DWEEB-A-MANIA

Polka Theatre

★★★★★

“a relentless rollercoaster of laughter and spectacle”

Dweeb-A-Mania is an electrifying burst of theatrical joy — a letter to every young mind that dares to be different. From the moment you enter, the air crackles with expectation, promising a show that doesn’t just invite you in, but sweeps you up in its nerd-charged energy.

The immersive, in-the-round staging is the production’s stroke of genius. The actors don’t merely enter—they emerge from all four sides, instantly drawing everyone into the story. We are not mere spectators in the world of Kemi and Norah, the titular “mega-nerds”; we are guests in their sanctum.

The cast brings the story vividly to life. Playing the “mega-nerd” best friends, Norah (Amy Blake) and Kemi (Chidera Ikechukwu) are a delight, capturing both the intellectual swagger and the social vulnerability of bright teenagers with heartwarming authenticity. Their friendship—with its fierce loyalty and small, corrosive lies—feels painfully real.

The entrance of the popular boy, Bentley, hits like a theatrical lightning bolt. Tom Storey, who plays Bentley, commands the space with charismatic swagger, perfectly disrupting the nerds’ ordered world. His performance—along with several others—uses a heightened, physically expressive style, perfectly pitched for the young audience and ensuring every comedic and emotional beat lands clearly across the entire 360-degree space. Grace Carroll, as Lily, also adds delightful moments to the story.

Hannah Stone’s direction is a triumph of precision and pace. Managing narrative flow in such an exposed configuration is no easy task, yet she orchestrates the action flawlessly. The 50-minute runtime flies by on a relentless rollercoaster of laughter and spectacle. Scene changes are smooth and dynamic, while minimalist set design (Katie Lias) is a masterstroke—providing a scaffold for young imaginations to run wild. The energy is further lifted by pulsating electronic score (Ellie Isherwood) and sharp lighting design (Jane Lalljee). You never feel you’ve missed a moment, even when an actor’s back is turned.

Sarah Middleton’s award-winning script is a marvel, and it’s easy to see why it stood out. Every seemingly throwaway line is a carefully planted seed, paying off brilliantly in the climactic sequence. The eruption of “smoke donuts” and a volley of rubber chickens provoke a chorus of delighted screams from children and anarchic cheers from adults alike.

If the dialogue occasionally sprints ahead of its youngest viewers, it never loses its charm. Dweeb-A-Mania proves that smart theatre for young audiences can still be wild, anarchic fun.

Overall, Dweeb-A-Mania is more than a play—it’s a celebration of the smart, the quirky, and the unapologetically passionate. It entertains, inspires, and builds a temporary but beautiful community of nerds. An unequivocal triumph.

DWEEB-A-MANIA

Polka Theatre

Reviewed on 10th October 2025

by Portia Yuran Li

Photography by Jake Bush and Adela Ursachi

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE BOY WITH WINGS | ★★★ | June 2025

DWEEB-A-MANIA

Spike

Watermill Theatre

Reviewed – 31st January 2022

★★★★

“John Dagleish embodies Spike Milligan in a memorably empathetic way”

This tribute to the comedy legend Spike Milligan is the work of ‘Private Eye’ editor Ian Hislop and his colleague and friend Nick Newman. It coincides with the 20th anniversary of the death of this renowned writer of the BBC’s anarchic radio comedy show ‘The Goon Show’, which ran from 1951 to 1960.

Many under the age of 45 will be barely aware of Milligan, who as Stephen Fry, in the guise of a BBC announcer, points out at the end of the show, was comedic gold for generations that followed him. ‘The Goon Show’ was a brilliantly disruptive success for the Corporation, even if the managers there didn’t quite understand it. It remains available online to this day.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”345″ gal_title=”Spike”]

There are jokes and madcap nonsense by the box load in this warm and affectionate play which grew out of a reading of the extensive and argumentative correspondence between Milligan and the BBC. Spike discovered the BBC was run by the same officer class he’d resented in wartime. Why, he wanted to know, was the writer of the show paid a fraction of that given to the ‘talent’ Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers? And what was wrong with poking fun at royalty?

The play is structured as a loose series of chronologically arranged scenes beginning with the very early days of ‘The Goon Show’, just six years after the end of the Second World War. The BBC was male-dominated then. By way of balance, Margaret Cabourn-Smith opens the show as the likeably goofy sound effects girl who like her colleague the Head of Drama’s Secretary, ‘will some day run the place’.

Robert Mountford is the entertainingly preening BBC executive who is quick to give Spike a dressing down that flips him to the nightmares of wartime. John Dagleish embodies Spike Milligan in a memorably empathetic way. He has the look of Spike, who he imagines as a troubled and inward looking outsider, still fighting a war at the BBC.

Jeremy Lloyd gives an excellent impersonation of the young Harry Secombe and the trio of Goons is completed by George Kemp (of Bridgerton) as a suave and smooth-talking Peter Sellers. James Mack gives a tour-de-force performance as the harried Director of ‘The Goon Show’. Ellie Morris memorably plays Spike’s inevitably long-suffering wife, June, as well as other roles.

‘Spike’ is probably at its best in the second half when we see a Goon Show being recorded. If the ending of the play was slightly unexpected (and there was no ‘Ying Tong iddle-i-po’!), it was hard to imagine how else to bring down such a hugely entertaining show.

Spike Milligan once joked that he’d be remembered as the man who ‘wrote the Goons and then died’. This show is an enjoyable celebration of his life’s work and a feast of nostalgic fun that will delight audiences of all ages.

Tag Archives: Katie Lias

DWEEB-A-MANIA

★★★★★

Polka Theatre

DWEEB-A-MANIA

Polka Theatre

★★★★★

“a relentless rollercoaster of laughter and spectacle”