Many Good Men, Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh review - daring but flawed provocation

★★★ MANY GOOD MEN, TYNECASTLE STADIUM, EDINBURGH Daring but flawed provocation

A shocking attack kicks off an audacious experience that makes its audience complicit, in Clare Duffy's ambitious but patchy show

There’s been an incident in Edinburgh. Right near the Scottish Parliament. Several dead, many more injured. Among the witnesses were two of the capital’s young football stars, now clearly traumatised by what they’ve seen. Someone shouting about women running the world, inflicting their agenda on powerless men. Something needs to happen – these people should be hunted down, made to pay for what they’ve done.

1984, Hackney Town Hall review - Room 101 shapeshifts into 2023, but remains as terrifyingly plausible as ever

★★★★ 1984, HACKNEY TOWN HALL Room 101 shapeshifts into 2023, terrifyingly plausible

The immersive experience makes us both victims of, and perpetrators in, an all too familiar perversion of truth

The day after I saw the show, as went about the mundanities of domestic life, I wondered how long it would take to come across a reference to 1984. My best bet was listening to an LBC phone-in concerning next week’s conference at Bletchley Park on Artificial Intelligence, but the advertising break intervened, so I switched to Times Radio.

Robin Hood. The Legend. Re-written, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - no bullseye for new take on familiar characters

★ ROBIN HOOD. THE LEGEND. RE-WRITTEN, REGENT'S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE New version of old story wastes talent and resources in a shambolic show

New version of old story wastes talent and resources in a shambolic show

After the pantos, the movies (epic, camp and animated) and the television series, is there anything new to be mined in the story of Robin Hood? Probably not, as this messy, misjudged show takes that hope and fires an arrow through its heart.

Wonderville Magic and Cabaret review - fast-paced show delivers the promised wonder

★★★★ WONDERVILLE MAGIC AND CABARET Fast-paced show delivers the promised wonder

Leave memories of Paul Daniels at the door and embrace the sweet deception inside

There’s nothing quite like magic, live, up close and personal. Sure there are the TV spectaculars, the casino resort mega-shows and even The Masked Magician to pull back the curtains, but there’s a frisson in the air when the card that’s in your head appears in the conjuror’s hand. Roll in a spot of cabaret and circus and the tang of transgression tingles on the tongue, the grim world of the natural sliding away, the supernatural its welcome substitute. 

Brahms Piano Concertos, Tsoy, Philharmonia, Emelyanychev, Bold Tendencies - rich epic mastery in concrete surroundings

★★★★★ TSOY, PHILHARMONIA, EMELYANCHEV, PECKHAM Big Brahms in concrete 'hall'

Brilliant pianism, ravishing orchestral playing, vivid conducting under a car-park roof

To excel at one massive Brahms piano concerto in a standard concert hall is cause enough for celebration. To master two over one evening in a very unorthodox space – namely, below the roof of Peckham’s former multi-storey car park – brings the performer close to recreative genius.

C-o-n-t-a-c-t, Musidrama review - a beautifully bonkers promenade

★★★★ C-O-N-T-A-C-T, MUSIDRAMA A beautifully bonkers promenade

Real-life theatre bounces back with this lovely meander through grief and loneliness

A woman sits on a bench. She’s got a song stuck in her head – she can’t remember how one of the lines ends, so it keeps going round and round. It mingles with birdsong, idle musings on whether birds look down on us (figuratively as well as literally), and worries about the strange pain in her chest. The woman’s name is Sarah (Laura White), and she’s not speaking out loud. Luckily, all of us audience members can hear what she’s thinking.

United Queendom, Kensington Palace review - rollicking royal tale

Intriguing, enjoyable immersion in Georgian court intrigue

Les Enfants Terribles is the theatre company behind several interesting immersive projects, including Alice's Adventures Underground and Inside Pussy Riot. Now it has joined forces with Historic Royal Palaces to tell the story of two women integral to the Georgian crown – George II's wife, Queen Caroline, and his mistress Henrietta Howard.

User Not Found, The CoffeeWorks Project review - solo play set in a café offers food for thought

Dante or Die's latest is mirthful and mournful in turn

Who is that slithering on the floor by your foot, or coming to rest by or upon your knee? Audiences lucky enough to find themselves at User Not Found, the latest from the ever-enterprising site-specific company Dante or Die, should be prepared to swivel this way and that as they take in the hairpin changes of tone achieved across 90 minutes by the play's invaluable solo performer, Terry O'Donovan, whom we find in mourning-induced freefall.