Lou Steggals, Author at North West End UK

29Apr

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Little Wimmin – Unity Theatre

We’ve all seen warnings on theatre doors regarding theatrical gunfire, haze and flashing lights but when your show starts with an allergen warning for live use of citrus fruits, it’s clear you’re in for something a bit different. ‘Loose adaptation’ doesn’t really cover Figs in Wigs presentation of the Louisa May Alcott classic, Little Women, which instead proves to be possibly one of the most surreal and anarchic pieces of theatre you could ever witness. If you were to put Mischief Theatre, The Mighty Boosh and London’s army of street performers in a blender, you might come close to the bizarre nature of tonight’s performance. Our troupe of five, Alice Roots, Sarah Moore, Suzanna Hurst, Rachel Gammon and Rachel Porter, are astutely aware of the modern-day ironies that are laden wi...

26Apr

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Habibti Driver – Octagon Theatre

What links Laurence of Arabia, Vegan bacon, bingo and burkas? The answers lie within a fantastic new ‘clash of the cultures’ play. Habibti Driver, receiving its world premiere tonight, follows the relationship between Egyptian Muslim cab driver Ashraf, and his ‘Habibti’ half Egyptian, half Wiganese daughter Shazia. The mischief starts when Ashraf (Dana Haqjoo) introduces Shazia (Shamia Chalabi) to his new Egyptian bride, whilst she is attempting to break the news of her own secret engagement. Based on Chalabi's real-life experiences and co-written with Sarah Henley, the play, described as ‘East Meets Wigan’, explores the clashes, compromises and comedy that come with living in a mixed-culture family in today's Britain. Thanks to a superb script that is funny and moving in equal...

White Sun by Will Dickie – Unity Theatre

23Apr

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

White Sun by Will Dickie – Unity Theatre

Will Dickie is bouncing. As people enter the theatre, as they order drinks and greet friends, he mingles amongst them, constantly bouncing. When the show ‘officially’ starts he informs us he has been bouncing for 22 minutes. Dressed in a light shirt and grey trousers, Dickie is a ball of nervous energy. His one-act show, White Sun, is described as “A lo fi solo symphony of words and movement.” Taking us on a tour through his life, Will aims to navigate the tensions of inheritance, privilege and addiction whilst pursuing a life in the creative arts, referencing actors who have come before him and the relationship he has with his father. Dickie’s performance is a bag of contradictions. There is no set, yet there is a sense of immersion. He doesn’t stop moving, yet his frenetic movem...

14Apr

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Kinky Boots – Blackpool Grand Theatre

If Musicals bingo was a thing, Kinky Boots would surely tick every single box. Based on a true story? Check. Working class factory setting? Check. Underdog who wins the day? Well, that would be something of a spoiler, but you can guess the answer. Based on a true story, we meet Charlie Price who, following a chance meeting with a drag queen named Lola, decides to re-invigorate the shoe factory he has recently inherited from his late father, by making shoes for drag queens. Soon a prestigious trade show in Milan beckons but Lola and Charlie look set to fall out over whether the Italian critics will like the cut of their leather. With Harvey Fierstein’s devilishly funny script, adapted from Tim Firth’s original screenplay (himself no stranger to ‘beat the odds’ musicals) and a sparklin...

7Apr

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

All Shook Up – Hyde Festival Theatre

“I gotta follow that dream” Elvis once crooned. Two years later than planned, Hyde Musical Society have finally realised their dream to bring All Shook Up, featuring the hits of Elvis, to the stage. The musical is a frothy 50s comedy, loosely based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. ‘Bad boy’ Chad (who, thanks to the family-friendly stylings of the show, is about as dangerous as a glass of milk), swings into a small Midwestern town whose residents cower under the thumb of their very own Mary Whitehouse-type, Mayor Matilda – anything she considers immoral is banned. With less a nod, more a vigorous headbang towards the plot of Footloose, Chad’s hip-thrusting dance moves and rock and roll songs soon upset the applecart as the townsfolk are encouraged to let loose. Local ‘grease monkey’ me...

Ellen Kent: Madama Butterfly – Floral Pavilion

31Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Ellen Kent: Madama Butterfly – Floral Pavilion

Puccini may have been a philanderer and scoundrel, with a Hitchcock-like tendency to put his heroines through merry hell, but my goodness, he could write an aria. Madama Butterfly, one of the most widely performed operas in the world, boasts its fair share, and is deemed to be one of the most accessible to audiences. Set in one location - a hillside house in Nagasaki, Japan - we follow Cio-Cio-San, nicknamed ‘Butterfly’, the young bride of an American naval officer, Lieutenant Pinkerton, as her romantic ideals are tested to their limits when he seemingly abandons her, yet she still waits hopefully for his return. The sense of tragedy is embedded from the get-go, as we know as an audience that Pinkerton has no intention of coming back, seeing the match as a short-lived one until he can f...

29Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

Wales

Catch Me If You Can – Theatr Clwyd

Hollywood has landed in the rolling hills of Mold, with a comedy-thriller that boasts more twists and turns than the Welsh road network. Catch Me If You Can, written by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, and directed by Bob Tomson, is an adaptation of Robert Thomas’s French play Trap for a Lonely Man. We meet Inspector Levine, called to a house in the remote Catskill mountains to investigate the disappearance of newly married Elizabeth Corban. But when Elizabeth suddenly turns up, her husband Danny swears blind he’s never seen her before, launching a chain of events in which nothing is what it seems, and no-one is as they appear. It’s no wonder this has been adapted for the screen three times over; it’s full of intrigue and conspiracy that will keep the most zealous of armchair sl...

Father Brown The Murderer in the Mirror – Blackpool Grand

23Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Father Brown The Murderer in the Mirror – Blackpool Grand

Amongst the array of great literary detectives, Father Brown, the ‘hero’ of GK Chesterton’s short stories is something of an antithesis of the larger-than-life personalities we have become accustomed to. The usual rock-solid confidence in one’s own genius that is the hallmark of many of our famous sleuths is contrasted sharply by the unassuming way Father Brown will sit back and quietly observe, letting his companions talk themselves into confessions of malcontent and murder. Rumpus theatre company have woven one such story into the classic theatrical ‘whodunnit’ formula to present ‘The Murderer in the Mirror’ starring John Lyons - well-known to audiences thanks to his TV work as DS George Toolan, sidekick to the great Sir David Jason’s DI Frost. In this tale, a well-known actor and ...

My Favourite Place in the Whole Wide World – Hope Mill Theatre

3Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

My Favourite Place in the Whole Wide World – Hope Mill Theatre

Trauma can have impact people in many different ways – some people grow and flourish from the ashes, some people can see their life, and the things that bring them comfort, cruelly collapse and leave them shattered. Award-winning playwright Ian Townsend explores this journey along with themes of sexual identity, self-esteem and the very human craving of connection with others in his newest work, “My favourite place…”, directed by James Schofield. In and amongst a simple set of stacked black and orange-striped boxes, we meet J and Ruth, two people who have endured their own childhood traumas, and who, through a cleverly executed moment of serendipity, are thrust into a most unlikely friendship. The script is very much a tale of two halves. In part one, we watch each character lay o...

Kevin Clifton: Burn the Floor – Bridgewater Hall

15Feb

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Kevin Clifton: Burn the Floor – Bridgewater Hall

On a wet and windy night in Manchester, former Strictly Come Dancing champion Kevin Clifton is trying to raise the temperature with the delayed revival of Ballroom dancing phenomenon, Burn the Floor. The show is a riotous celebration of dance, fusing traditional waltzes with fiery Latin Tangos; Quicksteps and Rumbas and some good old Rock and Roll to boot. It’s been a two-year wait for tonight’s performance – with Clifton joking at what proved an ill-timed decision for him to quit Strictly for a life in the theatre, just weeks before stages went dark and Covid stole the spotlight. But the show itself has been thrilling audiences for longer than some of tonight’s dancers have been alive, conceived 25 years ago at a birthday bash for Elton John. There’s a slightly contrived start...