Thomas Cotran Archives - North West End UK

The Great Gatsby – Grosvenor Open Air Theatre

2Aug

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

North West

The Great Gatsby – Grosvenor Open Air Theatre

Frivolity fans the air as a live band dances an eager audience back to the roaring 1920s for an evening of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It's hard not to immediately be swept up in the decadence as the cast mingle with the audience until suddenly you aren't sure if you're within the production or simply observing it - what part do you play in the party that never stops? Cleverly framed, there is audience participation from the start. All rise as a coroner begins to question the events leading up to the death of a man, a man surrounded by mystery and rumour. Witness testimonies contradict. A cacophony of characters cause calamity. Just as it feels like a judgement has been made, in bursts protagonist Nick Carraway (Thomas Cotran). Clearly upset, he takes command of the s...

Atalanta Forever – Halifax Piece Hall

On the day after the first ever female chair of the Football Association was announced this witty and powerful piece about the pioneers of the women’s game being banned by a bunch of misogynists in a committee room couldn’t be more pertinent. These footballing underdogs are classic Mikron Theatre territory as a fictional Huddersfield factory girl and a posh teacher come together under the watchful eye of even posher Miss Waller to form Atalanta Ladies raising money for starving wondered soldiers in the years after the war to end all wars. My only criticism is that Mikron often play posh characters off against the working class, and that idea has run its course. Bit of context here for non-footie fans as in 1921 Preston’s Dick Kerr’s Ladies played in front of 51000 at a Boxing Day ga...

Mikron Theatre back on the water with Atalanta Forever celebrating the pioneers of women’s football

Mikron Theatre back on the water with Atalanta Forever celebrating the pioneers of women’s football. Mikron Theatre celebrate their 49th year of touring on their narrowboat with the premiere of Atalanta Forever telling the story of pioneering women footballers in 1920. Amanda Whittingham has gone back to 1920 where women’s football teams are pulling in huge crowds for fund-raising games raising money for wounded soldiers. Huddersfield amateurs Ethel and Annie are teammates at Huddersfield’s Atalanta AFC who are tackling new football skills, mastering the offside rule and kicking back at the doubters. The play is based on the true story of one of three women’s football teams in Huddersfield in post war Britain. A measure of the popularity of the women’s game at that time...