Dracula – Noel Coward Theatre – Saturday 11th April 2026

(Production Rated 4/5) (Cynthia Rated 7/5) How do I start with this one? Well, I guess it starts with my love of a green witch, Elphaba, who by being channelled by her, introduced me to the multi-talented Cynthia Erivo. Having seen her in the ‘Wicked’ films, read her book ‘Simply More’ – so well-written and inspiring in her warm, open and honest language on life-lessons from her own experiences – I felt curious to see her on stage. I’m not a huge ‘Dracula’ fan as such, though have inevitably seen a few versions one way or another. But I’m certainly fascinated by how a sole performer might convincingly play 23 characters and so tell a story in an exciting way. Some reviews didn’t seem to think this production – adapted from Bram Stoker’s book and directed by Kip Williams – had achieved that finding it dull and stilted. In fact, too close to the novel was a comment I spotted along the way. I haven’t read the book, but many would not find that a good critique as they’d love something faithful to the original! Mum!!😉 I confess I did enjoy, and found myself a little obsessed by the 1992 film ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with Gary Oldman in the title role. However, given personal circumstances which may well have meant I wouldn’t be able to get to see it anyway, and given what seemed to be about 50% poor reviews, I allowed my expectations to drop significantly, and let it go…

As fortune would have it, though, my operation was brought forward enabling me to go after all, in spite of the fact I had to be drained of 650ml of my own blood-tinged fluid the day before. Is that ironic, Alanis?! 😉 The Saturday morning, I felt nervous – my first trip properly out in weeks – and also so thrilled to be walking along St. Martin’s Lane! It simply felt amazing just to be doing normal things I enjoy – meeting up with a close friend and going to the theatre – any theatre, any show; good or bad. Just being in that moment of glorious living. That said, I was aware of slight anxiety that Cynthia would be indisposed and so not appear. (Looking at the programme and searching online afterwards, there didn’t seem to be an understudy or alternate – interesting in itself – I wonder what happens if she cannot perform). I really wanted to see and experience Cynthia up close and as personal as someone in multiple characters can be 😊 And right up as close as can be we were in front row stalls.

The production is very clever imho. Cynthia comes on stage and lies down on her back. On screen we then see her shake and tremble; twisting to and fro, as she splits into multiple selves who each head off stage to later return to play their parts. Some characters, and parts of others, are filmed in advance by Cynthia and the team. They then get displayed on screen alongside Cynthia in whatever part she is embodying live at that stage of the play. I guess the only difficulty with that technique, together with the way the book is written (journals, letters and reports in part), is that you can get a little lost with who is who, even though in the main Cynthia is dressed in specific costumes and wigs etc to distinguish them and plays each character distinctively in voice, manner, accent etc. There is a lot to learn – 1hr 50 mins, in fact, of pretty rapid dialogue as well as a multitude of business to do along the way. In interviews Cynthia has said she couldn’t pre-learn it all. In fact, the only way she found she could do so is by running it through with all her assistants on cameras or providing changes in costume and props. She is never really alone on stage, but even then, it’s quite amazing how many people join her at curtain call! She said they were immensely important in helping her know where she is in the play, and she was interacting with them, even though they said nothing. Cynthia wore her trademark long elegant nails – for this white – and apparently a variety of scents each for her representing the different characters. She has said she felt the most empathy for Mina -wife to Jonathan Harker, who opens the story with his visit to Dracula’s castle.

The whole production gripped me so entirely that I couldn’t have appreciated it more. I do think in part that was the head-space and state of emotion in which I was at the time. But, for me, Cynthia was so mesmerising and I was monumentally moved by her and the whole experience of life, death, undeath, love, passion, trauma in such a variety of characters encompassed by one person – oodles of symbolism in that I think and maybe the multiple personalities possible within us all to varying degrees faced with life’s dramas to encourage them emerge from us. Each of her performances was individual and sensational. She is so tiny and yet so powerful.

Another critique I read was that she only sings a very little. Well, this is not a musical, and her exquisite singing is used for a very specific purpose in this production. SPOILER ALERT: Do not read past this point if you don’t want to know… As we come to the end of the play, Cynthia is in the part of Dracula himself. Thus far we have only seen how Dracula’s already ‘turned’ vampires seduce their victims, not the Count himself. In character, though she does not tinge her voice with his accent, Cynthia sings “Come to me” – and it is so gorgeous and enticing, that, yes, she’d have me hook, line and sinker. I was shaking myself in floods of tears and clinging on to my friend in reaction to Cynthia Erivo – little powerhouse of humanity and talent with such an inspiring life force!

Dracula – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2026

The Unbelievers – Royal Court Theatre – Saturday 8th November 2025

(Rated 4/5) I was invited by friends to see ‘The Unbelievers’ as Nicola Walker was in it and they knew I like her. As I’ve said before anything with NW is an immediate “Yes” from me <3. Back when that lovely invitation came through to me, I then didn’t even bother to look up the play or what it was about. I confess I didn’t even notice it was written by Nick Payne, and nor did I recall when much nearer the time of going, what I had seen that NP had written! Just that his name sounded very familiar. And, it is only just before writing my experience of this production, that I realised Nick was the writer of ‘Constellations’, which I gave a 7/5 after seeing it back in 2012!!! It and the performances in it blew me away. If anyone wishes, they can look up my review, but suffice to say it seems to have made me friends with Physics and re-awakened a love of performance, which for some reason I’d lost a little. Nope, I don’t remember why!

So, not the least surprise that ‘The Unbelievers’ has at its heart a very clever idea around time (and space 😉) and is jam-packed with an exploration of the wide-range of human emotion (in this case in response to the missing of a loved-one) and a wide variety of human relationships. Nicola plays the mother of the missing person, and the play explores that fracturing feeling of time, and the sometimes-polar responses she has in her own psychological fracturing following her son’s disappearance with no explanation as to how or why. That desperate constant trauma of the not-knowing. Will she and the family ever get an answer as to what has happened?

‘The Unbelievers’ jumps around in time throughout the seven years it covers from the first moment of missing to – well seven years later! The scene is the same throughout, but with the family of characters related in some way to missing Oscar – or those attempting to help in the search for him – coming into or out of that scene in the family home. Those ‘off-stage’ sit or stand – as though waiting, worrying, contemplating – at the back of the stage behind glass screens so they can all be seen, and are always present. I found that a clever idea too. And in that presence also exaggerates the absence of that one key missing person, around whom absolutely everything revolves.

Nicola is phenomenal – no surprise either that she was or that I would say that I guess haha – and really does take us through the waves of reactions you’d expect in the circumstances – sometimes full-on breaking down, anger, hysterical laughter, crying in agony, disbelief or even scorn towards how her family are responding. It is a very much a blended family about whom you discover more and more in terms of individual characters and the dynamics between them as the play progresses. The ensemble – and it really is an ensemble piece – are terrific. The ‘action’ moves from the sublime to ridiculous and all in between. I have to admit though I personally enjoyed one of the most ridiculous scenes in which one character teaches everyone else about Puffins!

This play is not an ‘easy’ watch. As it jumps around in time, at first, I found myself trying to work out when we were in relation to the initial disappearance, and then coming to a kind of acceptance that it doesn’t actually matter. The agonies around loss like this – and I would imagine even more so when there may be no finding or answer/closure – are going to come and go not necessarily in any linear fashion. Of course, it is also exploring the heights and depths of emotion, with a constant tension as a thread throughout. So much so that at one point, as it happened during a séance-scene, I felt myself in the midst of a panic attack, and had to take some deep breaths and sips of tea to calm myself down! None of we three would say we enjoyed it as such, and one of my companions was very emotional at the end. It is likely to trigger anyone who allows themselves to engage empathically with it and the characters. Incidentally, they all – current partner, ex-partner, siblings, half-siblings, police, medic, parapsychology investigator etc etc – are written and performed exceptionally well with their own idiosyncrasies. Nobody is boring to the audience, even if they might be so, or even annoying or whatever else, to each other.

We had a funny experience when a town known well by us – due to a family connection – got mentioned as quite an obscure place (if I remember right) – and I couldn’t help laughing at that. Kind of a shame as I got distracted and didn’t take in quite why it was being mentioned or what happened there! One of my companions, meanwhile, was focused on trying to see if she could recognise the shops mentioned in the town and not doing so! Quite a funny incident personal to us. Sadly, a very unfunny incident also happened, mid-scene in which mouth swabs were being taken, a woman in black wearing a head-set came on stage and stopped the performers. We were all told we had to leave the auditorium. Someone in the audience had been taken ill. So, we had an unplanned interval of around twenty minutes! I just hope the person was ok. That certainly added anxiety to proceedings, but as the actors came back on stage, Nicola – as herself – gave a little smile – before heading back into character. I found that immensely comforting.

I tend to mostly avoid reviews before I go to productions, but having a quick scan through since, I realise it didn’t seem to ‘land’ with many. For me, it is not as good as ‘Constellations’, or at least as far as my memory of that is re-awakened by my Restricted Review of it. And, I guess, something feels missing in ‘The Unbelievers’ for me too, yet I can’t put my finger on what. Maybe, bizarrely, that reflects the nature of the play – something missing or you’re not quite believing.

TheUnbelievers – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2025

Born With Teeth – Wyndham’s Theatre – Saturday 25th October 2025

(Rated 5/5)

‘Born with Teeth’ by Liz Duffy Adams, is a play inspired by the recent discovery concluded by the editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare, using scientific studies of writing techniques, that Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare collaborated on the three Henry VI plays with a likely probability of over 90%! Now that’s pretty high! Though the vast majority – if not all – of Shakespeare’s plays are now published in his name – historians believe that he wrote with several different writers on a fair few of them. As many will know theories also abound that Shakespeare didn’t write any of them at all! It’s certainly exciting to think about how he may have been at the very least influenced by a writing project with the – at the time of 1591 – high flying, exciting, Cambridge-educated, genius poet and Elizabethan-court spy Kit Marlowe, which Adams imagines in this play. Through her grammar-school, country boy, actor narrator – Will Shakespeare - she informs us at points “This didn’t happen”, or variations thereupon. As Kit and Will discuss, they are not reproducing “factual history” – if such a thing even exists – in their play, and neither is Adams. But, how wonderful to explore what may have occurred between these two; dynamic and gentle; opposing yet maybe attracting personalities, with their vastly different life experiences, views, morals and attitudes to life. The two-hander is full of snappy witty dialogue revealing of so much about both of these two impressive playwrights as they discover each other in front of us, explore their stark contrasts, attempt to draw things from the other they may not want to give, and play-fight, real-fight, attract and repel, creatively banter, come up with their lines, perform them together, and debate the dangers of the world they are in and what that could mean for them both in their journeys through life and even personal development. Just prior to ‘curtain up, my theatre companion and I were talking about the importance of chemistry between lead actors – whatever the nature of the relationships they are protraying – and how a play or show can fall flat if it isn’t present. No danger of that here. Will (Edward Bluemel) – and the rest of us – are dazzled by Ncuti Gatwa’s Kit’s edgy charisma and charm, and though he tries to resist, sparks fly between them. And Kit – though initially wanting to seduce Will into his world of espionage, gradually wants to seduce him in quite a different way, even later considering whether that gentle way of life towards which he was so scathing initially, might actually be quite attractive. The whole interaction – though in three acts – is over ever so much faster than the vast majority of Will’s plays – the fiery heart-pounding-inducing brilliance burns towards, well a twist at the end in the “This didn’t happen” mantra… but “No Spoilers” (Thanks River Song 😉)!

As Ncuti’s 15th Doctor knows there is “Always a twist at the end”. I saw Ncuti’s performances arguably in the wrong order 😉 In fact when I saw him announced as The Doctor, I didn’t even know who he was. I saw all his Who before his Eric Effiong in ‘Sex Education’, and that after his turn as Algernon Moncrieff in ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’. For me, he shines so bright and full of colour in all he does, and gives so much of himself to all his characters, using the trademark Ncuti laugh in such a variety of ways. Here he conveys the fierce danger of Marlowe in addition to the out and proud and exciting boundary-breaking beauty of him. Shakespeare was easily the duller of the two, and the implication being he could almost have gone under the radar if it hadn’t been for the inspiring influence of Kit. I didn’t think I knew Edward Bluemel, but then realised he played Maeve’s brother in ’Sex Education’ and Hugo in ‘Killing Eve’ – apologies you went under the radar for me there too, Ed – arguably great casting 😉

The production starts loudly as we are plunged into the peril of complete darkness following a crackling electric light show of images of Kit and Will. Then ‘Bang!’ on come a huge array of very bright and very hot lights almost blinding and burning us. On an amusing note, those of us who had gone in expecting to need layers against over-enthusiastic aircon, actually had to remove some! I was actually going to dock a mark for that, but I think it would have been unfair. I can now see the symbolism of it. So, lighting designer Neil Austen you are forgiven. Joanna Scotcher’s costumes were fabulously evocative of both their time and our time connecting the two – it is a story for all time in many ways. Daniel Evans directed – the programme notes that for films the director is often the key person – here it really does feel as though the writers – all three of them are and were! I love writing! I would love to have written this, but that honour goes to Liz Duffy Adams, and I’m sure Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare would have given her rave reviews! 😊

BornWithTeeth – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2025

Every Brilliant Thing – @sohoplace – Saturday 23rd August 2025

(Rated 10/5) Often – though not quite always 😉 – I’m drawn to a show because someone I like is going to be performing in it. It occurred to me just before I started to write this, that there is a clear reason from my own childhood as to why that is the case. I am the child of a mother with bipolar or manic depression. And amongst the ways I developed to navigate that (and other associated challenges) starting from maybe 7/8 years old was to imagine, and later write down my own stories. I realise looking back that that was my key ‘Brilliant Thing’ to help me escape. Of course, that in itself is a very common childhood device, but for me it became about writing plays so that I could work with the performers I liked at the time… R2D2, then Harrison Ford in conjunction with my first girl crush Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. ‘Star Wars’ of course on my own Brilliant Things list!! Someone I feel has been around my whole life, and well he has, but when I was about that age, and the age of the narrator in ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ by Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe, (now Sir) Lenny Henry first appeared on television. That first impression by Lenny of Frank Spencer on ‘New Faces’ happened when I was 8 years old. But then Lenny went on to do absolutely everything anybody could possibly do in the entertainment world almost – Kids’ TV, stand-up comedy straight acting, Shakespeare, singing (including on the Brilliant Thing Kate Bush’s album ‘Red Shoes’), screenwriting and playwriting… perhaps the only thing he hasn’t done is dancing… come on ‘Strictly’, sign him up… he clearly can dance. And that isn’t even mentioning his numerous charity- works, especially being a founding member of ‘Comic Relief’… and even more recently swimming with Sharks in ‘Celebrity Infested Waters’! He is someone around whom I feel happy and safe whenever he appears on screen or stage, and has the best smile ever. Another Brilliant Thing ‘Lenny Henry’s cheeky grin’ 😊 So, yep, you’ve guessed it, Lenny was the draw for ‘Every Brilliant Thing’, and to be honest, I only wanted to see it with him though I’m sure all the others are great, then second looking at the subject matter, and being a child who spent so much of their life wanting to fix my Mum, make her happy and save her from suicide, well ‘Gotta do it’!

However, then came a slightly scary discovery. ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ involves audience participation. Now you might think that the Restricted Reviewer would relish that, didn’t she just write that was the Brilliant Thing in her head as a child, which helped her feel happy. And yes, that’s true, but, being an adult, it can be a totally different matter. Which, ironically is addressed in the play itself, though not so ironic, given this play addresses Every Single Brilliant and not so Brilliant Thing about life, depression, highs and lows… a comedy about depression, well yes… which brings to mind my absolutely Brilliantest Thing as a child would be my Mum’s laugh, smile, cheeky chuckle and the way her whole face lit up when it happened. So, given adult Me and even more so my theatre-going friend for this one both felt pretty scared at the prospect of participating, we avoided booking ourselves into the audience participation front row seats. Little did we know, and only discovered when we actually went into the auditorium to take our seats, anybody could be asked to ‘do stuff’! The front row was indeed for people who might be asked to improvise with Lenny – be his character’s vet, counsellor, father or love interest… OMG if only I’d been brave enough to be the love interest lol. But other people are asked to lend pens, books, jackets, take their shoes and socks off (well go see if you’re interested to find what that’s all about), and mainly read some item from the list of ‘Every Brilliant Thing’. As we went in, we spotted Lenny talking to people over the other side of the space. He then turned and we waved. He started coming over. My friend was giving me ‘Oh no, he’s going to ask us to do stuff’ vibes, and I was feeling both nervous, yet also super-excited. And he arrived, and I beamed “Hi Lenny”. He asked if we had loud voices, my friend said she really didn’t and of course there would be no way he should ask her to do anything – to that effect anyway. So, he turned to me. Could I read a long piece? Yikes, no, not a long piece, but yes, to something – all of which I didn’t quite say, but I think my face implied. So, he gave me Brilliant Thing Number 320 and explained I was to say it ‘loud and proud’ and with enthusiasm when he gave me the cue. And off he went. And I turned to my friend – or was she anymore landing me in it 😉 – and asked if I have a loud voice. I really don’t have a loud voice. Oh crikey, but does that actually matter maybe as I’ve just had a conversation with one of my heroes from childhood right through to adulthood – Lenny Henry – Knight-of-the-Realm/Legend/National-Treasure, and he asked me to do something and of course I – Inner Child - was going to say yes, but OMG now I actually have to do it!! And breathe…

And so, Lenny started the show, and straight away, someone went wrong not coming in with Brilliant Thing Number 1, when he said ‘1’, causing enormous hilarity as he reacted to that and said he would have to start again. Similar happened with 2 or was it 3, and again Lenny reacted with wonderful humorous tellings-off and restarting, immediately engaging absolutely everybody in the room. There were a catalogue of mishaps – the guest support cast not doing as requested or needing directions he implied he didn’t think they’d need. But, of course, all of that was what made the performance so special and so inclusive. It all felt so natural – even though I have a sneeky suspicion some were sort of set-up, but none of that mattered at all. Lenny worked the room and all of us to perfection. “It’s your show!”, he had said to us before he started and we really were all creatives in it. ‘Different Every Night’ is a book on performance that I love, and in this case, for this show, and all the gazillion (maybe) times it has been performed with multitudes of people across the whole world, naturally it’s going to be different every single time. And that is one of the Brilliant Things about it! And with all the hilarious poignant bonkersness going on, I sort of forgot to be nervous. But, I was still listening carefully for my cue. It turned out that not Every Brilliant Thing is actually spoken in the show, so there are jumps, and even numbers out of order. So, I certainly couldn’t be sure when mine would come. Then seemingly suddenly, Lenny was at 317… 318… my heart racing, internally trying to raise the volume switch on my voice… 319… the 319 person saying their Brilliant Thing… Lenny: “Three Hundred and Twenty” Me: “Making up after an argument” And, I don’t actually remember doing it, or have any idea if I was loud or proud in my delivery, but my eyes were fixed on him, and he was clearly actively listening and reacted to it, nodding and seeming to embrace it inwards, which I could see on his face and through his body. So simple yet so special! I’d acted with Lenny Henry. Definitely a Brilliant Thing <3

I’m certainly not going to negatively criticise those much braver folk who played the supporting roles from the front row, but feedback-wise from my POV the counsellor lady was the best, the father was hilarious in his efforts at mime, which Lenny repeatedly told him to stop, the vet man didn’t know where the thigh on the dog was to inject the poor pet with a pen, but then again how could you when the dog was someone’s jacket! I can’t remember a great deal about the university professor man, except he kept being interrupted by Lenny lol! It was a shame that the lady playing love-interest Sam seemed to feel awkward, but I’m certain if I’d have had that opportunity, I’d have been far more awkward and struck dumb with nerves and awe! The brave participant who read out the incredibly long and complicated Brilliant Thing did very well I thought. And stood up to deliver it too.

A few stand-out moments for me: One of the books Lenny received from the audience as a prop was Julian Clary’s ‘Curtain Call to Murder’ with a review on the back, which he read out, from Lenny’s own ex-wife Dawn French! (For anyone who doesn’t know, as I understand it Lenny and Dawn are still very good friends, and he even gave her support with her new dating after they split, but sadly it was Lenny’s own depression and mid-life crisis following a series of close bereavements, which broke them up.) His expression when he said her name was priceless 😉 Lenny’s powerful performance as the closed-off father in response to the series of ‘Whys’ from the father-playing-audience-member, who played his character for a little section – it reminded me of the range of Lenny’s performance skills. Lenny Henry saying ‘Mr Potato Head’ 😊 Brilliant Thing ‘The seventh track on all the greatest albums’ – I need to check that one out. Sam calling their black Labrador dog ‘Metaphor’ – I mean and how Lenny delivers that again! The joke from the counsellor lady – ‘Knock, Knock’, ‘Who’s There?’, ‘Bear’, ‘Bear Who’, ‘Bear Bum’ – don’t know if that was her own joke or from the playscript, but lovely improvisation if not. And particularly poignant for me a section around as a child of a depressive suicidal parent not really being able to enjoy the ups in the knowledge the downs would come after, and trying to just keep things calm and stable – I can so relate! Additionally in that section on how neuroscience shows the brain of that child to be literally changed as a result of the experience. (I have already got myself the play script and looking forward to taking in all this again.)

It's difficult to know – and again as I haven’t read it yet I can’t say – how close Lenny’s performance of ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ was to the original script, though apparently also each performer worked with Duncan MacMillan to develop their own version. Of course, in performing it on each occasion new things will always come up and the main performer is going to have to work with that and adapt to it. Lenny gave us the wonderful whole variety of his skills in this – adding to his obvious repertoire (listed above) playing keyboard and dancing too. We had Every Brilliant Thing about Sir Lenworth George Henry! (Forgive me 😉)

As an experience for me in the embracing intimacy of @sohoplace, in the power of all it brought up for me – Happy and Sad – and in realising a Childhood Dream this was a Brilliant Thing deserving of a Brilliant 10/5!!!

EveryBrilliantThing – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2025