Saturday, December 21

Author: Lou Steggals

An Evening of Talking Heads – Hope Street Theatre
North West

An Evening of Talking Heads – Hope Street Theatre

When Alan Bennett wrote the play Enjoy, in which an elderly couple find themselves being packed up to become a living museum exhibit, there’s a chance he might have been seeing the future for many of his other characters. Tonight, we have three monologues from Bennett’s first series of Talking Heads, first broadcast in 1988. The series, which has become a staple of English literature syllabus’, provides a variety of perspectives on themes such as isolation, guilt, and loneliness. Pieces like these will always present a bit of a challenge to some audiences – those who remember the time-period will find warmth in evocative references to times gone by, but younger audience members may find the idea of regularly writing letters, waiting for a call on a landline, or the 1980s buying power...
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Northwich Memorial Court
North West

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Northwich Memorial Court

Ever since Gene Wilder invited us into a world of ‘Pure Imagination’ in the 1971 film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been a story for the ages; a morality tale of the honest and good being (eventually) rewarded and the horrid and greedy getting their comeuppance. With the popularity of other children’s fantasies, such as Matilda, being translated to the stage, this was an obvious candidate for adaptation.   For those who’ve lived in Loompaland for all their lives and haven’t discovered Roald Dahl’s long-adored story, we meet young Charlie Bucket, living in abject poverty with his hardworking mother and four bedridden grandparents. He dreams of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory at the end of the road. Soon Wonka announces a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – those who find one o...
Pali and Jay’s Ultimate Asian Wedding DJ Roadshow – Octagon Theatre
North West

Pali and Jay’s Ultimate Asian Wedding DJ Roadshow – Octagon Theatre

The wedding caterers may not have turned up, but Bhangra beats, Snapchat and sabotage are still on the menu of tonight’s performance. The show’s storyline is a simplistic one – DJ Pali (Jas Binag) is keen to permanently recruit his young assistant Jay (Viraj Juneja, who also wrote the show) to his Asian wedding DJ business, improve their Google rankings, and complete his LED-tile dance floor, goals that Jay seems a little reluctant to commit to. The show is described as am immersive experience, as various threats to Pali’s ambitions present themselves over the course of 75 minutes. Pali and Jay are certainly a likeable pair and the bursts of music certainly get the toes tapping but the rest is less convincing. For an energetic wedding party, it’s a slow burner that seems to only find...
Jane Eyre – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse
North West

Jane Eyre – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Bringing to life Charlotte Brontë’s vivid, sprawling gothic tale of love, independence and moral struggle will always be a demanding task of any theatre company, requiring evocative visuals and lighting, pace and energy and commanding performances from the leading actors. Altrincham Garrick’s production achieves all of this in spades. Carole Carr’s assured direction of Polly Teale’s adaptation, has created an engrossing account of Jane Eyre, as we go through the key moments of her life – beginning with the ill treatment she bears at the hands of her aunt and cousins, and the harsh reality of school life at a time when life expectancy can be cruelly short, through to her time at Thornfield as governess to the ward of the enigmatic Mr Rochester and the aftermath of discovering the devasta...
Addams Family – Norton Priory
North West

Addams Family – Norton Priory

Supermarkets may already be loading up with Christmas specials, but against the eerie background of a twilight-lit Norton Priory, there’s a spookier vibe in the air. As the famous theme tune of the original 1960s tv show fills the air, the fabulous youth ensemble of community theatre group, A Place for Us, gather in front of us clicking their way into the roles America’s quirkiest family. In this condensed version, Wednesday Addams has fallen in love with a young man she meets in the park (wooing him with her crossbow skills) and the family has to pull together to convince her beau’s parents that they are ‘normal’, with games, misunderstandings, and Grandma’s dodgy potions on the menu of a dinner party no-one will forget. Tonight’s production is a great showcase of local talent an...
The Grill (Jokes about ovens) – The King’s Arms
North West

The Grill (Jokes about ovens) – The King’s Arms

In the small studio theatre above a Manchester pub, the pressure is on. Two chefs, drafted into a prison kitchen due to a staff strike to cook the Death Row inmates’ final meals. Welcome to The Grill where the stakes are high and the steaks are non-existent, our soon-to-be-deceased favouring garden salads and soup instead before they depart this plane of existence. Directed by Adam Cachia, our two chefs Tom and Wally filet and flambé their way through a blackly funny script that explores everything from class wars, culinary memories and how to fleece a Tesco meal deal. There are some spicy one liners, lovely wordplay, and great blocking of the two main actors that builds in some enjoyable physicality. There are a few fluffed lines here and there but both cope marvellously with the...
Yoga and sex (for Women over 40) – The Peer Hat
North West

Yoga and sex (for Women over 40) – The Peer Hat

There are probably very few circumstances where a woman will sit watching her husband kneeling on a yoga mat with another woman’s bottom thrusting towards his face, whilst discussing the physics of positions in the Kama Sutra, and her reaction be hysterical laughter. But that’s where we find ourselves, in the company of spunky Aussie yoga instructor Kath (aka Kathryn Haywood) who may still be trying to find the perfect ‘Brangelina’ word- combo for the sex lecture (‘Slex-ture?’) that she is here to deliver. Clutching three yoga-based self-help manuals from the 1960s, Kath whooshes us through reflections on dating, staying young and, naturally, mastery of basic yoga. And it’s an absolute riot. Despite the slightly saucy audience participation (which, wonderfully, people are happy to...
Picking – Gullivers Lounge
North West

Picking – Gullivers Lounge

If you’ve ever suffered a bad date, then you may find either solace in tonight’s show, or confirmation that it’s time to delete a few apps off your phone. Described as a ‘love letter to the over-thinkers, worriers and anxiously attached’, Picking is a one-act, one woman show from the pen of Amelia Slater. We meet Catherine who, left to her own devices for the night whilst her flatmate visits a boyfriend, tipsily sways between near misses with a disastrous would-be booty call, pining for the good guy and considering lesbianism. Catherine’s Fleabag-esque misadventures as she scrapes for a self-esteem boost provide plenty of laughs, some moments of poignancy and a mildly horrifying insight into the perils of young Millennial/Gen-Z dating. Occasionally, like Catherine’s dating ...
Marigold Lately: Dirty Old Town – The King’s Arms, Salford
North West

Marigold Lately: Dirty Old Town – The King’s Arms, Salford

In the upstairs studio of the King’s Arms, a small tornado named Marigold is being unleashed onstage. At first glance, Marigold (the brainchild of Mikayla Jane Durkan) looks somewhat unassuming, like a librarian who’s wandered into the wrong pub. Then the first F-bomb drops and we’re launched into a frenzy of Spitfire-like energy as Marigold tears chunks out of the woes of society, politics and misogyny - as if our ‘librarian’ has befriended the local biker gang, downed a bottle of sherry and wrestled the spotlight from an open-mic night folk guitarist that only exists in her head. Tonight is a surreal and slightly disorientating blend of story-telling, singing and stand-up, although Marigold stresses repeatedly that she is very much not funny. Non-sequiturs pile up alongsi...
The Things We Think About & All Cops are ________, The Fitzgerald
North West

The Things We Think About & All Cops are ________, The Fitzgerald

Deciding the order of your performance by a random spinning wheel or creating part of your costume by mid-show balloon modelling are certainly novel ways of spicing up a theatre show. And in tonight’s double bill that’s exactly what we get, as Break Up Theatre present two intriguing shows. The first is a double act performed and written by Amber Hainge-Cox and Michael Deacon with the premise of exploring everyday thoughts. Each take it in turn to perform the 40 mini-monologues that are selected as the wheel spins and it is at the very least an impressive feat of memory, with the actors delivering each thought with confidence. The monologues are cleverly genderless to work for whichever actor has to deliver them. Some are absurd, some are single lines that trigger laughter at their ab...