“. . . The full forty minutes was read from a script, which the comedian had to keep looking and shuffling through – truthfully, this was pretty infuriating. There wasn’t exactly much in the way of feminism either. Yes, she talked about her breasts, and her distaste of middle-class white men, but as a thoroughly middle-class white woman herself Evans’ comedy strikes me as coming from an odd place. She was very funny at points; she was shocking, sharp and self-deprecating. . . “

“A woman in a woolly hat is sat reading on a bench outside a block of expensive apartments . . . In a very engaging performance Joanna Smith skillfully conveys Penny’s sharp intelligence and warm humanity, and she is well-matched by Nigel Jones as Richard, all tension, stress and misanthropy. In their quick-fire banter there are many sharply-honed comments about wage-slavery, and quite a few laugh out loud jokes – there’s a particularly good one involving a turkey sandwich. . . ”

“If there’s one thing the Silly Boys (Seamas Carey and Callum Mitchell) are not short of it is courage. Another thing is abundant energy. Another thing is not taking themselves seriously. . . There is plenty of ‘Young Ones’ style anarchy and slapstick violence in this road trip story. That’s a seam of comedy which threads its way through the generations and still manages to look fresh whenever it raises its tousled head. . . “

“. . . Christie In Love is one of Howard Brenton’s earliest plays, and Substance & Shadow deliver this dark, claustrophobic three-hander with great skill . . . passionate hatred is conveyed with terrifying intensity . . . Christie In Love does not make for comfortable viewing, not least because it perhaps suggests that Christie’s horrible perversions were but an extreme expression of a more general malaise, but Substance & Shadow’s production is uniformly well acted, gripping throughout and certainly thought-provoking.