We walked through the pouring rain and down a little alley to be greeted by Temple Church, its majesty emphasised by the dark and inclement weather. Ushered in, we took our seats with only the supine effigies of the Knight Templars who built the church between the stage and us. Antic Disposition chose to follow the building’s shape and place the performance in the round, the sculpted heads on the curved walls peering into the centre of the space with us. At that point, it was hard to think of a better setting for this tale of “death-mark’d love”.

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It’s the discussion about the German AutoBahn motorways that brings up the line “We spend 1/8^th of our lives in cars”, a fitting metaphor for travelling too fast or too slow in life. It is on this tumultuous note that sees the audience brought along for a ride across America’s highways. From the confines of a battered BMW’s front seat, several short vignettes explore the darkness of the tenuous relationships and secrets that make up Neil LaBute’s Autobahn.

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Sometimes puppets say the strangest things. With jaunty little numbers such as ‘Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist’, ‘The Internet is for Porn’  and ‘If You Were Gay, That’d be Okay’, Avenue Q has proven to audiences for years that an adorable, wide-eyed puppet on a hand excuses a show of voicing some of our most uncomfortable, most silenced thoughts. Much as a therapist may encourage their patient to vent emotion through puppetry, so writers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx have used their fluffy inventions to embolden their audience, whose gasps and shrieks of laughter at The New Wimbledon Theatre last night proved that Avenue Q has lost neither its hilarity nor its shock value since it first opened in 2003. Avenue Q remains, undoubtedly, the most loved, most X-rated puppet show in town.

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Despite the range of talent at the Fringe, it’s not often that a production is comparable to, or better than, a professional London run. However, Chef excels all other pieces of theatre I’ve seen at the Fringe in the last three years. The script is compelling, Jade Anouka’s performance completely perfect, and the entire experience will be with you for weeks afterwards.

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List all the Shakespeare plays you know. The first few will roll of the tongue, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, the endless Henry series and maybe even A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Then, depending on schooling, will probably be the likes of Julius Ceasar, Taming Of The Shrew, The Tempest etc… The point being, there are many Shakespeare plays most of us think of before we name Troilus and Cressida and Coriolanus which happen to make up the Lazarus Theatre Company‘s double bill.

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The lady in front of me in the queue for Beckett’s trilogy, Not I, Footfalls and Rockaby, told me how “brave” I was to “tackle a Beckett”, which took me by surprise. In the dark about why this should be, I prepared to be enlightened. The darkness soon becomes literal and total.

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For a play which takes on Orpheus and The Trial as its inspiration, The Orpheus Project is a confused play which really doesn’t know what it wants to be. The dystopian tone of the piece is thrown off constantly by some misplaced ironic comedy and never quite reaches its potential. Despite the multi-media nature of the performance, incorporating physical theatre and dance, it still falls flat.

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The Edinburgh Fringe attracts shows from across the globe, but rarely do international displays make the audience feel really transported. Japanese group Ship of the Ryukyu however provide an excellent window to traditional dance and song with Bottle Mail from Okinawa. The premise, a letter in a bottle from a ten year old boy in Okinawa, easily includes the audience within the spectacle.

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“No, you can’t give in and you can’t play dumb, when you get thick skin, then you’re quick to numb, If you let them win, then a dog’s what you become….at the dogfight’. Dogfight, the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award winner for Outstanding Musical, is the tender love story of Rose Fenney, a naive and unworldly waitress who dreams of a better, more peaceful world, and Eddie Birdlace, an inexperienced and uncertain young Marine, who struggles with the balance of new found love and saving face to his peers.

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It’s the end of the school day and all you want to do is go home and relax. You walk through the door where you are instantly greeted by your parent or guardian asking you how your day has been. Social Media appears to be the only thing on your mind, and so you rush straight to your room. This is the perfect chance to catch up on the latest gossip with your friends online, however, what  happens when you receive vicious messages aimed at dwindling your confidence and self esteem? Ahead of her performance in Crystal Springs, I was able to speak to actress Suzan Sylvester about her role, her thoughts on the internet and her varied acting career!

You’ll be starring in Kathy Rucker’s play, Crystal Springs from Tuesday 5th August, could you describe what the play is about?

Two different mothers whose daughters are best friends and how a small unkindness snowballs into a terrible outcome.

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