TheatreFringe

Don’t You Forget About Me

★★★★★
VenueAssembly Roxy
Date Seen9 August 2026

Don’t You Forget About Me starts with a neatly exhibited sequence: David Shopland recreates The Breakfast Club, using stools to stand in for its five teenagers. It is a clever way into a show about 80s nostalgia, and the characterisation at the beginning is very good.

But those looking for more than a retelling of the Breakfast Club will not gain much after this point.

The trouble begins when the piece gradually descends into a rant about nostalgia, then into a mad rave, essentially a list things from the Shopland's 1980s childhood. It gets a little strange, and the simple focus of the opening gives way to something much less controlled.

Still, Shopland as a performer remains engaging, and the first section shows there is a strong show buried in the idea. When the stools are doing the work and the characters are alive, the piece has a pleasing, if shallow, theatrical simplicity.

Runs 5–16 August, 18–23 August and 25–31 August at 2:20pm.

Published 09/08/2026
Review by James Fox
Don’t You Forget About Me

About the Show

Theatre CompanyFake Escape
DirectorDavid Shopland, Roann Hassani McCloskey
WriterDavid Shopland, Callum Patrick Hughes
PerformersDavid Shopland, Callum Patrick Hughes
Run5–31 August 2026
Production DescriptionThe forgotten sixth student from The Breakfast Club hosts a 40-year reunion, using the John Hughes film as a springboard for questions of memory, belonging, identity and the desire to be seen.