Pins and Needles review – a teasing, tricksy tale of vaccinations, from smallpox to Covid

Kiln theatre, London This Q&A-based delve into the politics of vaccination is a fascinating, thorny and sometimes wilfully opaque take on a divisive topic for our times Rob Drummond tells us to trust him. Except the man on stage isn’t Rob, the interviews that he promises are verbatim have been heavily edited, and at least one of them is made up entirely. So how can we trust anything anyone says? Trust and doubt lurk on the shoulders of this ultra-self-aware investigation into attitudes towards vaccinations. In previous, daring shows, Drummond has invited an audience member to shoot a bullet for him to catch with his teeth, and dragged individuals into dates played out for the rest of the room. Pins and Needles takes a step back from the intensity of those interactions and is a little flatter for it, levelling its gaze instead at a more universal question of risk.