Adam Williams, Author at North West End UK

Mother There Art Thou – King’s Arms, Salford

27Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Mother There Art Thou – King’s Arms, Salford

Most plays, essentially, are about families and that age-old conflict between kids and their parents. If you go back to ancient Greek drama and myth Oedipus and Electra have complexes named after them. A child’s view of the world is created by their parents. They can, if they want, make it seem to be a scary place their kids should hide from, or they can say it is wonderful and should be embraced and enjoyed. The set-up for this darkly comic play is that a domineering rule-setting, brutal, mother has died, and her son and daughter are left to ponder how they want to live their lives. There is no mention of a father in the piece, so it is assumed the mother brought up the children on her own. Within the family dynamic son Charlie is clearly willing to follow the rules and is extrem...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream(ish) – International Anthony Burgess Foundation

14Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

A Midsummer Night’s Dream(ish) – International Anthony Burgess Foundation

It is not often that a reviewer becomes part of the show but that is what happened to me as part of this entertaining, engaging and extremely fun one-woman re-telling of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy. Your humble scribe was plucked out of the audience to play a wall. It took all my theatrical skill to stand on stage holding a plastic brick and it would not be correct to comment on my own performance but the other audience members who were chosen to appear on stage with me were all excellent. Yet, the real energetic, frenetic and comic star of the show was Abey Bradbury. She wrote and performed this whistle-stop tour through the Bard’s classic play with such verve and sheer pizazz it was a joy to behold. Her playfulness and obvious love of clowning were such a treat she really brought...

15Jun

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

I Am Not A Robot – King’s Arms, Salford

The potential dangers to humanity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots have been the meat and drink of numerous science fiction movies for decades. On TV the BBC sci-fi show, Doctor Who, back in the 60s, created the Cybermen, monsters who had once been human but had turned themselves into killing machines devoid of emotion. I Am Not a Robot explores this theme, cleverly grounding it with northern humour, whilst adding a touch of slapstick and a healthy dash of melodrama. The sparky script is punchy and witty which rattles along at a wonderful pace until the third act. It starts off in the bedroom of a luxury hotel somewhere overseas in the near future. Beth has won a luxury stay via Instagram and has invited her best friend, ambitious politician Karina, to share it with her. Ka...

27Apr

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

If This Is Normal – 53Two

Being young is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? All you can remember, as you look back at those carefree days and that glorious summer before going to university, is the sunshine and the happy times, yes? Those heady days when everything seemed possible and all you had to do was to go out and enjoy yourself with your mates. Wasn’t it fantastic? Yet was it? Because when you get older you tend to forget all the confusion, the insecurity, the vulnerability and the sheer emotional nightmare we all went through when we were young. It is a very confusing time and If This Is Normal captures all that angst perfectly. Writer Lucy Danser’s play is, like most teenagers, full of verve, energy, sprit, fun and emotion. It follows the friendship of three young people, siblings Madani and Maryam w...

Dave Allen… A Journey Through Life… and Death – King’s Arms

15Mar

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Dave Allen… A Journey Through Life… and Death – King’s Arms

Dave Allen was brilliant at pointing out the ironies and absurdities of life... and death. He was a storyteller who loved to poke fun at religion at a time, particularly in his native Ireland, when the church was extremely powerful. His shows were banned by the Irish broadcaster, RTE. He said, “I’m an atheist, thank God,” and he insisted he was not making fun of religion but people’s concept of religion. As a child at a strict Catholic school, even though they tried to scare him with hell and damnation, his natural intelligence and curiosity made him question faith and belief. Kieran Cunningham completely embodied the comedian, who has been called the father of alternative comedy. From the voice to the hand gestures and all his other little mannerisms he brought Allen back to life. W...

11Mar

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Carmen – The Lowry

Carmen is stuffed full of well-known arias and melodies, or as one audience member put it as she left the theatre, “I was surprised by how many songs I already knew.” From the Toreador’s song to the Habanera and the Seguidilla the music is easily recognisable by most people even if they have never been to an opera. This boisterous production by Opera North updated events from 19th century Sevilla to a border town in the late 1950s early 1960s. This was a clever idea as this was a time of rebellion, of counter-culture, where young people wanted to be free and do their own thing. To live and love on their own terms. For the character of Carmen love is transitory. She is open and honest in saying that she falls in and out of love with ease. She just wants freedom and is unconcerned with...

The Hound of the Baskervilles – The Lowry

2Feb

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

The Hound of the Baskervilles – The Lowry

Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories lend themselves to comedy because they are often quite fantastical. Over the years many a comedian has used the brilliant detective and his sidekick, Dr Watson, in order to get a laugh. The characters are so recognisable all you need is a meerschaum pipe and a deerstalker hat and everyone knows who you are. This production of Hound of the Baskervilles, a faintly ridiculous tale in itself when you break it down, was really entertaining and great fun to watch. It was performed with great verve, energy and pace by three very talented comic performers who played all the parts. A perfect pick-me-up on a cold night in Salford. Photographer: Pamela Raith If you go to see this play expecting a serious dramatisation of the Conan-Doyle classic, t...

Comedy Double Bill: Who Here’s Lost? & Wife On Earth – The King’s Arms

26Sep

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Comedy Double Bill: Who Here’s Lost? & Wife On Earth – The King’s Arms

There are many ways in which someone can try and make you laugh. We have gag tellers and slapstick prat fallers, satirists and surrealists who will all try and make us chortle. For this comedy double bill at the King’s Arms, as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, we were treated to some character comedy from Joanna Neary and a story from Ben Moor. First on was Joanna, who in Wife on Earth, was examining marriage through different characters. Taking us through this dissection of matrimony was Celia, a middle-class Joyce Grenfull-esque posh lady who was not unlike Celia Johnson in the film Brief Encounter. She was married to Fred who seems to spend most of his time doing sudoku or crossword puzzles. Celia is hosting an evening to raise money for the church roof and the d...

14Sep

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Charlie and Stan – The Lowry

It seems quite remarkable that two of the greatest comedians England has ever produced shared a cabin on a ship before they were famous. Yet it is true that Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel did just that as part of Fred Karno’s comedy troupe as they sailed over the sea to tour America. One of the reasons they were both successful comedians was that they learnt their trade in the English Music Hall. This was their heritage and where they honed the skills of mime and pantomime that would be invaluable to them as silent movie stars. Charlie and Stan is a silent movie as a play. There is no dialogue, and the action is performed as if it were an old Charlie Chaplin film full of slapstick with the odd bit of pathos. Like every silent film we had musical accompaniment. This was performed ...

Act Your Age Writing Festival – Hope Mill Theatre

7Sep

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Act Your Age Writing Festival – Hope Mill Theatre

Douglas Adams wrote, ‘The main thing that flying requires is the ability to throw yourself at the ground and miss.’ Trying to fly was a theme that ran through the three plays on show on the final night of this ‘Act Your Age’ new writing season hosted by Hope Mill Theatre. All the plays had characters that were mostly aged over 40 and were performed as rehearsed reading radio plays. In the play Birdman by Wendy Storer a chicken farmer and part time inventor, called Richard Head, known as Dick (Steve Titley), wants to fly. He thinks he can help solve the environmental crisis by inventing a way for humans to be like birds. Using chicken feathers and a Heath Robinson style contraption of skipping ropes and wood he plans to take to the skies. His wife, who is enjoying French lessons with ...