Theatre review: 36 Phone Calls

At Hampstead Downstairs at the moment you can catch a man having a breakdown over the course of 36 Phone Calls. This monologue by Jeremy Brock sees Martin (Lee Ross,) an accountant recently thrown out of the house by his wife for cheating, having to live and work in what looks like a storage lock-up (designs by Anna Bliss Scully.) He has a landline and three mobile phones, to variously call family, his mistress and clients. As his time stuck in this small room lasts longer than expected, we see him attempt to make up with his wife, try to get his daughter to speak to him again, and help his son with his homework, all while one of his clients asks him to hide a huge amount of cash from the Inland Revenue, and a mysterious heavy breather keeps calling on one of his phones.

Theatre review: The Blackest Black

Abi (Charity Wakefield) is an English artist who's managed to get sponsorship to spend time at an observatory in the middle of the Arizona desert, to create artworks inspired by the exploration of space. Even before we meet him, we can tell from the way Abi huffs about the arrogance of the "spaceman" that she has feelings for him, and when astronomer Martin (John Light) does appear it's quickly made clear that the two have been sleeping together. As Martin settles in for a night of observations crucial to his research, Abi tries to force the married scientist to engage with her world-view, while he resolutely plays his cards close to his chest. As these two big personalities clash, the timid technician Chuck (Ian Bonar) gets caught up in the middle of their drama, with potentially tragic consequences.