Theatre review: How To Survive An Apocalypse

After a longer closure than most theatres, and not one but two productions of Not Quite Jerusalem getting postponed by Covid, the Finborough finally reopens, at a reduced capacity due to the venue's intimacy (so, only four people per three-seater bench.) With that relaunch show falling foul of a positive test result, we're straight in to one of the Finborough's familiar remits, that promotes work from Canadian playwrights. And Jordan Hall's How To Survive An Apocalypse does have a suitably ironic title for a theatre coming out of lockdown, although it dates from 2016; and while there's little about it that couldn't happen today, Jimmy Walters' production doesn't update the timeline. Probably because no mention of Covid would be unusual in a play whose characters start to become obsessed with possible world-ending scenarios. To start with, though, the lives they're used to are under threat from much more mundane financial pressures.

Theatre review: Glory Dazed

Second Shot is a theatre company that works with prisoners, and Cat Jones' Glory Dazed is a piece developed with ex-servicemen in jail, attempting to shine a light on why so many of them end up there. The scene is a grubby pub in Doncaster, where landlord Simon (Adam Foster) habitually waters down the spirits, and new barmaid Leanne (Kristin Atherton) is far from the brightest spark. Soon after closing, Simon is clearing up when Ray (Samuel Edward-Cook) bangs on the door, demanding to speak to Carla (Chloe Massey,) a customer who's hanging around after hours. Carla is his ex-wife, and Ray has returned to try and get her back - an ambition that probably won't be helped much by the fact that he's shown up drunk, sweating, shouting and covered in someone else's blood.