See it if You’d like to experience the highs and lows of London’s vibrant Notting Hill carnival - touches on gentrification, misogyny and friendship.
Don't see it if You don’t like new and exciting writing?
See it if -
Don't see it if -
Mostly, though, it’s a tremendously enjoyable, raucous evening from a four-strong female cast with two gutsy, energetic central performances.
Read more
There are potentially interesting arguments about class, cultural appropriation and Gen-Z activism to be found in the clashes between the friends, but they could have been further developed.
Read more
Where does the carnival atmosphere come from then? It’s to be found, in part, in the vivacious interplay between two young women who are unashamed about their desire to let their bodies talk for them.
Read more
It's all but impossible not to feel the sheer joy in performance imparted by Gabrielle Brooks and Sapphire Joy, playing Londoners who have converged in 2017 on the Notting Hill festivities at the j'ouvert of the title, i.e. the official start of Carnival.
Read more
This is soul-soaring theatre, charged with a sense of ritual and legacy that give it an elemental power: exhilarating.
Read more
Joseph’s writing captures the heat and colour of carnival, but also provides a more layered look at its history and political significance.
Read more
Joseph's text, lyrical, pulsing, woven with tunes and multi-roling, blends the past and present, the spiritual and the instant.
Read more
The real [Notting Hill] Carnival was last week cancelled for the second year in a row; J’Ouvert may be the closest we get to its exuberance this year.
Read more