Theatre review:Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

Fresh from an As You Like It that leaned heavily on sign language, Josie Rourke directs a play that investigates communication and what happens when its methods are severely limited. I missed Sam Steiner's Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons when it first premiered in 2015, and have felt left out having seen it mentioned in so many lists of best recent plays. But as it gets a starry West End production I'm left wondering what the fuss is about, in a play with a fascinating premise that sets the stage for a lot of interesting ideas - but runs out of things to do with them very quickly. Bernadette (Jenna Coleman) and Oliver (Aidan Turner) are a couple living in a dystopian world where Parliament has passed a law forbidding anyone from using more than 140 words, spoken or in writing, in any 24-hour period.

Theatre review: You Stupid Darkness!

Andy Rush and Andrew Finnigan in a play together at last, and it's not written by Tom Wells? It must be the End of Days. In Sam Steiner's strangely positive tragicomedy You Stupid Darkness! it actually is the End of Days, but rather than a single explosive event this is a slow-burning Apocalypse that's very gradually but inexorably rolling out across the world. The unnamed event has left the air toxic; next to parts of the city that are still liveable are no-go areas, the (presumably quarantined) residents horribly infected. Whole towns get suddenly wiped out and one day all the trees fell down, but it's not all over quite yet, and until it is everyone might as well just get on with their lives. So 17-year-old Joey (Finnigan) still has to get his work experience credit for school, and every Tuesday night goes to Brightline, a late-night helpline where he and three other volunteers take calls from people struggling to cope with Everything That’s Happening.