The Engine

What the Lobster Shouted As It Boiled at 7.30pm Lucy and Macca in Lost Youth at 9pm Etcetera Theatre, Camden Town, London, Friday, August, 3rd The Etcetera Theatre is a tiny theatrical venue in North London. Inside a Camden pub a door opens into a theatre. Like a scene from the children’s cartoon Mr Ben, a prosaic scene becomes something else. ‘What the Lobster shouted as it Boiled’ is a one-man stand-up routine that cleverly combines some songs, a painting, some acting, an all-round comedy event. Quite a lot is demanded of William Tombs, who delivers a fast-paced set that seems confusing yet is successfully integrated and explained by the end. The relatively cerebral content may be a distraction but Tombs engaged well with his audience, the content was not too distracting. A successful, funny, and surprisingly interesting show. Tomb’s is definitely someone to watch. The second piece, ‘Lost Youth’ by Lucy and Macca, is more robustly comic, perhaps less cerebrally intrigu...

HOLDING FIRE! 3rd August – 3rd September BY JACK SHEPHERD Director Mark Rosenblatt Designer Janet Bird Composer John Tams and Joe Townsend Cast Kirsty Besterman Philip Bird Cornelius Booth Jim Bywater Louise Callaghan Philip Cumbus Leander Deeny Craig Gazey Alice Haig Peter Hamilton Dyer Adam Kay Jennifer Kidd Pippa Nixon Jonathan Moore Christopher Obi Dale Rapley Mark Rice-Oxley Nicholas Shaw Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes including an interval This play focuses on the radical 19th century Chartist Movement, it's struggle for one man, one vote. (ie not woman, that came much later in 1918.) Much of this play is very expressive, populist but most of the dialogue and characterisation fails to rise above the level of cliché, which may please some, presumably people who enjoy plays filled with cliches. Of course the setting is marvellous, of course the acting and even the script was competent. But don’t expect anything more than populist entertainment. The ideals depicted are lau...