Paul Ackroyd, Author at North West End UK

14Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Steel – Park Theatre

Written by Lee Mattinson and first performed at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, Steel centres around two teenage boys from the depressed ex-industrial town of Workington. They are informed that one of them is unexpectedly the beneficiary of an inheritance, from a distant relative, of one mile of British rail track estimated to be worth £1 million. However, there is a catch; the original copy of the contract for the purchase of the track has to be delivered by midnight that same day. This improbable scenario sets the scene for a frantic series of encounters by the beneficiary with almost forgotten relatives, and old school friends with whom he has lost contact. This leads him to relive parts of his earlier life and re-evaluate his relationship with the Lake District and realise what is ...

Richard III – New Wimbledon Theatre Studio

16May

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Richard III – New Wimbledon Theatre Studio

Alex Wakelam's new production of Richard III for the Carlton Theatre Group is innovative in the number of ways. As Wakelam explains at length in his directors note in the programme is made various changes to the text, including significantly reducing the number of speaking characters, introducing a scene from Henry VI part 3 and references to the Wars of the Roses. And it worked. The plot was easy to follow, and the dialogue flowed actually using Shakespeare's own language. It is also innovative that it set the entire play around a long dinner table with a cast seated on one side opposite the audience. The period was deliberately ambiguous. Possibly Victorian. The dinner guests were the main characters, kings, queens and courtiers dressed in evening wear, while in the background with th...

26Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Ben and Imo – Orange Tree Theatre

This is a superb production in all respects. It tells the story of the collaboration between two dominant characters in the world of music in the early 1950s. Benjamin Britten (Ben) at that time the foremost living British composer and Imogen Holst (Imo), the daughter of the renowned composer Gustav Holst. The play started life as a radio play in 2013 and then was adapted by Mark Ravenhill for the RSC premiering at the Swan Theatre in March 2024. It has now transferred to the small, intimate theatre in the round at the Orange Tree in Richmond. Britten has been given the task of composing, in only 9 months, a new opera to be performed at the Coronation Gala of Queen Elizabeth the Second in 1952. He has chosen for his subject the rather unpromising tale of th...

The Importance of Being Oscar – Jermyn Street Theatre

3Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Importance of Being Oscar – Jermyn Street Theatre

There has never been anyone quite like Oscar Wilde. Famed as an author, playwright and poet in late Victorian England and then vilified for his homosexuality, his works remain as popular today,125 years after his death, as ever. Original Theatre and the Reading Rep Theatre have revived this dramatised biography, which was originally written and performed in 1960 by Micheál Mac Liammóir. Alistair Whately's one man show is a narrative of Wilde's life, illustrated with quotations from his best-known works: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Ernest, as well as some of his best-known poems and letters. The first half focuses on his rise from his early life in Ireland to his fame in London for his poems and theatrical works. The second half is darker with his prosecu...

21Mar

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Retrograde – Apollo Theatre

Sidney Poitier was one of the greats of Hollywood, whose influence went well beyond the world of film. The tributes to him at the time of his death in 2022, reproduced in the programme, demonstrate this. On transfer from the Kiln Theatre, this play deals with events early in Poitier's life, when he was on the verge of a major breakthrough into the world of film. He came to the attention of McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee and was put under extreme pressure to sign a document implicating some of his friends as communists and repudiating his sincerely held views on the civil rights movement. This play is thus essentially about the conflict which he personally faced at this crucial juncture in his professional life but also reflects on the malign influence of the political thought-...

12Mar

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Birds of Passage – Drayton Arms Theatre

This is a new play with contemporary resonance. It takes place on the fictional Greek island of Zandros, where Emma, Bill and Sandra have been booked in to a beautiful hotel overlooking the sea. They notice a strange-looking concrete building in their sightline, which did not feature in any of the holiday company brochure pictures. It turns out to be a reception/detention centre for refugees who arrive by sea, and it's not long before they come face-to-face with the exacerbated refugee crisis, which upsets their holiday plans and changes their lives. Initially, the play is slow to get going with the characters appearing to be rather one-dimensional, and the dialogue rather stilted. However, as the plot develops it becomes more engaging, with the characters having to react to the develop...

7Mar

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

A Special Relationship – Tabard Theatre

Although described as a transatlantic comedy this new play by Tim Marriott and Jeff Stolzer is not about politics; there is only one joke about Trump! Rather, it explores what it is in language, habits and culture which separate the US and the UK. The setting is the Sussex Garden of Monty, an British colonel, played by Tim Marriott, whose daughter is marrying the son of Pete, an American plumber, played by Brian Dykstra. Initially, the comedy is based upon the differences in linguistic usage between the two countries cupboard/closet, bathroom/ toilet etc. All familiar ground but amusingly delivered. More significant are the attitudes between the uptight British middle-class soldier and the much more laid-back American working man. Although Monty at first seems in control, insisting ...

28Feb

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Score – Theatre Royal Haymarket

Oliver Cotton's new play, The Score, is based on the visit of Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederick the Great at his palace in Potsdam in 1747. During that visit Frederick challenged Bach to improvise a fugue based upon a tune he had written. That led to the creation of Bach’s famous anthology 'The Musical Offering'. Cotton has used his script to explore religious and philosophical themes based upon the supposed conflict between the devout peace-loving musician and the militaristic atheistic political leader. The play is both engaging and humorous and raises important issues. Brian Cox as Bach is the dominant character throughout the play. Cox's gravitas and underlying sympathy make him a great choice to play this role, which he does superbly. He is also supported by an excellent cast. Jam...

20Feb

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Gang Bang – Seven Dials Playhouse

This comedy written by Hughie Shepherd-Cross is based on the premise that in 1945 when Sicilians were pouring onto boats to America, one minor Mafia member by the name of Don Lambrini accidentally boarded an all-inclusive Thomas Cook cruise to England, landing in Blackpool. There he set up a derivative version of a Mafia gang, attempting to control such activities as ice cream selling, donkey riding and lemonade. This improbable scenario sets up the opportunity for a wacky, fast paced performance with lots of gags about the North of England. The three actors dressed initially as classic movie style gangsters played a range of parts with farcical names such as Fray Bentos, Al Dente and Jim Reaper. They changed costumes quickly as required. There was no scenery and the only furniture ...

10Feb

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Years – Harold Pinter Theatre

This is a very engrossing and imaginative dramatisation of Annie Emaux's partly autobiographical book. It charts the progress of a woman's life chronologically from 1941 to 2006. The woman is unnamed, as are all the men and women that she comes into contact with. The play uses five actresses of different ages to sequentially play the different periods of her life as she experiences childhood, adolescence, early sexual encounters, including a rather horrific abortion, and then moves through marriage, motherhood and divorce. The changing social mores, political events, technological changes and the evolving consumer society of those 80 years are the accompaniment to the changes in her own life. The Years was formerly presented at the Almeida Theatre to great critical acclaim. The stagi...