Ayesha Hazarika, Soho Theatre review - feminism examined

★★★ AYESHA HAZARIKA, SOHO THEATRE Fascinating and often funny take on feminism

Fascinating and often funny take on the subject

As a former adviser to Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband – and a woman who has put her name forward to be a Labour Party candidate at a Westminster election – Ayesha Hazarika certainly knows her politics from the inside. So a show with the title Girl on Girl: The Fight For Feminism promises to be avowedly political.

Ivo Graham, Soho Theatre review - the perils of growing up

Going deep into personal material unearths lots of laughs

Considering where Motion Sickness ends up, Ivo Graham's new show begins a million miles away, as he talks about his love of trains and his favourite train company, Chiltern – or “The Chilt”. But don't be fooled by this quotidian fare; what begins as a seemingly aimless wander down a path of nothing very much packs an emotional punch by the end of the hour.

Nish Kumar, Soho Theatre review - the state we're in

He's angry – but he has a lot to be angry about

Blimey, Nish Kumar is angry. Angry about Donald Trump, angry about misogyny, angry about racism, angry about Brexit – angry about a lot of things. But before anyone could dismiss It's In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves as a checklist of woke priorities for the liberal metropolitan elite, he turns the joke against himself – it shows how upside down the world is, he says, that a 33-year-old comic whose favourite food is dips has become a spokesman for the politically engaged.

Edinburgh Fringe 2018: Rose Matafeo review

★★★★ EDINBURGH FRINGE 2018: ROSE MATAFEO Comedy winner has a wonderfully daft show

Edinburgh Comedy Award winner has a wonderfully daft show

As we enter the venue, Rose Matafeo is playing a game of mini table tennis with a member of the audience. Nothing that follows seems to relate to this “just a bit of fun to start the show” – but, trust me, it's one of the cleverest bits of misdirection you will ever see. The penny drops only at the end of Horndog, for which the New Zealander deservedly won the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award for best show at the Fringe at the weekend.

Edinburgh Fringe 2018 reviews: Rosie Jones/ Marcus Brigstocke/ Alice Snedden

EDINBURGH FRINGE 2018 Rosie Jones / Marcus Brigstocke / Alice Snedden

More from the world's biggest and best arts festival

Rosie Jones ★★★

There are two versions of Rosie Jones, she tells us; one nice, one not so nice. And who knows which of those would have won the battle of psyches if the comic had not been deprived of oxygen for a quarter of an hour during birth, she asks in Fifteen Minutes. It's a terrific device – subtle but pointed, witty but poignant – as she muses about what kind of person she might have been without cerebral palsy.

End of the Pier, Park Theatre review - thought-provoking play about comedy and race

★★★★ END OF THE PIER, PARK THEATRE Les Dennis is superb as a washed-up comic

Les Dennis is superb as a washed-up comic

Les Dennis was once a marquee name on Saturday night television as host of Family Fortunes, but since giving up the light entertainment lark he now plies his trade as an actor, and a very good one at that. If you've not seen it, give yourself a treat and watch his bang-on-the-nose performance as “Les Dennis”, a delusional, whinging has-been, in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Extras.

Bridget Christie, Brighton Festival review - politics through a domestic lens

★★★★ BRIDGET CHRISTIE, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL Politics through a domestic lens

Brexit and its fallout still an obsession

Bridget Christie tells us at the top of the show that she is a heterosexual, able-bodied, privileged white female – so why is she feeling so discontented? As she explains with great verbal dexterity in What Now?, it is living in a post-EU referendum world that has made her feel so discombobulated; left and right have no meaning any more, and – like so many British voters – she doesn’t know where her political home is.

Sarah Kendall, Soho Theatre review - a superb storyteller

★★★★ SARAH KENDALL, SOHO THEATRE A superb storyteller

Australian stand-up muses on the lottery of life

For her past few shows, Sarah Kendall's stock in trade has been intricately crafted stories that mix fact and fiction, drawing on her childhood in Newcastle, New South Wales, and observations about the world she now lives in. Her latest show, One-Seventeen, continues in that vein, and this time she has threaded in some deeply personal material.

Danny Baker, Touring review - boy, can he talk

★★★ DANNY BAKER Not really a standup, more a one-man verbal onslaught

Radio personality gives it the verbals

The first thing that greets the audience in the foyer for Danny Baker's new showGood Time Charlie's Back!, which I saw at Princes Hall in Aldershot, is the merchandise stall, selling various items; T-shirts for £20, programmes at £10 (pre-signed!), and mugs for £8. But despite this naked determination to relieve punters of their wads, no one can accuse Baker of not giving value for money, as the show last three hours, and counting. Boy, can this man talk.