Otto and Astrid – The Stages Tour, Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1 | until26 July 2026 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Christina Fiedler

Otto and Astrid – The Stages Tour

Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1 | until26 July 2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“A fabulous show.”

To come across this splendid double act for the first time is, to say the least, an overwhelming experience. But punk rock is not my scene and Berlin's finest had never come my way. They are doing a stint in Dean Street prior to appearing in Edinburgh at the Fringe in the Assembly Roxy from 5 – 30 August. Lots of Fringe acts do London show cases before hand to get the reviews to tempt the Fringe audiences but as they have been around for twenty years they really should not need them, other than that the passage of time has not dimmed their outrageous behaviour and the quality of the songs they sing while having the sort of disputes that only siblings do. Astrid is on the drums and makes clear she runs the show, although Otto, who plays guitar and some kind of odd musical instrument with a keyboard, is a match for her, seizing his chances to sing the songs he wants when she has to go off stage for various reasons – the call of nature, or to change her dress into one with the most amazingly complicated bits and pieces which, entangled in the cable of her microphone and its stand, she duly loses. What you get is seventy minutes of mayhem to relish in spite of the Soho Theatre downstairs having the hardest seats in London and a show to blow you right out of the theatre as they fight, sing, confide in the audience – the plan for an after show party somehow gets forgotten – and do what their band of two, Die Rote Punk, does best – entertain. Out of this world.

Cast

Astrid and Otto

Creatives

There were some but Die Rote Punk does not stretch to a programme.