Making its premiere in the late 19th Century, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado had witnessed the 2nd longest run in the Savoy Theatre’s history up until that time period. At least 150 companies within Europe and America had produced the opera, showing a demand for the opera within the west. Based in Titipu, Japan, the idea was to satirise British Politics by ‘othering’; placing the narrative in a distant land – a concept we now recognise as highly offensive due to the creators’ lack of knowledge of Japanese culture. Cue the English National Opera’s take on the well known opera, a focus more so on the satirisation of politics and the upper classes.

On average, we speak roughly tens of thousands of words a day – a form of communication so embedded within our culture, it’s second nature and something we take for granted. Throughout time, words have formed, transformed, meanings have changed, they’ve taken on various meanings and have been taken from various cultures from around the world. Examining our relationship with words in his work presented at Certain Black’s Circus Circus Circus Festival, Jamal Harewood presents Word – a show aimed at word enthusiasts.

A story which needs telling and compelling in its unique way, Five Years is almost the powerful monologue it could be. While it may allude to some prevalent themes, Five Years leaves a lot untouched where it may have benefit from some fleshing out.

In a world where statistics show that one in three young people suffer from mental health issues, Reasons to Stay Alive challenges the way we visualise depression and anxiety, and shares honestly what an individual must overcome to find inner peace.

This play will loom in your conscience with uncomfortable truths and disturbing tension in hanging over the space; Brechtian without losing humanity, Evros is unavoidably relevant in its disturbing illustration of oppressive systems and dehumanisation.

Mixed performances and an unsubtle script leave Fast a little unsatisfying as it never allows itself to elaborate on the themes established without being painfully obvious. Fast never really gets off the ground in this slightly unengaging, confused story about manipulation and coercion.

Anupama Chandrasekhar’s play is an onslaught of misogyny, violence against women and shock tactics, which leads to an unsettling, if a little glib, two hours of drama. Ibsen’s Ghosts is one of the entities that inspire the narrative, particularly focusing in this instance on a father’s sins. The true story of the girl gang-raped in Delhi, India in 2012 is another inspiration. It’s a heavy evening, filled with bold decisions and potent symbolism.

Courtesy of Mark Douet.

An exceptionally intimate reconsideration of hyper-masculinity, Shook is brilliantly structured in its damning condemnation of a system that leaves many without aspirations. Although it’s a little on the nose at times, Samuel Bailey and Papatango manage to present a compelling narrative of three young offenders facing unanswerable questions.

Welcome to Bear Ridge, a snowy mountain village suspended in time, once thriving but now forgotten.  Ed Thomas’s setting for On Bear Ridge possesses an uncanny resemblance to the current neglected valleys of Wales – places that have been lost to the attractive cities that chug with power and production. Cities that have no time for the sleepy likes of John Daniel (Rhys Ifans) and Noni (Rakie Ayola), the convivial shop owners of Bear Ridge Stores who, with slaughterhouse boy Ifan William (Sion Daniel Young), refuse to leave their much loved home.

Courtesy of Mark Douet.

Over the top and elaborately self-deprecating, High Fidelity plays on masculine displacement of responsibility while offering a slightly tropey adaptation of Nick Hornby’s romcom of the same name. No matter how witty, charming, occasionally perceptive and colourful this musical is; I can’t help but leave with a feeling of something being missing.

Courtesy of Mark Senior.