Camden Fringe 2026: Something About England at Libra Theatre Cafe

Steve North has opened a three-night run of his latest work Something About England at Camden Town’s Libra Theatre Café, a solo show exploring the 2016 Brexit referendum, punk music, family and how nostalgia in all its forms can colour the vision of the future.

North has had fun with the development of the written piece into a performance, structuring his storytelling around music, spoken word poetry, dialogue and monologue, a mix that gives the audience the impression of listening in on someone’s thoughts. It’s established early on in the play that the line between stage and audience will be rather blurred, which keeps the work engaging and humorous even as it navigates some rather detailed historical recollections of British workers’ movements and resistance against fascism to frame its analysis of the Brexit movement and all of its obfuscations. British punk music of the late 1970s – most notably that of the Clash – is central to this story of identity and belonging, and provides an illuminating counter to the violent mythology of patriotism by showing the instinctive ease with which a person – especially a young person – will grab on to anything to hand that offers their life some sort of meaning.

Though North’s characters are fiercely passionate and confident throughout, the oscillation between their voices is well deployed to show how a person’s idea of themself can change over decades or in an instant, and this is an interesting way to explore how much of that elusive meaning has to come from external sources. Is there – one wonders – another way? What would happen if a person simply stopped looking to the past? The play is thought-provoking, philosophical, even, as well as very funny, and handles a complex subject in a succinct timeframe with considerable precision and tact.

With just one actor, a bit of audio playback and a very simple set, Something About England reminds audiences of the power of the voice of the individual, especially one with a guitar – and in the same movement, effectively reminds them to be wary of charismatic characters with convincing voices, and of the promises they make.

Sylvia Unerman
Photos: Courtesy of Camden Fringe

Something About England is at Libra Theatre Cafe from 27^th until 29^th August 2025. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.