Twinkle Twonkle is the latest production from Tall Stories, they of  The Gruffalo fame. During the two-person show at the Roundhouse in Camden they take on the challenging concept of the Big Bang – or Big Sneeze – Theory and do their best to explain it to kids as young as five.

Stella’s bedroom is her own makeshift version of the universe. Paper lanterns, inflatable globes and a colander all substitutes for the planets she is so fascinated by.

Meanwhile her younger brother Ryan is more interested in the cow that jumped over the moon. Desperate for a playmate, he badgers Stella to take part in his endless renditions of his favourite nursery rhymes.

But Stella just wants her brother to go to sleep so she can stare at the starry night through her telescope.

When Ryan refuses, she does the next best thing and teaches him about the worlds around him.

There are plenty of laughs and songs in the 50 minute performance and we all came out a lot wiser and more informed about the likes of constellations, galaxies and the basics of astrophysics! Even so, I’m still left wondering – what exactly are stars made of…?

Twinkle Twonkle at the Roundhouse until 31 December 2011

La Soirée is giving away four “Posh Seats” to one lucky winner this Christmas.

A heady cocktail of cabaret, new burlesque, circus sideshow and contemporary variety La Soirée is a rare and unforgettable treat in the incredible setting of the Roundhouse in Camden.

These tickets entitle you to a reserved table with table service before and throughout the performance, not to mention a great view of all of the performers close up!

Due to the risqué nature of some of the acts, La Soirée is recommended for adults only.

Enter now to win this fantastic festive night out!

Following last week’s announcement that The O2 is the world’s most popular music venue, we asked our Visit London Facebook fans What’s Your Favourite Place in London To Hear Music?

There was a big response. Plenty of you agree The O2 is excellent, and other large venues such as HMV Hammersmith Apollo, Royal Albert Hall, The Roundhouse and The Barbican were mentioned.

Smaller venue favourites include Ronnie Scott’s in Soho, Camden’s Electric Ballroom, Vortex Jazz Club in Hackney, Union Chapel Islington and The Archduke at Waterloo.

Lots of people rate London’s buskers, music outdoors in Covent Garden, Regent’s Park (in summer!) and Trafalgar Square, and several of you professed a love for candlelit concerts at St Martin in the Fields.

So what’s your favourite place in London to hear music? Leave a comment below…

The Woman in Black is currently celebrating its 21st year in London’s West End; the rather dingy building and dangerously intimate Fortune Theatre has become its home. The performance combines theatrical illusion and trickery with a disturbing narrative, scaring even the coolest of hearts.

Ghost Stories was written only recently and is more contemporary in every way. The production feels more like an experiment in fear, presenting archetypal myths and using clever technology to make them come alive. As you take your seat, there is no light or programme sellers to welcome you in, instead the dimly lit Duke of Yorks Theatre is haunted with a soundtrack of drips and rumbles and eerie screeches. There is no interval, which builds up tension and you are warned: if you leave the theatre during the performance you will be unable to return.

What both shows have in common is a real talent for inducing terror through all the senses. Employing mostly sound and sight, but also touch and smell as scare tactics.  As for taste, I know I left both theatres with the taste of fear in my mouth.

More spooky shows to see in London:

• Phantom of the Opera: a masked man haunts the Paris Opera House in this well-loved musical
• Wicked: the tale of the Wicked Witch of the West
• Deathtrap: this onstage thriller plots the ideal murder and cuts close to the bone
• Alice Cooper: the grandaddy of shock rock comes to London’s Roundhouse for Halloween
• Terror 2010: Death and Resurrection: four scary short plays

Halloween is only a week away, so book your tickets to London’s scariest shows now!

La Clique London started its Christmas/New Year residency at Camden’s Roundhouse a couple of weeks ago. The show got rave reviews for its original London season earlier this year at the Hippodrome. Some of this season’s performers are the same, some are new (to me), but the show is as fresh, exciting and entertaining as ever.

The first act was tight, taut and terrific with a great mix of different acts. It began with an address from The Queen (impersonator Gerry Connolly, who totally looks and sounds the part – “moist generous” of Her Maj to show up). Then there was trailer-trash trapeze, complete with Guns ‘n’ Roses soundtrack, from the athletic Wau Wau Sisters; Freddie Mercury-inspired juggling with Mario Queen of the Circus; and a whole lotta hula from Marawa.

Act Two kicked off with the gloriously chaotic Meow Meow, who took audience participation to new lengths, and indeed heights, by co-opting five fellas to carry her around the stage. Then Sweden’s Carl-Einar Häckner clowned around, and Sam Alvarez got erotic and aerial with some very big chains.

I’d seen Ursula Martinez‘s saucy burlesque striptease before but La Clique has now incorporated her “disappearing hankie” into the rest of the show to great effect, if the audience’s screams of delight (horror?!) were any indication. The Skating Willers are a stand out – I can truly say I’ve never seen the like and from my seat in the second row, I almost feared a roller skate in the face as their thrilling act was performed.

I originally saw La Clique’s show about a year back. Since then, I’ve been a lot of variety and cabaret in London but this is still hands down the best show in town. Go.

Ever fancied playing a musical instrument the size of a house? How about one the size of Camden’s Roundhouse? Well, now you can.

From tomorrow a new installation created by musical maverick David Byrne, Playing the Building, will be open to the public to play with.  It’s yet another example of participatory events happening in London this summer.

Byrne, probably best known as the Talking Heads frontman, showed off his creation today in a press preview. The instrument looks like musical version of a Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory machine – an old pump organ sprouting with coloured wires that are attached to the building’s rather beautiful Victorian poles and girders.

In keeping with the steampunk aesthetic, it’s entirely mechanical, with Byrne noting the instrument could as easily have been produced 150 years ago as today. It produces sounds using a system of air pressure and sonar magnets to tap, whistle and vibrate through the Roundhouse’s  pillars and posts. The result is a range of flute-like whistles and xylophone-style pings.

“You can’t play Bach on it,” Byrne notes, but that’s not the idea. People are encouraged to wander through the space, have a tinkle, experiment and enjoy the ambience of the building and the sounds produced.

The Roundhouse is hosting several jam sessions and events where you can play your own music along with the building – book tickets and find out more from the Roundhouse website.

It only costs a fiver to enter, unless you go on Mondays when it’s “pay what you can”. If you do go, please tell us about your experience by commenting on this post.