THEATRE: Boiling Frogs – The Factory 

Boiling Frogs is an angry, important play. Set entirely in the mirrored cell of a police station, it hints at an Orwellian Britain in which civil liberties have been all but wiped away, by a State desperate to exert control over escalating terrorism, natural disasters and the rising heat. Unsurprisingly, this is a vision of our near future. With Parliament Square now closed to spontaneous protests and the 28 day limit on detention without charge recently renewed, playwright Steven Bloomer clearly believes Britain today could be only a few more wrong turns  away from the nightmare on stage.

For a couple of years now, The Factory has been a cult company among young thespians. Founded to address the difficulties young actors find in maintaining their training, and the paucity of opportunities to tackle major texts, the company builds each of its productions out of semi-public workshops dedicated to exploring new techniques – and like all the best attempts to regenerate public dialogue, it allows interested members of the public to join the discussion online