My Cultural Life - London

Director Bruce Jamieson’s robust approach to one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays tackles head-on the issue of religious intolerance at its heart. Whilst losing some of the sparkle of the romantic subplots, it directly addresses important contemporary questions.

In this superbly staged entertainment, June Abbott's snappy direction and a cast whose sparkle matches the script carries the audience on a tide of laughter. The satire is directed mainly at the vagaries of TV news presentation, but darker issues surrounding attitudes to women also surface in this provacatively titled play.

Sheila Cornelius finds 'Counterfeit Skin' to be a witty, farcical and thoroughly engaging portrayal of modern gay men and their relationships - with darker overtones.

'What will become of the wonder-workers in a world of electric light?' It's an ironic question in this 1914 classic of Jewish theatre which pitches us into a world of sacred pacts, ancient texts, dream visitors and other manifestations from the spirit world.

Illona Linthwaite’s excellent revival of My Sister in This House is based on the real-life murder in France of a mother and daughter by two servants in 1933, and provides a seasonal reminder of how bad weather accentuates dark thoughts.

Combining elements of Film Noir and the Western genre with a realist twist, ‘El Violin’ retells a historically-based incident and makes universal statements about power and resistance.

The theatre-in-the-round space of the Courtyard Theatre, bordered by silvery trees with fairy lights, is perfect for Phil Willmott’s production of ‘The Winter’s Tale’, emphasising the magical and community aspects of the play in a season that celebrates redemption.

A history of the King's Head, Islington's most famous theatrical locale 

Taking a pint of beer or a glass of wine into a theatre at the back of a pub is something we take for granted nowadays, but before 1970 it wasn’t possible. That was when American Dan Crawford started work on London’s first pub theatre: The King’s Head.

The place already had quite a history. The original tavern on the site in Upper Street was rumoured to be Henry VIII’s regular stopping-off point on the way to see his mistress, who lived round the corner. In the seventeenth century the back room was used as a venue for cock-fighting and in the early twentieth century for (illegal) boxing.

In 1970 Dan Crawford converted it into a 115 seat theatre which evolved into London’s premier fringe venue for new plays, musicals, revivals, British contemporary classics and revues.

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The current production at Old Red Lion Theatre must be one of the funniest plays on the London Fringe. The plot outline allows only a glimpse of an entertainment that comprises just over an hour of brilliant writing, staging and action leading up a farcically surreal climax.

Claude Chabrol’s cinematic love letter to his leading lady, the striking Isabelle Huppert, unveils the politics behind one of the biggest frauds in France's history.