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Character comedy can be so hit and miss, so it was a delight to find that not only were Pippa’s many characters solidly built, each with their own humour, but that there was a linear story holding the night together and leaving us with a beginning, a middle and a satisfactory end. With an impressive singing voice, and only a small amount of corpsing, we were treated to original music hall songs, bingo, a delightfully ribbing theatre questionnaire and a hungover headliner with aspirations of veganism. Fabulous and engaging, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
Upstairs At Three And Ten, 14 July
4/5
Victoria Nangle

Zoe Lyons is a very funny lady, and the crowd was hers in her hometown. With material that kept her trademark questions to the order of the world, mugging at the audience and gesticulating wildly, she veered further into the sex and profanities of her subjects than her previous shows have gone. With the machismo upped, funnily enough it seems that the world annoys her more – from a destructive omnipotent pope to the mostly harmless Kerry Katona. This seems to be a new direction for Zoe‘s comedy, less endearing but more forthright and ballsy.
Upstairs At Three And Ten, 14 July
3/5
Anna DeAngelo

Dani on TV: Monday Monday – ITV1

Monday Monday
ITV1, Mondays, 9pm

Set in the offices of supermarket Butterworths, Monday Monday follows all the office staff as they relocate across the country and learn how to work with new colleagues. Including Alyson, who has been brought in to assess the company’s productivity and eventually decide how or – more importantly – who – to downsize.
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Taking Steinbeck’s classic novel and staging it might seem a daunting concept, and in many ways it is. The production was quite brilliantly staged, superb set, costumes and stunning effects carried the weighty story well. The darkness of the tale worked well too, although a barber shop quartet jarred in act one. Equally the dance scene missed the opportunity to heighten the plight of the ‘Oakies’. Much as I loved the production, I had some misgivings. The characteristic ensemble playing of a Chichester production on this occasion did not allow for heroic performances, maybe intentionally. It was also, predictably, very wordy and would not have suffered from a few judicious cuts. All the same, an excellent evening of real theatre.
Chichester Festival Theatre, 16 July
4/5
Andrew Kay