Joanne Davis

It’s Daniel and Frances’s wedding day and all eyes and ears are on the groom as he begins his speech. As he works his way through his extensive list of people to thank, our attention wanders to his wife, whose fixed smile of devotion begins to crack, revealing a bloody hatred for her new husband. Flashback to four weeks before the big day and Daniel is visiting a psychiatrist to cure his fiancée’s erratic behaviour. We’re already on her side.

Performance poet Luke Wright laid bare his soul during this outing at Komedia. And with only 20 people in the room – I wasn’t counting, but he was – it was a raw, sometimes brutally honest, affair.

Is Robin Ince mellowing in his older age? His latest show was all about positivity – at least, that’s what he told us. And, though the anger was still there, it did seem to have softened a little around the edges.

Kimya Dawson was a likeable performer with songs that were easy on the ear – whether she was singing one of her better-known numbers from the Juno soundtrack, a track from her kids’ album Alphabutt, or an impromptu piece from her community choir.

Everybody knows that if you don’t want to be picked on at a comedy club, you should avoid the front row. What they don’t tell you is anyone within a microphone lead’s length of the stage is fair game. Not that Bourgeois, of cabaret double act Bourgeois & Maurice, picked on many of us. However, when a performer chooses to dedicate a song to your companion, it can’t help but make an impression on you.

There was no rug and little romance in Terry Saunders’ and Mark Allen’s show.

Proof, a story of relationships and mathematics, asks questions with no formulaic answers.

A FATHER’S ghost, a mother quick to remarry and a servant slain – Edward de Vere’s story has many parallels with that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

I've seen Johnny Flynn before, when he supported the Ukes Of Hazzard earlier this year. His performance had been arresting and I was eager to hear more.

Shakespeare? Set in Southend-on-Sea? In blank verse?