Paul Clarke, Author at North West End UK

Red Ladder heads home to Leeds with timely new play

17Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Red Ladder heads home to Leeds with timely new play

This November Red Ladder Theatre Company is heading home to Leeds with a very timely new play My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored exploring race and identity. It opens with 15-year-old Reece, played by Jelani D’Aguilar, being roughly accosted by police. Misha Duncan-Barry’s young, Black teacher Gillian Misha witnesses it all but doesn’t question or intervene as the disturbing scene plays out. The consequences of her lack of action erupt the following day when Gillian finds herself locked in a classroom with Reece. As a radical theatre company Red Ladder are always looking to challenge audiences, and this time take the audience to the centre of a discussion that asks ‘if you see something you do not agree with, do you intervene?’ This new work is the stage debut from writer Na...

Jack & the Beanstalk is at Halifax’s Victoria Theatre…oh yes it is!

10Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Jack & the Beanstalk is at Halifax’s Victoria Theatre…oh yes it is!

The Trots are so poor they don’t have a bean to their name, and what is more there is a giant terrifying the village. Come and see if Jack can defeat the giant, win the heart of the girl he loves and turn the Trots’ fortunes around. Once again The Victoria Theatre will have all the ingredients for a perfect family panto, with a dastardly villain, a hapless comic and a hilarious panto dame, as well as fabulous musical numbers and bags of slapstick fun! Jack & The Beanstalk is the panto at Halifax’s Victoria Theatre with Adam Stafford returning as Dame Trot Comic Josh Benson will be returning for his 2nd panto as Joshin' Josh, Dame Trot’s wacky son. Richard Lloyd is returning for his second year too playing Fleshcreep, the snazzy dressed panto villain. Nikki Schofield has app...

Casualty legend Tony Marshall talks about a revival of Jitney at Leeds Playhouse

6Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Casualty legend Tony Marshall talks about a revival of Jitney at Leeds Playhouse

August Wilson is now seen as one of the great voices of 20th century drama, but his poetic works reflecting on the experiences of black Americans aren’t performed that often in this country. Now Jitney about the trials and tribulations of eight drivers offering low-cost rides in their jitney cabs to a poor community in 1970s Pittsburgh gets a welcome revival as a part of Leeds Playhouse’s new season. Tinuke Craig directs a strong cast including Casualty legend Tony Marshall who spoke to our Yorkshire Editor Paul Clarke. So, what’s Jitney about? It’s based in Pittsburgh in 1977 and the word jitney derives from the cabs being five cents a ride. It’s for the local community instead of using the other cabs, so it’s people taking other local people shopping and so on. It’s just anot...

Big cast announced for Wendy & Peter Pan at Leeds Playhouse

6Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Big cast announced for Wendy & Peter Pan at Leeds Playhouse

Leeds Playhouse have announced a big cast for their annual festive blockbuster which this year is Wendy & Peter Pan. Ella Hickson’s adaptation of the J M Barrie classic retells the story from the viewpoint of Wendy Darling and has been created in co-production with Japan’s Bunkamura Theatre. Amber James will play Wendy Darling and previously took the title role of Cressida in Greg Doran's Troilus & Cressida for the RSC. She’s been joined by Pierro Niel who plays the boy who refuses to grow up. This trip to Neverland is full of fun and flying set to an epic score by Japanese composer Shuhei Kamimura. Japanese video artistry will be cleverly combined with this classic British story to give the production a unique international shared vision. “This show comes hot...

Dracula: The Untold Story – Leeds Playhouse

4Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dracula: The Untold Story – Leeds Playhouse

For over a century Count Dracula has been part of our popular culture so it’s smart of imitating the dog to make him a peripheral figure in his own play. Instead, they cleverly switch the focus to Mina Harker who in Bram Stoker’s gothic classic not only had her neck bitten but pulled together all the threads to create the myth of the immortal Transylvanian bloodsucker. They’ve also updated the story to 1965 as Harker walks into a London police station confessing a murder to two police officers, and we learn that she has used her immortal superhuman power for what she thinks is the greater good as the Count lurks around the piece as the embodiment of eternal darkness. As usual the team deploys a wide range of high-tech digital tricks, including two video cameras and stage side gree...

Layton Williams comes back north in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at Leeds Grand

29Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Layton Williams comes back north in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at Leeds Grand

Bury lad Layton Williams kicked off his stage career travelling down the M62 to join the Billy Elliott training academy in Leeds before graduating aged 12 to take on the lead role in the West End. He went onto play young Michael Jackson in Thriller – Live and as an adult won critical acclaim playing Angel in the 20th anniversary tour of Rent. Now he’s back up north at Leeds Grand Theatre playing Jamie New in uplifting musical Everyone’s Talking About Jamie which has just been made into an Amazon Prime movie. For people who are new to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, how would you sum up the storyline? Jamie is based on a real character who was the subject of a documentary on BBC Three. I remember watching it years ago and it was about him wanting to be a drag queen and wanting ...

Casualty star Tony Marshall joins Jitney cast at Leeds Playhouse

27Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Casualty star Tony Marshall joins Jitney cast at Leeds Playhouse

Tony Marshall who played Noel in Casualty joins a strong cast in a new production of American classic Jitney at Leeds Playhouse. Written by August Wilson, this poetic work is now seen as one of the great American contemporary classics filled with conflict, love, jealousy and deceit. It is set in 1970s Pittsburgh exploring the volatile bond between eight unlicensed cab drivers as they live, love, fight and work in racially segregated, post-war America. The co-production with Headlong will be directed by Tinuke Craig who worked on The Color Purple, at Leicester Curve. Tony Marshall plays Fielding, and recently finished a 12-year run as Noel Garcia as his beloved character left the show in a BAFTA award-winning episode about the strains on the NHS during the pandemic. Play...

26Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

imitating the dog take on the undead

Nobody ever accused imitating the dog of not being ambitious but in Dracula: The Untold Story they are taking on one of the world’s biggest cultural icons. Typically, they are twisting the timeless classic to look at the Transylvanian prince of the undead from a totally new perspective. As well as the usual innovative visuals they have become famous for over the last two decades this co-production with Leeds Playhouse will use the stage to create a live graphic novel. Our Yorkshire Editor Paul Clarke spoke to imitating the dog’s co-artistic director Andrew Quick to find how they are reimagining Bram Stoker’s classic tale of Count Dracula’s bloodlust. This might be your biggest challenge as Dracula is such an iconic figure to virtually everyone on the planet. You’re right,...

A new show aims to tackle Islamophobia….in a car park

18Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

A new show aims to tackle Islamophobia….in a car park

Bradford based Common Wealth are a political theatre company who specialise in creating pieces in unusual spaces and this time they are using open sided multi story car parks to stage a new work challenging Islamophobia. Their artistic director Evie Manning co-directs Peaceophobia along with members of Speakers Corner, who are a political collective run by women and teenage girls in Bradford. It’s focused on the experiences of young British Pakistani men growing up in the shadow of the Bradford Riots, 9/11 and police harassment, and how their cars and faith become a sanctuary for them. &nbs...

15Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Waitress – Leeds Grand

One of the glories of musical theatre is no subject will ever be too offbeat to become a hit. Who would have thought a show about an obscure American revolutionary who raps would be a worldwide sensation, and the same applies to Waitress which appears to be about making desserts in a diner. Of course, the fact that waitress Jenna is a whizz with sugar and whipped cream with their outlandish titles like ‘my eggs betrayed me’ is just a metaphor for her messed up life in an abusive marriage to Earl, and thwarted dreams of her own shop selling delicious pies. Luckily, she finds a new family and support network in her classic American diner with fellow waitresses Becky who is caring for her sick husband, and daffy Dawn who has never been on a date. Jenna falls pregnant bringing her int...