Leeds Playhouse Archives - North West End UK

Comedy version of The Time Machine comes to Leeds Playhouse

18Mar

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NEWS

Comedy version of The Time Machine comes to Leeds Playhouse

H G Wells was not known for his comic genius but his Sci-fi masterpiece The Time Machine is played for laughs at Leeds Playhouse direct from a highly acclaimed season at London’s Park Theatre. The Time Machine - A Comedy stars Michael Dylan, Amy Revelle and George Kemp, and is produced by the team behind the hit comedy The Hound of the Baskervilles, Original Theatre. The trio take the audience on a journey of a lifetime as George tries to persuade the others to stick to the script he’s worked so hard on, as Michael attempts to explain time travel without the help of excessive props. Will Amy get to sing her Cher tribute and can these three clowns defeat the space time paradox If Amy was to somehow invent a time machine, she knows exactly which period she would go back to. “I ...

9Mar

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Macbeth – Leeds Playhouse

Mesmerising! This show had my full attention from start to finish, the sinister atmosphere took full control over the full theatre and it’s fair to say the performance was a triumph to the Shakespeare play. Director Amy Leach has taken this traditional tale and put a modern twist on it, the set design was extremely fascinating and a creative tactic for refreshing a well-known story. With real mud and puddles spread across the floor of the stage, beams in positions like trees and the wooden floor that raised to create different dimensions, the audience had no choice but to be immersed within the action. For a small cast the energy was at a high, the first battle was extremely upbeat and the decision to endure the war with a modern tune in the background was really enticing and fresh....

Hamilton star Ash Hunter plays Macbeth at Leeds Playhouse

22Jan

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Hamilton star Ash Hunter plays Macbeth at Leeds Playhouse

Hamilton star Ash Hunter plays Macbeth as Leeds Playhouse bring back their acclaimed take on the Bard’s portrayal of a flawed man who will do whatever it takes to gain power and ultimately the throne. Hunter played Alexander Hamilton in the hit West End musical in 2018/19 before going on to star as Heathcliff in Emma Rice’s acclaimed production of Wuthering Heights at the National Theatre. His TV credits include Netflix mega hit Bridgerton, Alma’s Not Normal, Grace, The Trial of Christine Keeler and Death in Paradise. Jessica Baglow returns as Lady Macbeth who she played when the production was first staged at the Playhouse in 2022. She has worked extensively in theatre, film and TV since childhood, appearing as a series regular in both ITV’s Where The Heart Is and the BBC’s ...

Casting announced for imitating the dog’s Frankenstein

14Jan

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Casting announced for imitating the dog’s Frankenstein

imitating the dog’s two-handed version of Frankenstein will feature RSC actor Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia. This time Co-Artistic Directors Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright offer their trademark multimedia exploration of Mary Shelley’s timeless classic novel as a psychological thriller asks the eternal question – what is it to be human? In this version a couple confront their own fears about impending parenthood as they recreate a version of Frankenstein that erupts into life as everyday objects are transformed into glaciers, a ship at sea, a dissecting room, and a house on fire. Set and Costume Designer Hayley Grindle has created a transformative space j housing the digital tricks and video-mapping ...

Dolly delights in Spring/Summer season at Leeds Playhouse

8Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Dolly delights in Spring/Summer season at Leeds Playhouse

For the first time ever all of Dolly Parton’s biggest hits can be heard together in a new musical comedy, Here You Come Again, which is then cornerstone of the Spring/Summer 2024 season at Leeds Playhouse before it heads off to the West End After a successful US tour, the show is packed with the country legend’s iconic songs, including Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I Will Always Love You and Here You Come Again. It’s the story of a diehard fan whose fantasy version of international icon Dolly Parton gets him through trying times, but the wit, humour and charm in her songs teaches him a whole lot about life, love and how to pull yourself up by your sequinned bootstraps. It was originally written by two-time Emmy award-winning comedy writer and songw...

3Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Oliver! – Leeds Playhouse

Over the last few years Leeds Playhouse have offered all sorts of challenging festive spectaculars but this deliciously dark revival of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece Oliver! is the best yet. You need some nerve to take on such a beloved musical, and Oscar laden movie, so the Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining has cleverly placed his version in the round. Colin Richmond’s design leaves the cavernous Quarry space full of raised spaces and walkways, becoming the sort of dank and dark Victorian London that Charles Dickens painted teeming with all human life and plenty of menace. Brining is a great director of children, and when a well drilled junior ensemble sings and dances through a lively Food Glorious Food it’s clear a big and diverse cast have used their time in the rehearsal ...

25Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Beautiful Thing – Leeds Playhouse

Let me take you back to a time when the British government introduced legislation banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools trying to silence educators and the only gay role models on the TV were tired old parodies. It must seem scarcely believable to Gen Z, but for those of us who lived through those dark days it’s a delight that Beautiful Thing has been revived on its 30th anniversary as its core message that love is love was the perfect antidote to the rampant homophobia given credibility by Mrs T. Jonathan Harvey’s warm and funny play was part of an artistic response at the time to bigotry, including the much rawer My Beautiful Laundrette. Harvey went on to write hundreds of episodes of Corrie, so there is a touch of soap opera as sensitive teenager Jamie...

Syrian artist Hamzeh Al Hussien brings his journey as a refugee to Leeds Playhouse

17Oct

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Syrian artist Hamzeh Al Hussien brings his journey as a refugee to Leeds Playhouse

Given how posh the arts are these days many performers easily graduate from public school to the stage, but Syrian artist Hamzeh Al Hussien took a very different route. His family were displaced during the brutal Syrian civil war meant he spent six years in a refugee camp before this disability made him a priority for resettlement in the UK, and he came with his brother to the North East In his new show Penguin aided by some simple props in the rehearsal room, he conjures a vision of an idyllic village in Syria, a place with a backdrop of mountains, a river and a waterfall, and with caves. There are orchards where as a young boy he once stole lemons, and was shamed by his brother into giving them back. It’s also a place he lived with his parents, two brothers and three sisters, ...

9Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Light House – Leeds Playhouse

A lone woman comes through the dry ice holding a lantern and looking serious. So, the initial thought is this one woman show is going to be a hour long misery fest. Thankfully it is the exact opposite as Alys Williams has written and performs a show that is warm, witty, always humane, but never afraid to delve into the challenges that mental health issues pose for those battling with their own minds, and for those around them. Cleverly she uses the standard protocol for what happens when a man goes overboard at sea as a metaphor for how society reacts when someone starts to struggle with their mental health, and it’s a motif she returns to throughout. What really gives The Light House resonance is Williams has based it on her own experience with a partner who does go overboard me...

Leeds Playhouse becomes foodbank collection point for I, Daniel Blake

21Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

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Leeds Playhouse becomes foodbank collection point for I, Daniel Blake

As the world premiere stage adaptation of I, Daniel Blake comes to Leeds Playhouse they are turning themselves into a foodbank collection point. The film focusing on the struggles of people on the margins in our country has been adapted by actor and comedian Dave Johns, who won the Best Actor award at the British Independent Film Awards and Best Newcomer at the EMPIRE Awards for his role in the film. The proliferation of foodbanks across the UK is a central theme in the play, so the Playhouse is becoming a collection point for South & East Leeds Food Bank, which is part of the Trussell Trust Network with distribution points in Harehills, Beeston, Gipton, Seacroft, Morley, Hunslet, Halton, Rothwell and Belle Isle. The South & East Leeds Food Bank supported more than 14,000...