As You Like It

"The standout performer, however, is Emily Carding, an experienced Shakespearean actor, new to Open Bar. Cool and witty, Carding gives a mesmerising performance of Jaques, and transforms the normally forgettable Oliver and Le Beau into strongly comic characters. Carding’s vocal range and transitions from stillness to energy effortlessly command the stage."- Reviewshub

Apparatus

"The involvement of Hastings actor Emily Carding is a byword for a must-see" -The Stage

"Carding’s performance as the Officer is captivating; her devotion both to the ‘apparatus’ itself and her previous superior, the Old Commandant, (is) as convincing as it is unnerving."- The Telegraph

"Carding is mesmerising in the starring role."- Fringe Guru

 "A polished and committed piece of work. The dark humour was cleverly layered and the whole production was absurdly Kafkaesque. The Officer, played by Emily Carding, was mesmerising. An outstanding performance."- London Pub theatres

Richard III (A One Woman Show)

"Ms. Carding’s coolly psychotic king has a Tilda Swinton-esque flair."- New York Times

"an extraordinary performance from Emily Carding, a female Richard as bitter, damaged, ingenious and irresistible as any I’ve ever seen."- Joyce Macmillan, The Scotsman

"a dazzling performance" -The Stage

"It takes exceptional talent and some out-of-the-box thinking for a single actor to stay on stage for an hour and keep the audience glued to their seats, listening to every word that the character utters, even if a major chunk of the audience is not familiar with the text used by the actor.

It happened on Sunday night when Emily Carding played, nay reinterpreted, Shakespeare’s Richard III all by herself in the National Academy of Performing Arts’ (Napa) Zia Mohyeddin theatre"- Dawn,  (Pakistan)

"With her powerful physicality and nuanced, mesmerising speech, it is her name, and not just Richard’s, that stands as a tower of strength" - Broadway Baby

Hamlet (an experience)

"On paper, it may sound gimmicky, but it allows the audience to meet the one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters at a very personal level. Outside the framework of Shakespeare’s play, Carding’s melancholy seems utterly genuine and all we want to do is help him. Sigfusdottir’s adaptation and Carding’s sensitive interpretation provide a shortcut to the empathy that many Hamlets crave but seldom achieve."-  The Stage

"This is an intimate journey that will leave you feeling closer and more empathetic to Hamlet than ever before." - Front Row Center, NYC

"Carding is fearless, her grasp of the material flawless and her energy boundless"- FringeReview

Antony and Cleopatra

"Emily Carding embodies the role of the legendary queen of Egypt in every aspect. With her vigour and powerful voice, she was quite simply born to play Queen Cleopatra." - What's On Magazine

Quintessence

"A formidable performance" -The Stage

"Solo actor Emily Carding plays Ariel, and her physical performance is extraordinary. She positions herself squarely in the “uncanny valley” - the place where a robot resembles a human, but still feels eerily wrong. Her movements are repetitive, not quite natural; her smile is warm, but it turns on and off like the flick of a switch. Even the sing-song robot voice, which I feared at the start would rapidly grate on me, is done with such perfect consistency that it came to feel comforting and real.

But things are very different when Ariel activates “performance mode”, and Carding is freed to give us a blast of Shakespeare in regular human form. Most of the extracts are familiar ones, but there’s always something novel in the delivery: a line delivered unexpectedly softly, an emphasis thrown on a well-chosen word. Director Dominique Gerrard has helped Carding truly showcase her considerable talents, and the subtlety of the vignettes are a welcome counterpoint to the technocratic certainty embodied by Ariel." -Fringe Guru

There's a Ghost in my House

"The denouement will haunt. Carding’s outstanding for bringing a humanity and arc of humour, anger, irritation, wry bitterness, sheer despair, drunken ravings suddenly controlled and overwhelming feeling at the end. Nearly every calibration you might have seen in Quintessence is here too. This actor will always add more than a measure of distinction to any work she’s in. "-FringeReview

Locksmith's Dream

"Particular kudos to Emily Carding as the Curator, who was by turns all giddy excitability then heartbreaking loss.  Her mournful breakfast monologue over the fate of a teaspoon was devastating.  While my friend and I failed on so many levels to complete most of the challenges posed by the Locksmith’s Dream our one success was on a task for the Curator and her reaction to our resolution provided one of the most blindingly bonkers but wonderful and warm encounters of the whole weekend."- Escape Roomer

Key of Dreams

"And then we come to Emily Carding as Dee. The Key Of Dreams’ is a masterpiece of dark, intense immersion and that is largely down to their powerful performance as its amoral centre. Whether you choose to become one of their followers or not, they cast a pitch black shadow over proceedings which sets the perfect tone for all that happens around her. They possess the kind of gravitational pull and evil charisma that Dracula would give his left fang for but whether they are the anti-hero or the villain of the piece is left entirely down to us to judge." Broadway World