"An Adequate Abridgement of Life as a Boarding School Homo" @ Theatre503 was clever engaging fringe theatre. The trials & tribulations of Johnny (Ned Blackburn) wittily played out against his lover/bully/teacher/headmaster/grandfather/former-pupil-who-left-suddenly (Harvey Weed) (54 of 2025)

Parody of the Rings @ Wiltons was great fun yesterday. Equipment failure means a 12h screening of the Lord of the Rings trilogy can't go ahead so the ushers "Peter" & "Jackson" hilariously perform a very abridged version complete with hobbits, elves, dwarfs, men & a giant spider... (53 of 2025)

Hamlet @nationaltheatre I've seen a lot of Shakespeare but somehow not Hamlet before today... Hiren Abeysekera was brilliant as Hamlet. Fransesca Mills' Ophelia was something else - utterly show stealing in her madness. Clever staging & a big cast as you'd expect from the National. (52 of 2025)

#Clarkston is a challenging play. Two young men find friendship and attraction working nights at a Costco and dealing with (very different) challenges. Locke & Mollica make a compelling duo. (51 of 2025)

Entertaining Mr Sloane @ young vic A solid performance of Joe Orton's play, especially Jordan Stevens as the alternately mock-innocent, raunchy & menacing Sloane and Tamzin Outhwaite as the not-so-naive Kath. A little lacking in subtly at the start, but with an impressively strong end. (50 of 2025)

@kitkatclubldn for a magical 4th time. Plunging into the seedy Berlin nightclub atmosphere at 1 pm was interesting.... Rob Madge as the MC, makes the role his own with wonderful timing, looks & jokes. The ominous ending felt too real, especially with a protest march audible outside. (49 of 2025)

#BornWithTeeth is exceptional theatre. Marlowe at the height of fame taunts Shakespeare as they collaborate. The tension and erotic ties between them grow more intense whilst Cecil's spy network confounds. Gatwa is magnificent, his best work yet. A brilliant foil to Bluemel's Marlowe. (48 of 2025)

Brigadoon @ Regents Park OAT was creatively staged with atmospheric use of bagpipes & classic musical theatre choreography. Louis Gaunt as Tommy Albright stole the show with a beautiful voice, hunky swagger. Great costuming invoked Scotland with tweed and subdued tartans (47 of 2025)

One of the weirdest and creepiest plays I've ever seen. *The Pitchfork Disney* @kingsheadtheatre builds from two troubled siblings to four truly bizarre characters in an almost indescribably weird one-room world. Wonderful performances of almost manic characters all round. (46 of 2025)

The Gathered Leaves @parktheatrelondon Easter 1997, a family gathers for the 1st time in 17y for the overbearing patriarch's 75th birthday. Intertwined stories, pain & relationships are revealed, focussing on a brother's love & protective feelings for his autistic brother. (45 of 2025)

The Daughter of Time was a clever, intriguing premise and story. A bed-ridden detective investigates one of the ultimate cold cases - the real Richard III before Tudor propaganda made him the evil hunchback. Well performed and enjoyable but very pedestrian staging. (44 of 2025)

A gloriously silly, queer version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Lovers get very confused and Oberon shares a bath with an ass. The Mechanicals' play is as truly bonkers as they come. I somehow stayed wide awake and interested despite an early start and >35,000 steps. (43 of 2025)

Sean Hayes is absolutely spectacular as Oscar Levant - a fabulous wit and composer/pianist appearing on a talk show while commited to a mental hospital. (Based on a real event in Levant's life.) A exceptional play and performance that both definitely warranted the standing ovation. (42 of 2025)

Extraordinary Women @jermynstreettheatre is a beautifully performed musical based on Compton Mackenzie's novel. The dramas of a group of sapphic lovers are causing chaos in Sirene & the Sirens are worried. The novel was contemporary w Woolf's Orlando & somehow that explains a lot... (41 of 2025)

#Nye The @nationaltheatre at its best. Beautiful, powerful theatre. Michael Sheen & Sharon Small are brilliant as Nye Bevan & Jennie Lee. Bevan's mind on his death bed revisits key moments in his life as a miner, people's champion, politician and founder of the amazing NHS. (40 of 2025)

A couple open up their relationship for one time experiences with a beautiful friend. What could possibly go wrong? A clever play well performed, concentrating on exploring emotions and repercussions not unnecessary titillation. #FourPlay @kingsheadtheatre.bsky.social (39 of 2025)

Clueless @ Trafalgar Theatre. Very well adapted and performed but nothing special - another adaptation of a 90s American highschool film. (38 of 2025)

Kings of Pangea @kingsheadtheatre.bsky.social An intriguing musical with a wonderful premise but a slow start. A young boy/man dealing with hope & bereavement through allegory that's revealed to be a tale he built with his mother. (37 of 2025)

Mrs Warren's Profession is a clever George Bernard Shaw play about morality, money and social mores tied up in the strained relationship between mother and daughter. Imelda Staunton & Bessie Carter make a magnificent pair playing two powerful women living by unusual principles. (36 of 2025)

Godz by headfirstacrobats was gloriously silly, homoerotic acrobatics by some stunning A̶u̶s̶t̶r̶a̶l̶i̶a̶n̶ Greek gods. Excellent athletic performances tied together with cheesy acting. (35 of 2025)

last minute 🎭... Radiant Boy had great performances, especially Stuart Thompson as Russell manifesting his inner demon & interesting themes of religion, fear & queerness. Ultimately it was a miss for me & felt incomplete. (34 of 2025)

Shucked @ regents park open air🎭. A wonderful silly night of catchy music & v corny jokes. Steven Webb & Monique Ashe Palmer were great camp fun as storytellers 2&1, obviously revelling in camping it up & breaking the fourth wall a lot. A subplot about crops drying up played well in 🌧️🌧️🙂 (33 of 2025)

After the Act Powerful & timely 🎭 about Section 28 in the words of those responsible for it & harmed by it. Anyone who can't see the parallels between late 80s homophobia & today's anti-trans movement is wilfully ignorant. We need to break the cycle of bigotry not repeat it. (32 of 2025)

Pop off, Michelangelo. Gloriously camp entertainment. Michaelangelo & Leonardo da Vinci reimagined as power bottom best friends come enemies against a huge backdrop of totally not anachronistic cultural references and some vicious Medici patronage. (31 of 2025)

Faygele My first visit to the friendly little Marylebone 🎭. Ilan Galkoff is a powerful versatile wonder as Ari a tormented gay boy growing up in an orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. He's summed up by two Yiddish euphemisms (one a slur) the "little bird who murdered himself alone" 😥 (30 of 2025)

The Comedy About Spies is mischief theatre at their finest - wickedly funny, clever, full of twists. High stakes espionage, a baker and a *loud* actor all caught up in the Piccadilly Hotel in 1961. (29 of 2025)

#LessonsOnRevolution Brilliantly clever 🎭 written & performed by Gabriele Uboldi & Samuel Rees. Student protests & sit ins in the stormy days of 1968, focussing on the LSE & its close ties with apartheid era Rhodesia & complict BP. Framed by modern life, iffy flats/landlords & archives. (28 of 2025)

🎉 #couchto5k finished 🥳Wk9Run3 today. Harder work in the heat but I managed 5km for the 2nd time. 8 wks from not🏃‍♂️to 30min continuously. 😁 I strongly recommend the Couch to 5K App. (Structured 9 wk prog:I ran alternate days instead of a set 3-times a week) The longest I've *ever* run by far!

#SupersonicMan is a powerful new musical based on the life of Peter "The Human Cyborg" showing life with MND & fly on the wall TV. A slowish start builds to an engaging musical with catchy Nos & an emotional end 😭. A brilliant cast all round, James Lowrie's moves (splits!) were stunning (27 of 2025)

Week 8 of #couchto5k done 🎉🥳🏃‍♂️ I was aiming for 6:35ish/km - didn't think I was going so much faster and finished the 28min run anyway but was definitely ready to stop. Only week 9 to go now - 30 min runs. The way I'm going I might be able to push on to 5km by the end 🤞

Manhunt at the Royal Court powerfully explores Raoul Moat's life, murders & death. Samuel Edward-Cook is magnificent as Moat-showing his turmoil, violence, vulnerability - at times making you pity Moat. A timely piece on the extremes of toxic masculinity (causes and effects) (26 of 2025)

Ghosts is one of the most powerful plays I've seen. Owen's update of Ibsen focuses on the living ghosts left by a very nasty rich man. Callum Scott Howells is wonderful as the troubled Oz, Victoria Smurfit plays the complex Helena wonderfully as she faces her past with the Captain. (25 of 2025)

My 3rd visit to Cabaret & it gets more exquisite & powerful. Each cast brings something new. The power & emotion of Marisha Wallace's Cabaret sent shivers through me. Billy Porter's Emcee shows the Kit Kat Club at its seediest. Vivien Parry's Schneider holds it together with beautiful quiet numbers

Almost enjoying this now - week 1 felt weird but is building into a routine. Definitely trust the process - week 4 was a struggle 3x5min runs. Yesterday's 2 x 8min was easier 🤯. Tomorrow's 20 min is daunting but doesn't feel impossible. #couch25k

Dracula A Comedy of Terrors Silly, camp, scary entertainment done brilliantly. Charlie Stemp's Harker the buttoned up estate agent & James Daly's Dracula were so sexy & appealing in very different ways. (23 of 2025)

Richard II @_bridgetheatre may be my first Shakespeare history. Brilliant performances and clever staging but hard to empathise with Richard or Henry Bolingbroke. Richard's weakness seemed more poor advice than his own failings, making Henry's revenge too arbitrary. (Production 📸) (22 of 2025)

The Importance of Being Oscar @jermynstreettheatre Delightful theatre, beautifully staged and lit. Alistair Whatley in an exquisite orange cord suit captivatingly weaves the tale of Oscar Wilde with excerpts from his most profound and trivial works. (21 of 2025)

#Stiletto, a clever new musical about Castrati in C18th Venice. An intrigue-filled complex plot of death-by-stiletto🗡️, power,corruption,race,gender, sexuality & triumph. Wonderful music & a glorious mezzo soprano. Niccolo (Connor Woods) literally finding his voice was my fave moment. (20 of 2025)

Woop! Week 3 of couch to 5k done 🎉 (I know it's Monday) #couchto5k

The Thames looking pretty on a bright spring Saturday. Plus some random art on Strand.

#BFIFlare time 🥰. Starting with some shorts - great festival fare. (Also thinking about coffee - definitely next on the to do list today)

Devil Wears Prada (last min matinee booking) Very well done with impeccable performances all round. The numbers needed a hook to be more memorable & the plot faithfully followed the film - no twist 😶. The big dance routines were great, Samuel How stood out for me with stunning moves. (19 of 2025)

A cute and fearless black mouse at Bond Street Station this morning. Calming gnawing at this back until a train pulled in. 🐭 then stared at it for a few seconds before calming wandering off as the doors opened.

#Retrograde is very powerful & timely stuff - dignity, ethics & self respect clash with career & sleaze at the height of McCarthyism & racism as Sidney Poitier, a film writer & a sleszy corporate lawyer agree Poitier's big break network contract. Wonderful performances all round. (18 of 2025)

@jonbradfield.bsky.social has a wonderful artistic bent. First queer adult panto now a wonderfully witty gay take on classic saucy seaside postcards... (They arrived so quickly too...) www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Wish...

Alterations @nationaltheatre A day in the life of Walker Halt, trying to fulfil an impossible tailoring order in 70s London. Wonderful set & costumes. The play portrays the frustrations of life well - making major life changes almost inconsequentially small in the general struggle. (17 of 2025)

🎉🎉 Boring life admin finally made easyish. Car insurance sorted. £100 cheaper than the renewal price for better terms and *more importantly* renewal easily cancelled online without the obnoxious phone call 😁

@thelastlaughplay was funny, clever & poignant. The portrayals of Cooper, Morecambe & Monkhouse were wonderfully true to life. An imaginary dressing room meeting between 3 comedy legends in Apr 84. Exploring their v diff comedy styles with some brilliant jokes & a Morecambe & Wise song (16 of 2025)

Feeling good. I just deactivated main 🐦 after a year of non-use. Alt going soon too. 🧵dull, never got any engagement 😴 New to 🦋 but feels friendly here 🙂

Headed out coatless in the beautiful spring sunshine.