★★★★★

“this is how art can uplift and bring hope in trying times.”

Sheep Soup’s Gospel Church inspired Rave brings joy to the heart of London with this wonderful hour’s worth of music, glitter and audience interaction. An experience that not only aims to bring the audience happiness but succeeds in doing so, in a way that managed to bring a tear to my eye.

The show begins with a fantastic musical number, welcoming the audience to the House of Life. The RaveRend (Ben Welch) guides the audience through the 6 stages of life alongside musical and loop machine genius Trev (Lawrence Cole). He is a powerhouse at singing throughout the musical numbers and incorporated the audience in every step. The most touching moment for me was during the Self-Esteem stage of the show. The RaveRend approaches several audience members asking them if they are attending with a loved one. He then approaches them asking them to say to the audience what they love about them. I was lucky enough to attend this show with my partner, and told the audience how he is the kindest person know. Both he and I teared up and it was an incredibly moving moment for us both. The RaveRend also asked who was there on their own and the chosen individual was invited on stage to sing a song of affirmation. The whole sequence was wildly motivating and it really drove a beautiful sense of community throughout the room.

Self esteem and affirmations was followed by a visualisation section, where the audience are asked about their dream life. It felt like at this point any cynics could be turned into a believer of manifestation and the power of a growth mindset. With the RaveRend’s glitter fuelled optimism and incredible ability to improvise lyrics about your hopes and dreams on the spot, how could you not? The journey is not one note, however. The emotional journey still has its darker parts as the audience recalls the things that annoy them and makes them sad. But we’re invited to let them, because without the lows one can never enjoy the highs.

There’s no doubt that no two performances of this show will ever be the same. You could feel the connection and spark in the room during this show; strangers becoming friends as we were invited to put our hands up and sing together. We were even asked if we wanted glitter to be painted on our face upon arrival. This is how art fosters community, and this is how art can uplift and bring hope in trying times. A must see for all of those who need a little love right now, and those with plenty to share.

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing”

‘This is My Family’ is a refrain repeated with such alarming frequency in this show, I started to hope it might actually hint at a much darker piece, which used ‘happy families’ as a veil for a seedy Mafia tale of subterfuge, criminality, and intrigue, expressed via showtunes. Alas, it did not.

It was, in fact, about an unremarkable, nuclear family from somewhere unspecified in the North of England in which 13-year-old Nicky (Nancy Allsop) wins a competition that grants her and her family any holiday of her choosing. Except her ideal family, as described in her application, is not so ideal: her brother (Luke Lambert) has become some kind of satanic incarnation of a teenager; her grandmother (Gay Soper) has burgeoning dementia and an affliction for arson; and her mother (Gemma Whelan) and father (Michael Jibson), who have been together since they were 16, are steeped in mediocrity and have grown indifferent towards each other. Tim Firth’s new play (or musical?) engages with all these topics but tends to neglect a nuanced exploration of them.

Firstly, and truly, one is reminded that good actors are wonderful artists. The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing. Allsop as Nicky is particularly charming, eminently watchable and sweet, and with a delightful voice. Whelan is also a standout as Nicky’s deeply frustrated mother, Yvonne.

This is my Family is nominally a musical. And yet, its status as such calls into question the framework and requirements necessary to earn its place as a musical. Because, surely, just sing-speaking constantly does not a musical make. A musical should really justify its songs: they have a reason for being: when speaking isn’t enough. Not when speaking is just not interesting enough. In this piece, dialogue and song became interchangeable and quickly indistinguishable, substituting memorable showstoppers for loosely spoken song. In all honesty, the only memorable bit of music is the aforementioned ‘this is my family’ line.

Set design (Chloe Lamford) was a standout: an initial shed-like house soon collapses, giving us a cosy interior. The switch to greener pastures in the Second Act was also a neat design choice.

In general, This is my Family is mediocre, but with first-rate actors. Whilst a play need not have a profound moralising conclusion, or solve the world’s most pressing problems, it ought to say something interesting, and with nuance. The plot is circuitous and often tedious, its twists predictable and its characters on the stock side. In its defence, it is light and fun, and the stakes are generally quite low. This may be a particularly palatable thing for theatre and audiences at the moment, given *gestures vaguely at everything* stuff. This is my Family is unimposing, gentle, and lightly comic, appealing to many a sensibility. However, its lightness came at the expense of subtlety and depth and is entirely devoid of a ‘showstopping number; a real showstopper’.

HOUSE OF LIFE

Soho Theatre

★★★★★

“this is how art can uplift and bring hope in trying times.”

HOUSE OF LIFE

Soho Theatre then UK Tour continues

Reviewed on 28th May 2025

by David Robinson

Photography by Mark Senior

For further tour dates and venues click the image below

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

HOUSE OF LIFE

HOUSE OF LIFE

HOUSE OF LIFE

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing”

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 28th May 2025

by Violet Howson

Photography by Mark Senior

Last ten shows reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

THIS IS MY FAMILY

THIS IS MY FAMILY

THIS IS MY FAMILY

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