Adam Williams, Author at North West End UK

My Last Two Brain Cells – King’s Arms, Salford

27Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

My Last Two Brain Cells – King’s Arms, Salford

One of my favourite cartoons in The Beano was a strip called The Numskulls. They were a team of human-like technicians living in the brain of an unnamed man. This energetic, extremely fun, and diverting show takes that concept and introduces us to a couple of brain cells inside the mind of a man called Gary, who unfortunately is dying, and they have to save him. Brain cell 64,928,460,784, who is fortunately known simply as Clive (Joe Pike), is the nerdy, strait-laced brain cell while his counterpart, brain cell number 12 (Tom Hazelden), is the more out-going, ebullient, and entertaining one. This is a common comic setup, think the Odd Couple, Peep Show, and many others but the sheer energy of these two performers and their playfulness help to make this situation extremely entertaining. ...

My Chat with Harold Pinter – King’s Arms, Salford

19Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

My Chat with Harold Pinter – King’s Arms, Salford

All playwrights speak to each other in one way or another. Sometimes they will talk to the living but most of the time they talk to the dead. Every writer has stolen from another scribe, especially their heroes, and usually they are six-foot under and not in a position to complain. In this play, playwright Jen communes with Harold Pinter to help her to write her play. She wants him to assist her through her writer’s block so she can complete writing her magnum opus. Thus starts a post-modern foray into writing, feminism and theatre which will also teach you the fielding positions in cricket. People of a certain age will remember a TV show called Call My Bluff and there are lots of words in this play which could have been included in that programme. On that show celebrities had to def...

12Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Dead Dad Show – 53two

I read an article by the comedian Cariad Lloyd about the death of her father. In particular, she wanted to give advice to people on how to approach someone dealing with grief. Her favourite reaction, she said, came from the comic actor Ken Campbell who asked if her dad was going to come and see the show they were performing and she explained he had died and he replied, “Huh, yeah, they have a habit of doing that, dads.” Humour, as opposed to sentimentality or the stock phrase, was, as always, the best policy. Which is the attitude of this rip-roaring, full-on, no-holds barred of a show which is not averse to the odd profanity, contains nudity, cross-dressing but also has a cool satirical edge. It is brash, cocksure you might say, cheeky, confident and it certainly has plenty of s...

12Jun

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Long Story Short – King’s Arms, Salford

The issue of crime and punishment has been discussed by writers and thinkers for thousands of years. There is, of course, Dostoevsky’s famous novel but it is a subject whose very nature makes it ideal for drama. Where there is a crime, there is a victim, a perpetrator and the associated emotions of for each of guilt, remorse, sadness and heartbreak. These five short plays by Ward J Harries were all linked by this theme, and each had a differing perspective on the issue. They all came across as work-in-progress pieces, that do need some fine tuning, but the basic ideas behind each play were engaging. There were times when some of the writing veered too much towards melodrama and theatrical artifice. Yet there were some genuinely powerful moments of theatre when a true emotion or conflict...

6Mar

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Work It Out – HOME Mcr

“Five, six, seven, eight - step right, swimming motion, move like Jagger, turn and again!” Exercise is good for us. We all know that. It is beneficial not just because it helps to shed a few pounds, it also gives a much-needed boost to our mental health. Progress over perfection is the key to success. Writer Eve Steele has produced a play so full of heart you can hear it pounding like the ticker of an unfit beginner at their first exercise class. This finely judged play is polemical when it needs to be, veers on the right side of sentimentality and brings together a wonderfully disparate group of characters. Together they become their own little mini community. They all have their problems including drug addiction, alcoholism, hoarding and overeating. Damaged and defeated they com...

Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening – The Lowry

14Feb

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening – The Lowry

The 90s were famous for a lot of things such as Britpop, Cool Brittania and the Teletubbies and casting an acerbic eye on the news at that time was an award-winning sitcom ready to take a satirical swipe at the great and the good of the day. Recorded close to transmission the gags were bang up to date and like Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You, it was must see TV for satire junkies. Aside from its topicality the show had a great bunch of misfit characters who were, like in any great sitcom, trapped together, in this case in a news station. It had a bumbling editor, George (Jeff Rawle), a womanising gambling addict, Dave (Neil Pearson), the attention seeking Damien (Stephen Tompkinson), perfectionist Helen (Ingrid Lacey) and the sociopathic Joy (Susannah Doyle). It was a workpla...

24Jan

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Murder in the Dark – The Lowry

Thrillers on stage are notoriously difficult to pull off effectively and I am afraid this one didn’t quite hit the mark. Unfortunately, I was not on the edge of my seat and the supposed thrills, twists and turns at the end flailed rather than flabbergasted. Which is a shame because the groundwork was solidly laid for a classic murder mystery thriller. A group of characters are left in an isolated farm, and we become increasingly concerned there maybe something nasty in the woodshed. Danny (Tom Chambers) and Sarah (Laura White) are welcomed into the farmhouse by the eccentric owner Mrs Bateman (Susie Blake). It is New Year’s Eve, he has just buried his mother, they are miles from anywhere and Danny is desperate for a drink. He has crashed his car into a wall, and they will have to sta...

Mozart, Made in Manchester – The Stoller Hall, Manchester

8Oct

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Mozart, Made in Manchester – The Stoller Hall, Manchester

It goes without saying that Mozart was a genius, the ultimate prodigious talent who could pick out tunes on the piano at the age of three and at four or five years old had started composing his first pieces of music. This concert was a celebration of the early Mozart and all the pieces played were composed before he was 15 years old. To think that this sublime music came from the pen of a teenager is amazing. The orchestra performed the overtures from Apollo et Hyacinthus and Bastien und Bastienne as well as the first four piano concertos. Conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy was an entertaining guide not just to the music but to the role of the conductor. He admitted he “talked too much” in rehearsal and his effusive love and passion for the music was clear and contagious. In an interesti...

27Sep

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Cats – Stockport Plaza

In my day job, outside of the nights I spend in and around the various theatrical haunts of Greater Manchester, I write about dogs. Yes, I am a canine journalist and yes, that is a real job! Given that my professional life revolves around man’s best friend you would think I would hate Cats but this production was so pleasing that I wanted to take it home, give it a saucer of milk and tickle it behind its ears. However, I did have one problem with the show and I will get the negative out of the way now because there was so much in it to enjoy. My gripe was that for some of the numbers where everyone was singing, I couldn’t hear the words. I don’t know if it was a sound issue but the solo songs were fine. The person I took with me said they had the same problem. As I say, I don’t want to ...

27Aug

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Coke, Machines, Stars & Kisses – 53two

There can’t be a better physical representation of the ups and downs of life, relationships and self-discovery than a trampoline and here there is one slap, bang centre-stage and it is physically and metaphorically central to this play. As it begins Lewis is enjoying himself on the trampoline. He is sure of himself, knows how to control his body and can even perform a few tricks. Lewis appears to be a self-assured, confident, working-class lad who sniffs a bit of coke as he drinks and smokes. Not only is he the last to leave Dale’s party but he was also uninvited. Dale has returned to Manchester after living in London and he wants Lewis to leave. Yet they get talking and start out on a journey of self-discovery for both of them which will take them up to the stars and back down to ea...