Paul Clarke, Author at North West End UK

Rapper Testament is back in the record shop at Leeds

11Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Rapper Testament is back in the record shop at Leeds

World record-breaking beatboxer Testament is again joining forces with Opera North as they collaborate on his genre busting piece Orpheus in the Record Shop at Leeds Playhouse. The show was first seen during a short socially distanced run at the height of the pandemic that was filmed for BBC Four’s Lights Up series. Testament will be front of stage working with members of the Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North, including soloist Helen Evora. Why is it important that audiences get a chance to see this show again in the Playhouse’s biggest theatre space? Performing this show live is bananas! A classical ensemble live on stage, with beatboxing, spoken word and comedy – it’s a unique thing to be part of. I’ve been telling all my friends and family to come along because it...

10Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Nine Night – Leeds Playhouse

As part of a large Irish family, I am only too aware of how tense a wake can get so it’s reassuring to know the same flashpoints can happen at a traditional Jamaican Nine Night. Great art takes you into worlds you have no experience of, and I had no idea that Jamaicans send off their dead off with nine nights of mourning, which is what one extended London family are doing for their mum Gloria It’s still that this funny and often emotionally raw play was Natasha Gordon’s debut, which a strong cast bring to life informed by a deep understanding of its meaning, and the Playhouse has revived it part of their Out of Many Festival that celebrates 60 years of Jamaican independence. Smartly Nine Night starts before the death as the seemingly saintly single mum Lorriane (Shereener B...

Testament is back for Orpheus in the Record Shop at Leeds Playhouse

4Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Testament is back for Orpheus in the Record Shop at Leeds Playhouse

World record-breaking beatboxer Testament brings Orpheus in the Record Shop back to Leeds Playhouse in a unique collaboration with musicians from Opera North. It was first performed as a socially distanced show at the height of the pandemic as a ground-breaking hour long piece working with featuring members of the Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North, including soloist Helen Evora. Audiences join Orpheus as he plays tunes in his record shop, but after an old friend visits, strange things start to happen. Music, myth and reality collide as he goes off in search of something ancient, contemporary and hopeful. Orpheus in the Record Shop by Testament at Leeds Playhouse. Photograph Anthony Robling Testament took his inspiration from the Greek myth of Orpheus to create a challe...

Northern Ballet’s festive spectacular The Nutcracker is back again this winter

3Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Northern Ballet’s festive spectacular The Nutcracker is back again this winter

Northern Ballet are back this winter with their traditional festive spectacular The Nutcraker as one child’s Christmas magical dreams come true. The company will open at Woking New Victoria Theatre on Thursday 10th November and tour to Nottingham Theatre Royal, Norwich Theatre Royal and Hull New Theatre before arriving at Leeds Grand Theatre for their now traditional three week run over the Christmas period. In the midst of a festive party, as the fire crackles and the pile of presents grows ever higher, Clara is caught up in the warmth and excitement of Christmas and becomes enthralled by her new Nutcracker doll. But, as the clock strikes midnight, her Nutcracker proves to be no ordinary toy. After saving her Nutcracker from the wily Mouse King, Clara is whiske...

Chris Jack talks about why Noughts and Crosses matters as it goes back on tour

16Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Chris Jack talks about why Noughts and Crosses matters as it goes back on tour

Books for young adults tackling some tough issues are big business now and Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses is a work that has touched millions of teenagers. In Blackman’s dystopian world Sephy is a Cross, and Callum is a Nought, in a world with strict racial and social divides. As violence breaks out Sephy who is the daughter of the Home Secretary, and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger. The genius of Blackman’s vision is that racial power dynamics are flipped on their head asking us to think about how hatred destroys lives in a different way. Pilot Theatre commissioned Sabrina Mahfouz to adapt it for the stage before taking it on tour just before the pandemic closed theatres, where it was seen by over 30,000 people on tour with ...

Kofi Dennis takes a trip down the Road at Oldham Coliseum

16Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Kofi Dennis takes a trip down the Road at Oldham Coliseum

Not many debut works are voted as one the best 50 British plays of all time, but anyone who has seen Lancashire playwright Jim Cartwright’s searing indictment of deprivation on one northern street in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain knows exactly why. It’s still a powerful play that has been revived countless times. and now Oldham Coliseum are staging it starring Coronation Street legend Paula Lane, who was Kylie Platt in the Street, and ironically plays the equally feisty Lane in Road. She is joined by Coliseum regular Richard J Fletcher playing the well-oiled Scullery, who takes the audience on a riotous and ramshackle trip down the eponymous road. It’s a road that could be anywhere in the north where there’s no jobs and little hope, which sadly sounds very familiar in foodbank Britain ...

The Importance of Being Earnest – Leeds Playhouse

13Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Importance of Being Earnest – Leeds Playhouse

With this lively revival Sir Peter Hall Director Award winner Denzel Westley-Sanderson wanted to bust the myth that Black history started with migrants coming down the Windrush’s gangplank, and instead employs wealthy Black Victorians to reinvent this eternally witty study of manners and the corrosive nature of rigid societal conventions. It works because it actually reinforces the reality that conforming to pointless social niceties only reinforces baseless prejudices, no matter your ethnicity, as love rivals the dissolute Algernon and his social climbing friend John seek the hands of two women who are blissfully unaware they aren’t who they say they are. Throw in a snobbish matriarch, a deceitful governess, a randy vicar, plus knowing servants, and you have all the elements of a class...

Northern Ballet launch autumn season with a world premiere at Leeds Playhouse

6Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Northern Ballet launch autumn season with a world premiere at Leeds Playhouse

Northern Ballet launch their autumn season with the world première of three exhilarating new dance pieces under the banner Made in Leeds: Three Short Ballets at Leeds Playhouse from 10th – 17th September. Yorkshire audiences will be the first to see new works from award-winning choreographers Mthuthuzeli November, Stina Quagebeur and Dickson Mbi performed by Northern Ballet’s world-class dancers. Olivier award-winning Mthuthuzeli November’s Wailers is described as "a work that gives thanks to life. To its struggles, beauty and its people. Those with us and no longer with us. It is a prayer for guidance." Stina Quagebeur, Associate Choreographer with English National Ballet, presents Nostalgia billed as "an exploration of that familiar state of longing, poignancy and piercing...

Corrie legend Paula Lane stars in Oldham Coliseum Theatre’s revival of Jim Cartwright’s Road

6Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Corrie legend Paula Lane stars in Oldham Coliseum Theatre’s revival of Jim Cartwright’s Road

Corrie legend Paula Lane leads a strong case for Oldham Coliseum Theatre’s timely revival of Jim Cartwright’s raw and powerful Road. Well-oiled narrator Scullery takes the audience along his run down Lancashire road in 1987 where’s no jobs and little hope. but there’s a party to go to that’ll take you from the gutter to the stars and back again. Sound familiar? Ironically Paula Lane who was Kylie Platt in the Street plays the equally feisty Lane in Road and is joined by Coliseum regular Richard J Fletcher as feckless Scullery. Lancashire playwright Jim Cartwright’s debut play mixture of humour and pathos was voted third best play of the 1980s being revived many times, and even being produced at the Lincoln Centre in New York featuring cast Kevin Bacon and Joan Cusack. ...

Bugsy Malone: The Musical – Leeds Grand Theatre

31Aug

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Bugsy Malone: The Musical – Leeds Grand Theatre

It’s hard to believe Hollywood legend Jodie Foster’s movie career was launched in Alan Parker’s innovative gangster spoof where all the roles were played by a cast with an average of 12. For this stage production of the battle between gang bosses Fat Sam and Dandy Dan for control of the soda pop racket in 1920s New York, as hustler Bugsy Malone vies for the affections of nightclub singer Blousey, the producers have decided to cast some very young performers as the leads. This left some of the diction a little indistinct up in the gods and some of the big numbers a touch underpowered. Many of these committed young performers will no doubt go onto successful professional careers as more experienced performers have often struggled to fill this big space. Some of those issues are amplifi...