Now it’s time to visit Canterbury’s The Malthouse Theatre. This fresh new production from Matthew Townshend Productions moves forward in time to the year 1958, and the scene is set with period decoration and includes songs written and produced exclusively for the production by upcoming musicians Ben Goble with JS and the Lockerbillies.

The classic comic love story is the tale of a Salford cobbler with three unruly daughters that owes more than a little to King Lear and Cinderella. The daughters work in the shop unpaid, whilst Hobson (John D Collins) spends his time drinking with the fellow members of the masons at the Moonrakers pub. It’s music that keeps the girls inspired, but soon forthright and spiky eldest daughter Maggie (Becky Hoyle) has had enough and breaks free. The younger sisters Vickey (Chloe Carrington) and Alice (Marie Kemp) have the opportunity to make their own escape – but family ties and expectations run deep.

Debts, relationships, family feuds and success are all explored in this pacy and vibrant adaptation that remains faithful to the original script even as it updates it. Marriage is the only option – a Hobson’s choice, meaning no choice at all – for these women, modern as they are. Cutting through generations, it shows that in family life, some stories never get old – and some things never change.

It’s interesting to see a play moved to a more modern period, but one that still isn’t contemporary to the audience. Layers of historical interpretation build up, and its clear how relevant the themes are to whatever time period they are played in. Rebellion of young generation against parental expectations, gender norms and restrictions, and class issues make it as universal and relevant as when first produced in wartime London in 1916. Austerity is a flavour from the 1880s through to 1950s and today.

The sense that change is coming is well articulated, with the sisters believing that dance and music and rock’n’roll is the sign of something new. Interspersing each scene with some rock’n’roll dancing is great fun, and keeps the energy up. Their choices may be limited, but the delivery of this play means that the audience never feel constricted or bored.

It’s a brilliant show, with just the right mix of entertainment and thought provoking exploration.

The Malthouse Theatre, based at King’s School, opened earlier this year, after a 28 million scheme converting the Victorian-built Malthouse into a performance and rehearsal space. It’s a great space, with the audience at the level of the stage, so feeling very much ‘in the action.’

In a little village outside Ashford, a local group are putting paid to the idea that creativity and village life are dead. The Woodchurch Players, founded in 1980, have performed everything from drama to family panto, musical theatre to revue shows, shorts and epics, and their diverse CV includes Rebecca, Allo Allo, She Stoops to Conquer, A Matter of Life and Death, Treasure Island and the play version of Sweeney Todd.

This spring’s performance, directed by Mark Perrien , is their 99th show, and they’ve picked something that can appeal to all. Dancing at Lughnasa, performed at Woodchurch Village Hall, and from Thursday 18th May until Saturday 20th May, might be familiar to some. Written by Brian Friel over twelve days in 1989, it is a touching and heartfelt play about five sisters in 1930s Ireland. Bittersweet in tone and temper, it explores the relationship between the sisters and is cleverly narrated many years later by Michael, the son of the youngest sister Chris. Michael is to all intents and purposes Friel. Described as a ‘memory play’, it centres around the Mundy girls – Friel’s mother and her four sisters. There’s love interests, dancing, laughter and plenty of Irish charm – but knowing that it’s based on true events of loved ones who have passed away gives it a clear tenderness.

Rehearsals are going well by all accounts. It’s busy of course, but that all part of the fun. In fact, gathering together for rehearsals before it all comes together is just like hanging out with friends in many ways.

There are a myriad of benefits to being part of groups like this. Charlotte Maughan-Jones, who plays Chris explains how before she got involved with the local theatre scene, the stress of her job and changing circumstances had become too much. ‘Having just graduated and moved back home to Ashford to start my job, I found that all of my old school friends were no longer around, and I was, for the first time, very alone. I had a stressful job at the time and had given up all my hobbies to concentrate on my career – this proved disastrous for me and I subsequently spent time on antidepressants and in therapy. I have met some of the most amazing people through my drama exploits and I feel richer for it.’

Charlotte got involved with the Woodchurch Players, whom she describes as one of the most inclusive and supportive groups around. ‘The society were so friendly and welcoming to me as a newcomer and I fell in love with the intimate setting for the shows.’ What this means is that there are always opportunities available. Even those who believe they have no acting skills (something that should always be explored!), or just prefer not to be on stage, can get involved. No production can take place without technicians, lighting, costumes, prompting, direction – and those with existing skills or looking to develop theirs are always welcome.

In fact, it plays a major role in the audience’s engagement with a performance. Here, as Michael recounts the summer in his aunts’ cottage when he was seven years old the green fields of the fictional town of Ballybeg Ireland’s County Donegal play out behind him, whilst the period costumes immediately immerse you in August 1936.

The casts range from new members to existing, young and old, male and female. Every year the pantomime is filled with enthusiastic children taking part and becoming part of their local theatre. For Charlotte Woodchurch Players ‘embodies everything that a local community should be – people of all ages, all backgrounds and all talents coming together to do something they love, and something they’re passionate about.’

Come along and find out more whilst you are entertained with song, dance and drama at Dancing at Lughnasa. Tickets are available here or in person at the Woodchurch Information Centre.

The creators of FloVibe – Jason Pooley (The House of Yoga) and collaborator Lou Wellby of Jam Sandwich Live – have brought together all the things they love in one place, for a weekend of what they term ‘soul-nourishment.’

Starting from their five values of community, empowerment, connection, play and celebration, they’ve manifested them in a sparkling event that will take place on 2-4th June 2017 at the idyllic Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire.

There’s yoga masterclasses, dance and movement workshops, inspiring talks, storytelling, live music spanning folk, jazz, roots & reggae (including Cristobal & The Sea), incredible DJs, nutritious, delicious wholesome food and treatments in the woods. Rather than exhausting you, this is a weekend of revelry that aims to inspire and restore.

Tickets start at only £75 for the day, and are available here, with weekend and camping options available.

Nothing. In fact, there’s a lot right with it. Science and research backs this up. Play can relieve stress, boost creativity, improve brain function, and improve our relationships with other people by fostering trust with others. Forward thinking organisations like Google and Pixar have taken an experimental approach and success has followed with productivity and profits.

The School of Play was set up earlier this year, and is dedicated to promoting happier adulthood through lifelong play. A consultant-coach, storyteller, and games maker who combines business strategies with play to bring about positive organisational change, Portia Tung creates what she calls ‘adventures’ with the aim of helping developing their ‘play intelligence.’ At trendy Drink, Shop, Do, a play with play embedded into every corner, the Night At The Curiosity Carousel offered an opportunity to get involved, relax a little, maybe have some fun – and of course justified by the potential that it might be good for us.

The carousel was essentially five tables set up with different activities including drawing, games, craft and writing (I won’t tell you exactly what – discovery is part of the fun!), and opportunity to reflect was offered. The four principles of Everyone’s invited; An option not an obligation; Opportunity to give and receive; and Game-changing were evident in the room, as strangers shared and smiled with one another. One participant noted during the session that ‘Strangers are simply friends you haven’t met yet’ and another participant simply said the session brought them ‘Joy!’ One particular ride on the carousel led the player to say:

‘I really enjoyed the evening and time went by without even noticing it. It was imaginative, creative and entertaining. The kind that makes you forget where you are or even that you are an adult. Portia has a special talent to transport you to a different place where playing is all you focus on, and all of a sudden you are free again. You can give as much as you want, but the more you give the more you get out of the experience. Thank you Portia for a great adventure!’

It’s rare that as adults caught in the race of London, or indeed life, we allow ourselves to stop, relax, and just play for no reason than the activity itself. Regardless of any scientific evidence or productivity claims, it just makes you feel good. And surely that is reason enough in itself.

Portia is also the creator of Agile Fairytales, a series of learning games for adults, and is author of choose your own adventure style The Dream Team Nightmare, which uses agile working techniques and storytelling to develop productivity in business teams. Check out the next event in November, where Portia and The School of Play invite you to a Mystery Masquerade, and keep up to date with future adventures, debates and keynotes here. Have fun!

Shakespeare Refashioned, Selfridges’ conflation of culture and consumerism (although have the two ever really been separate?) have added Much Ado About Nothing to their innovative programme of events that aim to both celebrate the Bard, and make him accessible to everyone in a riotous production crafted by theatre company The Faction.

Director Mark Lepacher and his cast of nine promise a ‘contemporary aesthetic’ that both remains true to the original and notes the continued relevance of appearance, image, rumour, and social standing to the society we live in. Via a television screen with Meera Syal as a Messina News reporter (also the CCTV to show Simon Callow and Rufus Hound as bumbling Dogberry and Verges), bright lights and chart hits, Leonato, played by Caroline Langrishe, becoming a feisty matriarch in a pacey performance, they’ve managed to daub the play in a modern flourish.

And, this being Selfridges, the contemporary twist is primarily portrayed through the clothing, with Beatrice’s shoes proving particularly distracting. With no scenery but a stage more evocative of a runway, there’s certainly a sense of glamour.

As always it’s the banter between Beatrice and Benedick that really makes this play infectious. The smart and sassy Beatrice is played by the excellent Alison O’Donnell, caught in the merry war with Benedick, Daniel Boyd revelling in a flamboyant performance that perfectly portrayed the linguistic wit of Shakespeare’s words. They’re a very different couple to the innocent Claudio and Hero (Harry Lister Smith and Lowri Izzard) also well performed, but as characters never as endearing to the audience.

The speed of the production (coming in at just over 100 minutes) makes it even more painfully apparent the lack of character, depth, and opportunity afforded Hero. Admired for her beauty, with no opportunity to express personality, bartered like a possession, this is not feminist power at its best. It’s unsettling that her mother and father are prepared to pretend that she has died, that Claudio is happy to replace the girl he was dizzingly in love with for one who looks just like her, especially if she now has twice the inheritance on offer too, and that a woman’s word can be so easily dismissed for the sake of honour.

But that’s a criticism of the play itself, or the play’s criticism of society itself, or whatever other complex layer that Shakespeare was trying to achieve, rather than of the Faction’s production. There’s something that feels slightly uncomfortable about criticising Shakespeare — and I feel uncomfortable even admitting that, even as this paragraph starts to get meta.

As in all of Shakespeare’s comedies, the duping and tricks are foolish, the masquerade unconvincing, and the crimes easily uncovered, exacerbated in part by the fast pace of the production. But when crackling dialogue is delivered with nimble eloquence and timing like tonight, realism is a small price to play. Swift paced and bold, with an innovative gaze, this is retail therapy at its best.

It was then, back in June 2015, that she decided to write a show about online dating. Swipe, now performing at the Camden Fringe festival, is an hour long performance of sketches and vignettes exploring dating in the modern world, and how choice can be paralysing, communication confusing, and the whole experience of finding love very much in flux.

‘All the scenarios derive from real experiences, and it contains a lot of my dating trials and triumphs. It’s a very real play that is swimming in the experiences of so many women.’ she says, but it spans the sexes. The tales are drawn from over one hundred interviews with women around the world, and whilst originally intending to be a cast of men and women, in the writing Alyssa realised  that she ‘only had a voice for women this time.’ This doesn’t stop it resonating with both sexes though. The small theatre was filled equally with men and women, and the nods and laughter came from both.

Corny chat up lines are nothing new of course, but the ease with which someone can disappear when you only know them from through your phone – ‘ghosting’ they call it; the simplicity of sending a dick pic, wanted or not; the disconnect between the persona you portray on and offline; and the temptation of simply moving on with only a swipe are all very much modern dilemmas.

Love’s not easy. New Match Collective have assembled dating horrors and highs through the lens of technology and modernity to create an hour’s entertainment that’s amusing, entertaining and utterly identifiable.

Running 18th -21st August at The Hen & Chickens Theatre, London, as part of The Camden Fringe. Tickets available here.