Peter Kinnock, Author at North West End UK

2Nov

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Cirque du Magique – Wolverhampton Grand

I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the great Philip Astley who, in 1770, gathered together a disparate band of acrobats, unicyclists, tight rope walkers and stunt performers to entertain the crowd in the gaps of his horse-riding show inadvertently creating what we know today as circus. Over the years the format has grown and evolved with clowns thrown in and a ringmaster added to offer some semblance of authority until it has become today what Barnum bombastically described as “The greatest show on Earth!” and after two hundred and fifty years it continues to grow - and today we welcome its latest incarnation into the ring! For those of you who thought Richard Cadell was first and foremost the right-hand man of one of the most iconic characters in British entertainment - a chara...

Dear Evan Hansen – Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

23Oct

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Dear Evan Hansen – Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

If you were born in this new century and nestle within the demographic that favours “Glee” “Big Bang Theory” then “Dear Evan Hansen” seems designed just for you. For those of us outside that very slim group it remains an anomaly. The show itself has an undoubted pedigree having opened on Broadway in 2016 with music and lyrics by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul (whose credits include the glorious “The Greatest Showman” and the awful sounding “Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz”) with a book by Steven Levenson, produced by Marc Platt and starring Ben Platt - note the shared surname making lesser critics wonder if that nepo-element may go some way to explain the show’s weaknesses, but, hey, it won nine Tony Awards! The show has toured endlessly, had a long West End, a badly received film - and people love...

5Oct

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Wonderboy – Wolverhampton Grand

With the astoundingly talented and acclaimed Sally Cookson at the helm and a script by Ross Willis, Wonderboy exploded out of the Bristol Old Vic back in 2022 and recently embarked on a national tour already nabbing the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Play 2023. It’s a hotly anticipated ticket with a huge reputation behind it. But many shows with a tidal wave of hype rarely live up to the noise - will this one? Captain Chatter is the comic book superhero who helps our own hero, reclusive Sonny, with his self-conscious stammer which constrains him from making small talk, sharing thoughts and ideas and most of all speaking to an audience. And then he finds himself cast in the school production of Hamlet! 90 minutes whizzes by and for all those minutes the teenage audience (the demographi...

20Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

North West

Diary of a Magician – C Arts, C Aquila

In my years on this planet, I have discovered people fall into two categories - those who love magic and those who loathe it. Magic at the Edinburgh festival falls into two categories - vibrant, exciting and interesting and pretty poor. I was delighted to find out this production at C Arts Aquila falls into the former category. It is an intriguing, exciting mix of magic some parts have never been seen before. I've been watching magic for a long time now and I continue to be beguiled and enchanted but there were tricks and turns in this piece, which I've never encountered before, which I'd never known of so was delighted to see. It’s certainly not the best venue at Edinburgh. It’s a rather damp, dark day, but the sun shines as soon as our magician comes onto stage and intrigues us...

Sisyphean Quick Fix – Pleasance Courtyard

20Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

Scotland

Sisyphean Quick Fix – Pleasance Courtyard

Sisyphean Quick Fix is an intriguing, beguiling and enchanting story of addictive and alcoholic father cared for by his two children, Krista and Pip. Bettina Paris play perfectly captures the family rivalry within the group and finely demonstrates the dangers of addiction. Bettina Paris appears as Krista with Tina Rizzo. Both provide impressive and intriguing performances as the family finds its way through the trauma of their predicament. The characters and writing unfold and display something perceptive and intelligent and the production is finely executed and mounted and would certainly would benefit from a substantially larger audience. It’s undoubtedly a funny, comic thought-provoking play about the pressure and impact of alcoholism on a family and the almost insurmountable Sis...

Circa Humans 2.0 – Underbelly Circus Hub

18Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

Scotland

Circa Humans 2.0 – Underbelly Circus Hub

Wow, wow, wow! My second circus of the festival (with two more to come) Circa Humans 2.0 offers a stunning piece of theatrical circus with a physicality and choreography, unlike anything I have seen before. It is a high energy, high octane, high silk infusion of circus and humanity with truthful seam running through the middle. Circus is hard enough with all the skills and abilities it entails, but then to lay on top an artistic aesthetic which makes us go away thinking not only of the turns and the tricks but of the humanity underneath is certainly an impressive feat. And talking of impressive feats the show was full of them. Against an ululating, pulsating, stamping, stomping soundtrack a gaggle of black clad acrobats, gymnastics and aerialists rotate, rock and revolve in a tho...

18Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

Scotland

The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return – Summerhall

“16 years on this planet and it comes to this…” Sometimes at the Edinburgh Festival amidst all the half-conceived artistic debris, the broken dreams and the ill-informed attempts at theatre, sometimes you stumble across a gem, a highly polished and presented piece which shines out, head and shoulders above the rest - such as the case in “The Chaos That Has Been And Will No Doubt Return” at Summerhall which takes as its narratological background Luton - not the most inspiring of cities in the United Kingdom, but in the hands of Chalk Line theatre company it becomes a fascinating youthful and exuberant place in a production riddled with the joyous exuberance of youth and the concomitant chaos which follows. The play, by a gifted Sam Edmunds, has a vibrant energy that is both engagi...

Out of the Blue – Assembly George Square

18Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

Scotland

Out of the Blue – Assembly George Square

Out of the Blue, as always and forever, parade a cacophony of happy harmonies, joyous jingles and merry melodies. They stem from Oxford university, and they’ve been coming annually year in, year out to the Edinburgh festival to raise money for their chosen charity. It is an explosion of joy and a wonderous, marvellous experience. 20 young guys with perfect harmonies, a great sense of joy, a great sense of fun and a vibrancy that makes the building shake. The tone, the attitude, the approach is irresistible, endearing and beguiling. These guys know what they're doing. They've been residents of the festival for years. I first saw them in 2007 and was blown away. It's simple. It's clean. It's family fun with joyous songs from across the years and a smorgasbord of music! And the voca...

17Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

Scotland

La Clique – Underbelly Circus Hub

So the Edinburgh festival fringe may not be the hubbling, bubbling, hustling, bustling fest of the years gone by – post Covid it's quieter slower and not as hectic, but tonight we're at the circus! We’re down in the Meadows where two huge circus rings (one wooden one) sit before us in a multi-effusion of colour. We’re trap trap trap trapping to see what La Clique has added to their production, how their programme has developed and changed over the years. It’s three years since I was last under their canvas so I’m delighted to be here again to see it once more. What wonders will this wooden O hold? Tumblers, fumblers, bumblers? And a happy ending of course? Let’s wait and see … And what we're missing in weather is more than made up for in enjoyment, fun and excitement as the...

10Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Pericles – Swan Theatre

We all have our off days and I think, amongst learned academics, we can safely agree Shakespeare was having one when he wrote “Pericles”. Not only is it a ramshackled, riotous romp of a plot with some unfathomable coincidences, it also seems Bill is not the only name on the poster. George Wilkins, who I’m sure I don't need to remind you, was a victualler, panderer (Google it), dramatist and pamphleteer, who dripped his quill in the ink pot, too. People better informed then I seem to think the Bard was responsible for the first half before handing over his parchment. Rarely is the play performed, so it’s a gamely director who’ll have a stab at it and the director on this occasion is new RSC co-AD, Tamara Harvey who, eighteen years after the previous production, clearly thought it was time t...