Taking lead from Samuel Beckett’s vision, internationally acclaimed director Max Stafford-Clark of Out of Joint theatre company recently took audiences into darkness with a blindfolded live performance of Beckett’s radio play ‘All That Fall’ at Camden School for girls, using 360 degrees sound design and unique audience proximity.

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“When asked by Beckett’s nephew what my vision for the play was, I replied that there would be no vision, that the play would take place in darkness," explained Stafford-Clark as he introduced the show, “He replied that that was exactly how Beckett imagined it – with voices coming from the void.” ​

When I first visited Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) a couple of years ago it was to see Daniel Kitson in the Grand Hall, which looks somewhat different now than it did back then after flames engulfed it last March. 

BAC was adamant that the building would get back to its former glory ‘brick by brick’, and this resilience will see the new Hall opened in 2018. Until then a more temporary space is in use; after all the show must go on! 

Theatre Ad Infinitum’s ‘Light’ went down a storm at The Barbican last year, so I was keen to bag tickets when I heard it was returning to London at BAC.

​It is fitting that such an immersive, ground-breaking show was to grace the stage at a venue where the mission has always been to ‘invent the future of theatre’.

‘Roaring Trade’ is the latest play to grace the stage at Finsbury Park’s intimate neighbourhood theatre venue, Park Theatre. It shines a spotlight on Canary Wharf, exposing the ugly dog-eat-dog world where money is everything and humility is unheard of. Playwright Steve Thompson (think Sherlock and Dr Who) has whipped up a storm of a script which sees speedy dialogue and short scenes offering a snapshot of life as a bond trader at investment bank McSorley’s.

Written in the wake of the financial crash, Roaring Trade is all about the people behind the screens: the competitive scramble to the top, the pressure of delivery, class rivalry, betrayal, insecurity, greed and pride. Director Alan Cohen has successfully ensured that the actors dialed up expression to the max; sitting a mere metre away from the stage the tension for the audience during scenes of conflict is electric, and the stress experienced by the characters truly palpable.

As the Canadian circus troupe The 7 Fingers (Les Sept Doights) close their London show ’Traces’ at Holborn’s Peacock Theatre this evening they’re sure to be celebrating what can only be described as a feat. The multi-talented heptad wove together a collage of scenes incorporating acrobatics, acting, musical talent, dance and art to demonstrate skill and strength with the greatest elegance.

We took our seats to a stage backdrop lit up by a live streaming of the audience filing into the auditorium courtesy of the reception security cameras. Real time projections continued once the show started, with Hou Kai's cityscape illustrations, created onstage, projected for all to see.