A.I.M (An Impossible Mission) showing at The Etcetera Theatre for just four performances follows our rookie secret agent Bai Zhijin as he sets out on a series of top-secret missions. Zhijin’s…

Written and performed by Jonty O’Callaghan and playing at the Etcetera Theatre is a brand new, one-man, sketch comedy show, called appropriately Got Some Notes: A One-Man Sketch Show O’C…

Strange Young Girls, the title is taken from the Mamas and Pappas song of the same name, is inspired by the real-life friendship between Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas and Sue Lyon,…

Getting a Drink at the End of the World is written and directed by Daisy Hills and follows Leo (Jesse James Lamb) and Michelle (Inês Drumond), bartenders in a busy cocktail bar, as they naviga…

Celebrating a milestone birthday almost a year late might suggest poor organisation, but for Anna, it represents something far more purposeful: a refusal to let disappointment have the final word. In ‘Belated’, a postponed party becomes the stage upon which she takes stock of middle age, abandoned ambitions and the uncomfortable feeling that everybody else’s life has progressed more successfully than her own. Anna once worked as a professional dancer but now teaches Pilates to wealthy and famous clients. Approaching her 51st birthday, she is contending with the demands of motherhood, the aftermath of a painful separation and the lingering frustration of creative aspirations left unexplored.

Created and performed by Mary Redmond, ‘Maz Pantz’ arrives at the Camden Fringe with considerable confidence, promising a character-led sketch show combining physical comedy, mime, cinematic voice-over and cleverly constructed material. Unfortunately, the performance itself falls some considerable distance short of that promise. Across approximately 45 minutes, Redmond introduces an assortment of eccentric characters through a succession of sketches, some of whom return throughout the show. There is certainly imagination behind the concept, and Redmond commits enthusiastically to each creation, employing physicality, recorded sound and exaggerated characterisation to distinguish between them.

Four Face Theatre’s ‘Mates’ begins with an appealing comic problem: four friends, based on a misplaced promise, have secured the resources and financial backing to stage a new production but have yet to decide what that production should be. Each arrives with different artistic ambitions, and their attempts to develop a coherent piece soon become a contest between personalities, insecurities and conflicting definitions of meaningful theatre. This framework gives the company considerable room for invention, and the action repeatedly shifts into imagined productions proposed by the characters, enabling the show to experiment with contrasting genres and performance styles.

Earworm by Gur Arie Piepskovitz is pitched as an ‘anti-rom-com’ and certainly succeeds in presenting the contemporary queer relationship as a prospect of conflict, contradiction and angst. The story concerns alternative cabaret singer Guy (Avihud Tidhar), who is dating queer academic John (Brodie Bass). They are motivated by distinctly varying ambitions and have different needs in their relationship, which is obviously heading towards collapse. In a bold, post-modern meta move, Earworm opens with Guy (Tidhar) directly addressing the audience, as he tries to select a song to open the show. Waylon Jacobs and Reece Lewis sit either side of Guy, acting as an arch, critical chorus, analysing the emotional manipulations of theatrical conventions.

‘Dear Lihua’ is a highly accomplished piece of theatre, delicately constructed and performed with remarkable tenderness. Written by Xinyi Chen and directed by Zhaoyi Ying, this bilingual English and Mandarin production explore the loneliness of living abroad, the strain of communicating in a language that is not your own and the painful compromises sometimes demanded by cultural assimilation. After dying in London, Qiuqiu awakens in an “English-speaking heaven”, where even the afterlife is governed by bureaucracy and paperwork. To earn enough points to return to China, she is assigned to the “Department of Unanswered Letters” by God, sorting through correspondence that never received a reply.

Inspired by the life and work of English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ is an ambitious and emotionally intelligent piece of new writing from new company Aside Hustle. Tracing the Victorian poet’s journey from confinement in England to liberation in Italy with Robert Browning, Ruby Thomas’s script explores creativity, illness, love and the struggle of a woman determined to be heard in a society intent on restricting her. There is considerable beauty in the writing. Drawing upon Browning’s poetry and correspondence, Thomas constructs a thoughtful portrait of an artist discovering the courage to define herself.

Zombie-themed group, Improv the Dead, performed their one hour long-form improv show last night at the Bridewell Theatre as part of this year's Camden Fringe festival. With shambling, moaning and sparkly intestines, they turn audience suggestions into a zombie film with more laughs than horror. Last night's show told the story of 'Delay of the Dead', where terrified TfL workers had to escape a zombie-infested Bakerloo line.

Written by Pendleton King in 1917 and relocated to the 1980s for this Camden Fringe production, ‘Cocaine’ is an intimate and affecting examination of addiction, dependency and a relationship pushed towards breaking point. Directed by Sushant Nair, this compelling two-hander succeeds through simplicity, placing its confidence almost entirely in King’s writing and two extremely strong performances. Joe, once a promising boxer, has seen his potential consumed by cocaine addiction. Alongside him is Nora, who wrestles with her love for him, her own dependency and the exhausting reality of trying to keep them both afloat.

Sushant Nair’s ‘21 Days’ takes a recognisably human crisis and places it against the increasingly blurred boundary between people and artificial intelligence. Set in 2030, although there is little to evidence this from the staging, Jay is struggling following a painful break-up, retreating into isolation, anger, alcohol and self-help books, before the arrival of the enigmatic May begins to disrupt his downward trajectory. Presented at Camden Fringe in a 60-minute abridgement of a longer 90-minute production, the play has an intelligent, contemporary premise. Its strapline, “As AI learns from itself, humanity must relearn itself”, provides a provocative starting point, although perhaps humanity has always been doing precisely that.

A dying mother, a grieving daughter and a jobbing actor/stand-up/drag artist come together in this dark, witty comedy written and performed by Thomas Carruthers. Lured by the possibility of actually making some money, Vincent agrees to pass Martha's daughter a message after her death. Martha, a strong-willed and persuasive woman, plays on his emotions using the fact of her imminent death, until Vincent reluctantly agrees to do this as an act of kindness to bring the daughter peace at her mother's passing. After Martha dies, Vincent feigns psychic abilities to "channel" Martha and pass on the message.

The Hen and Chickens in Highbury is a charming boozer. As the sun sets, golden light floods the room, and it feels warmly bohemian. The Theatre upstairs is bijou, but a perfect theatrical attic for intense, intimate performance. BEATS + STRINGS- Soul Renaissance are a fledgeling 3-piece band from Kansas. Each member boasts a credible solo career that thrived before they got their groove on as a trio. While they did a stellar job of bringing funky brunch party vibes to their performance, the space and set up felt overly formal for the occasion.

The premise of the improv show is that it begins at the end, and the improvisers must build a back story for what happens in a reverse timeline (if you know what I mean). To begin the show the company ask the audience for a word, any word. Someone suggests beans – and we’re off! The play ended with a bean induced slippage in aisle seven, but the improvisers must now create their story. Sainsburys is the supermarket of choice, and the couple who were shopping in the store were rather heavy handedly admonished by security.

Set in Lucy’s bedroom post-University, Lucy (Naoise White), Cara (Maisie Hogan), and Faye (Luisa Fischelt) are to spend their last evening celebrating the end of University, and the beginning of their new journey’s. Lucy is travelling to Copenhagen, Cara and her boyfriend Ethan are beginning a new life in Sydney, Australia, and Faye is staying at home as her Paris plans did not work out. We soon learn that Lucy and Faye live in the same town and have been friends for many years, and Cara met the two of them at university.

Ancient Greek myths, what can be more tempting to improvise, and with the name of the improv troupe adding some silly into Homer’s Iliad, we have a huge hint as to what is coming. As we are seated, we are asked to complete a card with an idea, and then they select a card out of pandora’s box. The question that they must answer is – Why do humans have hair? And it will take place in a basement. The audience is also asked to vote on what type of myth they would like, Greek, Norse, or Egyptian.

Muse – Hen & Chickens Theatre Many great painters have a ‘muse,’ but how does it feel to have someone obsessing about you aesthetically? Artist and muse met at an art gallery on a Friday night, Lilith (Millie Small) is a photographer and interested in art, and Lucas (Xavier Atkins) is an artist desperate for his break, and they both admire a painting. They talk, and Lucas explains that he is looking for a model that he may paint. Lilith is intrigued, but will she go along…? Of course she will!

As I kick off my Camden Fringe Festival coverage, I began with a charming play called ‘Sick Dog,’ which incidentally does not have a dog as a cast member! Winne (Cara Crofts) shares her flat with her friend Eliza (Pearl D’Souza), and they hang out and share household duties, and this is your usual flatmates play…until you realise that Eliza is not human, but a humanoid! We learn that Winnie has been existing in her flat for months and has an illness which has made her unable to work. Eliza is stepping in to help where she can, and she is also learning about Winnie’s characteristics and mimicking them in an attempt to learn more about humans to integrate more authentically.

In The Ugly Truth Productions’ new production, ‘Some of It Might Be True’, writer and performer Justine Martin attempts to place social media, influencer culture, mental health and trauma within an increasingly absurd narrative involving an online scandal, animal-rights activism and a pig-rescue mission. At its core, it is a strange and chaotic comedy with important ideas at its heart, but neither the writing nor the production is sufficiently developed to explore them with clarity. Whilst there is certainly potential in this collision of anxieties, and the comedy is certainly the production’s strongest element, its storytelling is unfocused, jumping between ideas without giving its themes enough space or structure to make a lasting impact.

Toxic masculinity’ continues to be a fizzing hot topic. In the past few years, it’s curdled from legitimate concern and intelligent discussion to yet another flashpoint in the culture wars. Well-meaning and bad faith operators were soon questioning the term, concerned that it reinforced negative stereotypes and might be detrimental to the mental health of young men. Meanwhile, the ‘manosphere’ continues to grow and curdle. The views of provocative influencers are seeping into the mainstream due to the monetisation model of online media and the grim logic of the algorithm.