An inventive production of John Masefield’s 30s fantasy children’s novel needs more brutal editing to truly shine

Vulnerable young people are given a voice to tell their own gutwrenching story of the terrifying exploitation of children to sell drugs.

Imaginative and visually exciting story of Charles Darwin’s eventful Beagle voyage its told in a purpose-built venue at this iconic museum

A thoughtful, intelligent dramatisation of Virginia Woolf’s novel is marred by jarring theatrical gimmicks

A meal out is never simply about food these days, with the trend for all things immersive spreading to the humble three course meal.

A Georgian lady’s slipper, a Lifeguard’s boot and a sheep’s shoe are among the historic footwear from the London College of Fashion on display at historic Hackney house

Recorder virtuoso Lydia Gosnell will be coming home when her quartet play the Hackney Proms next month.

“Perhaps only in Britain could one succeed in writing a thriller about the weather,” observed David Haig who both wrote and stars in this little-known true story about D-Day.

Sharon D Clarke’s formidable Caroline inhabits a basement laundry that she compares to hell or being underwater. Trudging between washer and dryer, she wonders how she wound up so tired and downtrodden at 39

The story sees Turner Prize-winning YBA artist Simon Dykes wake up after a wild night of drugs, booze and sex to find himself and his girlfriend have become apes, running at the Arcola until April 21

Bridget Galton finds a chilling version of The Scottish play lacks poetry and the supernatural

The Primrose Hill director who now runs The Bridge Theatre in Borough speaks at Jewish Book Week on March 11 at King’s Place abot book Balancing Acts

Paapa Essiedu won the 2016 Ian Charleson Award for his performance in Hamlet. Set in modern day state influenced by Ghana, the acclaimed RSC production is revived at the Hackney Empire. How does it feel to be back playing Shakespeare’s Dane?

The play is overstuffed with Margaret’s funny and perceptive quotes but knitting them into a dialogue that can be sustained for ninety minutes has proved hard

Afua Hirsch talks about her new book Brit(ish) at Jewish Book Week at King’s Place on March 7

Bridget Galton enjoys a comedy about heartless money hungry private equity fund managers featuring a sharp performance by Hayley Atwell

What if you are Vienna’s official court composer and a disrespectful upstart arrives, seduces your star pupil, blows raspberries at authority and makes your best work sound mediocre?

Sheldon Harnick is best known for penning the lyrics to Fiddler on the Roof, but the 93-year-old collaborated with composer Jerry Bock on another Broadway musical about a Jewish family with five offspring

Flexible fleas, amazing ants. and a trio of clownish insects, who spar, fall in love and play pranks on each other, and us

For pure spectacle, and immersion in an alternative dreamlike theatrical world, it’s hard to beat

The project has filmed 100 in depth interviews with people whose lives have been touched by the illness in a bid to abolish the stigma

This is wholesome, traditional, uplifting, entertaining and highly recommended

The best family entertainment across north and east London this Christmas

Over the years, the Empire has cooked up a winning formula for street-smart extravaganzas that blend the pop culture of modern London with centuries old panto traditions

From bruising and stubble on Lee Harvey Oswald’s face, to the vivid red of the Russian flag flying over the Reichstag, or the turquoise of Bikini Atoll beneath a mushroom cloud, a new book transforms some of history’s most evocative images into colour

A white-faced performer emerges from a suitcase to tell a tall tale about a girl who lies.

Actress and campaigner Natasha Langridge tells Bridget Galton why performing her monologue In Memory of Leaves on a barge at Camden Lock and Hackney Wick will focus minds on London’s social housing crisis

Bridget Galton talks to actor Ian McDiarmid about playing vilified MP Enoch Powell and whether there might be a Star Wars spin off for his evil emperor Darth Sidious

Heralding the final opera at the venerable and iconic Islington venue, the King’s Head, is a classic for the ages.

The Lake District has just been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Bridget Galton visited a spa hotel to try out its walking tours of the scenery that inspired Beatrix Potter and Wordsworth.