punk rock- sudden bursts of pent up fury, beautifully poetic writing in the genre of rock. Our younger performer’s personal purpose is to write the Dao of the British Chinese experience in w...

30May

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Strategic Love Play – Soho Theatre

Two singletons walk into a bar, ready for (at least) a polite two drinks’ worth of gettin-to-know-you chatter with a person they’ve never met outside the confines of their phone screen. What could go wrong? The dating app-induced first date is a scene many of us are all too familiar with, and it sets up the premise of Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play, currently playing at Soho Theatre until 15th June. We join the two characters — simply referred to as Woman (Letty Thomas) and Man (Archie Backhouse) — at their first meeting, and it’s abundantly clear from the get-go that they’re not on the same wavelength. While Man seems content exchanging bumbling pleasantries that avoid any risk of a genuinely enlightening conversation, Woman is bitingly honest and desperate to dig deeper....

14May

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Blizzard – Soho Theatre

A subtle yet impactful combination of tender, wacky and surreal, Emily Woof’s Blizzard is a light yet deep journey of love, identity and existence narrated by her character Dotty. She is persuaded by her husband, a neuroscientist also called Dotty, to deliver a lecture on ‘Criticality, Connectivity and the Neuronal Avalanche’ in Switzerland as he is ‘indisposed’. Despite displaying her incomprehension of and disinterest in the subject, she decides to stand-in for him so that his life’s work does not go down the drain; the specifics of why her and not another scientist, and why not cancel or postpone the lecture are not given but they are inconsequential to the story. As Dotty journeys to Switzerland, she discovers and simultaneously invites the audience to discover the meaning of those dry...

Boys on the Verge of Tears – Soho Theatre

20Apr

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Boys on the Verge of Tears – Soho Theatre

As a society, the debate around toxic masculinity continues to rage and curdle. The emergence of male social media influencers with unhinged and criminal intentions towards women runs in tandem with alarmingly low conviction rates for men who sexually assault women. Just 2 in 100 rapes recorded by police between Oct' 2022 and Sep' 2023 resulted in someone being charged that same year. Let alone convicted. Into this worrying manosphere drops Boys on the Verge of Tears by Sam Grabiner. It offers no solutions, but by opening a a window onto the brutal evolution of boys to men, it certainly shows why we keep ending up here. Boys on the Verge of Tears was selected from 1,500 entries to the Verity Bargate Award, which is sponsored by Character 7, producers of The Night Manager and Culprits. I...