Published: 17 June 2010

• THE New Diorama Theatre off Euston Road was packed on Monday night for the Camden Fringe 2010 launch party. Organisers Michelle and Zena, who run the Etcetera Theatre in Camden Town, have done the borough proud this year by attracting hundreds of acts to the nine venues taking part in the festival, which takes place in August. 

• Haiti, 1801. A slave calling himself Napoleon Noir has risen to power. An outraged Napoleon Bonaparte sends a military force to crush the island. This episode from history is currently being relived on stage in Napoleon Noir at the Shaw Theatre, 100-110 Euston Road, until June 19 and from June 24-27. See www.shaw-theatre.com. 

• Addiction to the internet is the subject of a new play, virtually_real, which opens next week at the Roundhouse and runs for three nights (June 24-26) before going to the Edinburgh Fringe. Its writer, Philip Osment, says it examines the dangerous aspects of new technology by way of physical theatre. “The story centres on a soldier with post-traumatic stress who fought in Afghanistan and shot a child by mistake while he was there,” he says. “He’s trying to reconnect by playing Call of Duty, an online war game.” For tickets call 0844 482 8008.  

• Sad news that The Fantasticks, which opened in the West End barely two weeks ago, is set to close at the end of this month. The World Cup has reportedly hit ticket sales for the show, which stars Olivier Award-winning Clive Rowe, well known to these pages as the prize loon in countless Hackney Empire pantos.

• Now on at ever-worthwhile theatre, The Cock Tavern: A Stretch of the Imagination, which opened this week.