Mega-multicultural Echange Theatre, a company that draws on eastern and western influences as well as incorporating live music into their productions, have done the unimaginable: The Flies is an existential Jean-Paul Sartre rock opera. Camden People's Theatre has had one Oresteia in its small space already with Elektra; while that had us enthralled with it's precision and focus, The Flies is Sartre's philosophical re-working of that Greek tragedy, and we were stunned by Echange......

We have seen many, many different performances as part of the Camden Fringe and were beginning to get slightly blase...then we went to Camden People's Theatre for Headlangue Theatre's marvellously vintage mime piece Les Enges de l'Enfer (Angels of the Underground). In two words: utterly charming. The Paris-based visual, physical theatre company have drawn on the etiquette and bizarre behaviour of the Underground - or in this case, le Metro. There is plenty of......

Clever programming paired two Greek tragedies for a double bill of bold new versions of Medea and Electra. Fold Up Theatre presented Cradle and Fall, a very modern Medea, involving confrontation TV talk shows, publicists and spin doctors bringing this wrenching tale of a woman scorned right up to the minute. Though coincidental that Sienna Miller and Balthazar Getty were sprawling across tabloids at the same time, it intensified this tale of the woman......

Shambolic Theatre's An Imaginative Woman is charming, cheering and not a little cheeky. This is assured, polished and enjoyable theatre, still fresh, fitting well into the fringe but with a gloss that shows that practice, effort and persistence pays off in this business. Based on a short story by Thomas Hardy, aspiring poetess Ella with son but minus husband sweeps into Mrs Hooper's home, seeking lodging by the sea for literary inspiration. The poet......

Transformation is a solo show by Gemskii, a former drug addict lesbian dancer, based on her abused past, mental breakdown then recovery, performed as storytelling with dance and choreographed set pieces. It almost fulfils the stereotype of the fringest of fringe theatre except... it is not awful. It is instead a captivating piece of autobiographical theatre that is impossible not to be moved by. Neither inviting or brushing off pity, Gemskii tells her story......

With a rainy Saturday night vacuum opening up in front of our terrified eyes we turned to the Camden Fringe programme for salvation and randomly picked two shows to go to, to keep us from "Last Choir Standing" and the rotting contents of the fridge. Happily, we picked well and for a modest £15 total, got served up 2 dollops of funniness in 2 Camden venues and came out beaming. First up: Teak Show's......

Value for money in The Turner Plays at the Camden Fringe can't be beaten. Five short plays by five new writers, based on five paintings by Turner, developed by Red On Black Productions, last seen at Camden Fringe with Hostage / Bleach / Burn. The precedent for high quality new writing was set and met again in this quintet of short work. The short scripts meant the impact of each was concentrated, boiled down......

The Camden Fringe is by now in full swing and we couldn't be happier to have this festival of theatre and comedy on our doorstep. So far we have enjoyed two cracking performances in one evening and are looking forward to many more similarly exciting back-to-back live shows before the month is up. On the opening day of the festival we excitedly strolled through the [pub] to the Etcetera Theatre doorway at the back,......

Like a nuclear family loading up the Datsun at an out-of-town supermarket, the Book Grocer is filling most of its basket on just a single day this week. Thursday's the one to look out for, with a wealth of treats helping you to reach that government-mandated five-a-day fruit & veg quotient, with a few carbs scattered around the rest of the week. And with that mouthful of a metaphor masticated, let's crack on. Wednesday:......

Emma Hutchins' one woman show embodies its own ethos of "having it all". Written and performed by the woman herself, she rises to the occasion delivering 3 familiar yet absorbing Bridget Jones-esque monologues and throwing in some Japanese Butoh for good measure. Ambitious? Yes. Misguided? Certainly not. Butoh is a dance form where each move is initiated by emotional truth. Isobel's entrancing, effortful progress from prone to standing to intensely, baby pigeon steps forward......

We were bored this evening so we took pot luck, browsed the Camden Fringe and went along to the next possible show. And what were we destined for? Traditional fringe fare: a slice of Shakespeare all shook up. Our minds were open. What was definitely not expected was it to kick off with a hip hop dance routine. Not a bad one at that, although clearly not from professional dancers. It made more sense......

Now it’s properly August there’s not much coming up on the tellybox. However, if you really can’t be arsed to get out there and catch some cheap London, Camden Fringe or Shoreditch Festival then you could keep your London head in check by paying attention to the following: On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 6 August Super Vets (BBC1, 19:30-20:00) Terrible title but a nice opportunity to catch a behind the scenes look at London......

Camden Fringe gig #3 finds us upstairs at the Liberties Bar for our first stand-up comedy show: Paul Kerensa with "Genesis". This is his first night of 6 at the Camden Fringe before he's off up to that other place, up there. No, not heaven. Edinburgh. As you might expect this is a comedy take on the many ludicrous stories in the first book of the Old Testament whilst pulling together comedy strands that......

Having seen and enjoyed Room 110 in the Camden Fringe Festival yesterday, we continue with our non-Scottish fringe theatre foray with some more new writing. Consisting of three consecutive monologues, Hostage/ Bleach / Burn has only half as many scripts as Room 110 but is equal in power and fringe theatre spirit. Canadian writer Heather Taylor, director Gareth Corke and the three cracking actors Peter Henderson (Hostage), Samantha Wright (Bleach) and Matthew Bulgo (Burn)......

Our first foray into the Camden Fringe was oddly reminiscent of our last Edinburgh experience. A rainy, busy street at 3pm in the afternoon, leading into a tiny, dark and terribly hot mini-theatre, beer in hand. If only there had been a street full of aspiring thesps flyering outside we could have sworn we'd been up there. But no. This is Camden and praise be, our first show was really very good. Room 110......

London has undergone a mass exodus. Unnoticeable to some, devastating to others, the actors, directors, stage managers, comedians and dedicated followers of fringe theatre are negotiating their way north to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, leaving a distinct lack of entertainment down here. Seeing this as an opportunity rather than a threat, the plucky Etcetera Theatre and Liberties Bar in Camden are hosting London's miniature version of the Scottish theatre revels and are proudly presenting......