MIK SABIERS savours the first headline solo show of the stalwart of Brighton’s indie-punk outfit Blood Red Shoes

Stuart Michael – Psychic Medium
Wonderville
WONDERVILLE is a seriously well-placed venue in the heart of London’s West End. With its programme of comedy, magic and playful cabaret, it feels more like a private club than a theatre and tonight it’s packed to the gunnels.
Stuart Michael comes with a reputation as psychic medium and – so we are told – with an awesome list of celebrity clients. If this is the case, you wonder why he needs to do a show at all. Nevertheless we all sit excitedly at our tables, sipping our drinks expectantly as if it’s bingo night.
Michael, when he enters, is an ordinary sort of bloke, and the stage a small proscenium with no trappings. In fact the only gesture toward glitz is a row of identical neon panels picturing the performer. One panel flashes on and off distractingly throughout the show – whether as evidence of an electrical glitz-glitch, or as a symbolic reference to the elusiveness of ghosts, is not clear. What is made immediately paramount is that Michael will make contact with the dead and tell us what they say.

MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity

MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards

MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere

MARY CONWAY relishes two matchless performers and a masterclass in tightly focused wordplay