Kedar Williams-Stirling and Keelan Kember in Thanks For Having Me, Riverside Studios. Photo: Oliver Kember

Young love and lust and what it means to be in a relationship are the themes in actor/writer Keelan Kember's new comedy play Thanks For Having Me.

Cashel (Kember) interrupts his friend Honey's (Kedar Williams-Stirling) attempts to get his date Maya (Adeyinka Akinrinade) into bed when he turns up heartbroken, having just split up from his girlfriend.

Honey is confident around women and has his signature routine for getting his dates to sleep with him, which involves pretending he doesn't do that sort of thing, but he can't commit and never sees anyone more than a few times.

Cashel is a neurotic overthinker who falls sickeningly in love but is loyal.

Honey can't let go of control and be vulnerable, and Cashel can't temper his emotions; he doesn't have much of a filter.

Jab, Park Theatre. Photo: Steve Gregson

Five years on from the start of COVID, that time seems both like another life and yet sharply familiar in James McDermott's play Jab.

It's long enough ago that we can at least laugh about it. Boris Johnson's gaffs, dodgy haircuts and Barnard Castle all become amusing quips.

But it's recent enough to still capture the fear and divide: The rising death toll, lockdown challenges and the safety of the vaccine.

Jab is COVID told through a domestic lens. Anne (Kacey Ainsworth) works for the NHS, and her husband Don (Liam Tobin) has a shop that doesn’t make any money and is more of a hobby than a business.

Their kids have grown up and flown the nest, and they are generally content. They laugh together, playfully poke fun and occasionally dance around the living room. 

But the extraordinary situation puts pressure on their relationship heightening long standing niggles into bigger grievances.

Anne is the breadwinner. Don doesn’t do much now that his shop's closed, and that’s a source of tension, as is Don's sexual appetite and Anne's lack thereof.

Performed with a mix of finally tuned rapport and tension between Kacey Ainsworth and Liam Tobin, bickering turns into barbs, arguments into rows, particularly when Don's attitude towards vaccines is factored in. It becomes a primary source of divide - and drama.

Cassie Bradley and Barney White in One Day When We Were Young, Park Theatre. Photo: Danny Kaan

One Day When We Were Young at the Park Theatre is a 2011 play by Nick Payne that starts on the eve of a young soldier's deployment during WW2, where he is spending the night with his girlfriend.  They promise to wait for each other and build a life together after the war.

Leonard (Barney White) isn't scared of going to war as much as he is about losing Violet (Cassie Bradley) while he is away.

We leave them with bombs falling and jump ahead to two encounters first when they are in their 40s, then later to when they are elderly.

It is quickly apparent that Violet didn't wait. Was it that young love is fleeting, merely a brief infatuation? Did circumstances get in the way? How long was Leonard away?

The problem is that the information about why this youthful love fizzled out is scant. Given the awkwardness between the two on their romantic evening together and subsequent encounters, did they ever really love each other?

Lynn Faces, New Diorama. Photo Dom Moore

The opening song of the newly formed, chronically under-rehearsed punk band Lynn Faces is called Snazzy Cardigan. While not exactly a punk theme, it's conversely more because it subverts the genre stereotype. 

Lynn Faces, the play (with songs), is also punk in that it's about a woman attempting to break away from a toxic relationship. Rather than 'smash the Government', band founder Leah (Madeleine MacMahon) is learning to break away from her coercive, controlling boyfriend Pete. 

The play is set on stage during the band's first gig, where they start off wearing masks of the face of Lynn from Alan Partridge. Lynn, to Leah, is a symbol of someone who has more going on beneath the surface if only given a chance. 

Between the songs with their wonky timing and strange array of percussion instruments played by Shonagh (Millie Faraway), there is bickering and arguments about what to play next, unplanned 'crowd work' fillers and storming off to make angry phone calls.

The story of how and why the band formed is revealed, and tension slowly builds as Leah looks in danger of being sucked back into the toxic Pete loop, much to the exasperation of friend and keyboard player Ali (Peyvand Sadeghian).

Nikolay Mulakov in Vanya is Alive at Omnibus Theatre 5. Photo: Sergey Novikov

Alya is the mother of a soldier. Her son is alive and free. This is what she is told. This is what we are told via performer Nikolay Mulakov.

We are not told it's set in modern-day Russia, but it clearly is. We are also not told that Vanya is, in fact, dead, but it quickly becomes clear that this is the case.

The story is a tangle of lies from which to unpick the truth; the easier path is to believe the lie. Is that how it happens? Is that how lies become the truth?

Nikolay Mulakov's performance is stripped back, quiet and mostly still. It draws you straight to the words, to imagining Alya's story.  We hear about her encounters with her neighbour, a shop assistant and others in the unidentified town or city where she lives.

I managed to pack in more than 70 theatre visits this year and saw some cracking plays. And some that didn't quite ignite.

My favourite plays of 2024

(In no particular order - links through to written or video reviews):

Oedipus, Wyndhams Theatre (booking until 2 Jan 2025)

Laughing Boy, Jermyn Street Theatre

Shifters, Duke of Yorks Theatre

When It Happens to You, Park Theatre

Little Foxes, Young Vic (booking until 8 Feb 2025)

Alma Mater, Almeida Theatre

Cyrano, Park Theatre (booking until 11 Jan 2025)

For Black Boys... Garrick Theatre

Wormholes, Omnibus Theatre

Waiting For Godot, Theatre Royal Haymarket

The Long Run, New Diorama

The Importance of Being Earnest, National Theatre (booking until 25 Jan, 2025)

Least favourite plays of 2024:

Machinal, Old Vic Theatre - I'm a feminist, but...I found the central female character extremely irritating. Sorry, I know a lot of people really liked this play. It's the second production I've seen, and I had a similar response the first time, so nothing to do with the Old Vic.

Tessa Wong, Virginia Gay, and Joseph Evans in Cyrano, Park Theatre. Photo: Craig Sugden

Virginia Gay's effervescent, gender-flipped rom-com version of Cyrano won a Fringe First award and now takes up residence at the Park Theatre.

A Greek Chorus sets a cheeky, humourous tone. Two know each other - 1 (Tessa Wong) and 2 (David Tarkenter), but neither knows 3 (Tanvi Virmani), which becomes a running joke. There are other running jokes.

3 tends to blurt out inappropriate things, while 1 likes to play with metaphors, and 2 is very thespy. Their sage and silly commentary isn't just in the background.

Then we meet Cyrano (Virginia Gay), who has an amazing way with words and an amazingly large nose - we are told, as it's left to our imagination. 

Cyrano falls in love with the beautiful and clever Roxanne (Jessica Whitehurst), who falls in love with the pretty but dim Yan (Joseph Evans). The latter enlists Cyrano to help him woo Roxanne.

Beneath the wit and humour, of which there is plenty, this a sexy, heartfelt story. It is raucous, playful and joyful, but it also has its sad and poignant moments, just as a rom-com should.

There are subtleties, too, such as Cyrano's slow drift into trying to look like Yan - in dress, at least.

In keeping with the original story, it is also an exploration of language and wordplay - the cleverness and snobbishness that can come with that. There are morals to the tale: Sometimes a simpler, more direct language can be just as effective or just be yourself.

Virginia Gay's Cyrano is witty and fun with a party spirit that feels wholly appropriate for the festive season. I'm giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cyrano, Park Theatre

Written by Virginia Gay after Edmond Rostand

Directed by Clare Watson

Cast: Virginia Gay, Jessica Whitehurst, Joseph Evans, Tessa Wong, David Tarkenter, Tanvi Virmani

Running time 90 minutes with no interval

Booking until 11 January, for more details and to buy tickets, visit the Park Theatre website

Recently reviewed:

The year is ending on a high, have had a run of mostly cracking plays

Little Foxes, Young Vic (video review) booking until 8 February, 2025 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Importance of Being Earnest (video review) booking until 25 January, 2025 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Oedipus, Wyndhams Theatre booking until 2 January ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Tempest, Theatre Royal Drury Lane (video review) booking until 1 February, 2025 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

NYT REP Company, The War of the Worlds, Wilton's Music Hall. Photo: Johan Persson

On 30 October 1938, the broadcast of Orson Wells' radio play version of H G Wells's sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds caused panic. Its realistic news programme style led some to believe a real alien invasion was happening.

In this National Youth Theatre production, created by Rhum + Clay and written with Isley Lynn, people's reaction to the radio play becomes the topic of a podcast by fledgling British podcast journalist Meena (Talitha Christina).

She comes across the story of a New Jersey family who apparently took fright and left their daughter at home to fend for herself. With the 2016 election campaign in full flow, Meena travels to the US to try and find the truth but unearths a bigger story.

The play is injected with snippets of stylised movement that add a quirky edge to the narrative. It mixes the tone and style of 1930s radio drama with a more contemporary feel, which cements the play's themes.

Valerie Antwi, Emma McDonald and Christopher York in Foreverland, Southwark Playhouse Photo: Charlie Lyne

If medical science made it possible to live forever, frozen at the age you have the procedure, would you do it? The ability to stay young and live way beyond what is normal is the premise of Emma Hemingford's play Foreverland at the Southwark Playhouse Borough.

The idea is explored through the life of teacher Alice (Emma McDonald) and her entrepreneur husband Jay (Christopher York), who pass the criteria and, crucially, have the money to undertake the procedure.

Attracted by the idea of fulfilling their dreams and leading the perfect life where time is on their side, they put last-minute nerves to one side and go ahead.

The future world in which this play is set is kept mostly at arm's length in the first half of the play as it focuses on Alice and Jay's relationship. Given that they don't age, it is difficult to tell how much time is passing as the narrative cycles through snippets of their daily lives until the arrival of their daughter Annie (Emily Butler).

It seems like they are indeed living their dream life, except there are hints that all is not content; time doesn't erase the past, it seems. And Annie grows up (Una Byrne) and sees things differently from her parents.

The adult Annie brings the outside world into their 'fulfilling' lives and shines a different light on the procedure and its implications for society. However this comes quite late in the story to generate much of a debate.

Serkan Avlik and Ojan Genc in Ostan, Park Theatre. Photo Jack Bush

Arzhang Pezhman's play Ostan is set in a car wash where owner Shapur (Dana Haqjoo) employs asylum seekers. Rebin (Ojan Genc) doggedly chases progress on his application for indefinite leave while trying to train newbie Gorkem (Serkan Avlik) how to use all the different cleaning products.

The car wash faces stiff competition, and Shapur is not happy with the amount of money it is making. The financial situation is not helped by customers like Noah (El Anthony), who don't always have the money to hand to pay.

Performed in Park Theatre's smaller space, with the audience on either side, the small stage is busy with its car wash set and characters coming and going.

The story is also busy. There are the car wash's struggles, asylum struggles, cultural clashes and racial tensions, and a side-line in people smuggling. There is also Gorkem's fledgling rap career and online computer gaming obsessions.

Conversations primarily take place in the car wash, but there are also a lot of one-sided phone calls and chatting through headsets while gaming.

The latter is performed among the audience, with Noah and Rebin sitting on either side of the stage in the back row. A screen hanging above the performance space shows snippets of the game they are playing.