Paul Wilcox, Author at North West End UK

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart – Royal Exchange

9Dec

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart – Royal Exchange

At Christmas the Royal Exchange usually stages a classic musical to bring us some festive cheer with Sweet Charity, Guys and Dolls and Gypsy being recent successful offerings. It is therefore something of a radical departure this year to find the new team of Artistic Directors (Bryony Shanahan and Roy Weise), plumping for a play based around Scottish folk ballads to entice theatregoers away from pantomime, hearth and home. As I made my way to my favourite theatre, braving monsoon conditions, drunken office parties and the questionable attractions of the Manchester markets, I was intrigued by this quirky choice. I left three hours later, exhilarated, charmed and slightly confused by this uneven but undeniably captivating piece of theatre. We are presented with the eponymous Prudencia Har...

11Nov

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Carmen – The Lowry

Hard on the heels of 'Waitress' at the Opera House this week, another musical tale of female lust and empowerment comes to Manchester, with the arrival of Georges Bizet's 'Carmen' from Opera North playing at The Lowry. Unfortunately, whilst this production promises 'desire and hot-blooded passion', what we are served is a reheated dish that attempts to be innovative and succeeds only in being lacklustre and imitative. Carmen was hugely controversial upon its initial staging in 1875 with its story of immorality amongst the proletarian class of Andalucia; the eponymous heroine being both lawless, amoral and (spoiler alert) suffering a brutal on stage death at the denouement. Bizet died less than three months after the premiere of his final work, never getting to see it staged to internati...

10Nov

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Waitress – Manchester Opera House

In order to bake a perfect pie, it is necessary to have quality ingredients mixed in the correct proportions by an experienced baker; add in heat allied with perfect timing and a scrumptious pastry is produced. Just such a dish was served before the hungry and eager capacity audience at Manchester Opera House this evening as 'Waitress' begins a two-week residency in the city centre. The show arrives in Manchester in the midst of a UK wide tour, having been a huge Broadway and West End hit following its premiere back in 2016. The all-female creative triumvirate of Sarah Bareilles (Music & Lyrics), Jessie Nelson (Book) and Diane Paulus (Director) have crafted a warm and funny piece which simultaneously tugs at the heartstrings whilst also being unafraid to confront issues that women f...

26Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Cat and the Canary – Opera House

With Halloween upon us and the clocks going back at the weekend, our thoughts turn to entertainment of the scary variety, therefore an old-fashioned thriller set in a creepy house should be just what is required as the nights draw in. Unfortunately, the production of 'The Cat and the Canary' which began its week-long run at the Manchester Opera House this evening was a huge disappointment. As a thriller it wasn't scary, as a comedy it wasn't funny, and it wasn't camp enough to be interesting as a pastiche of the genre. Based on the 1921 play by John Willard and adapted by Carl Grose, the production wore its 100 years heavily, with the usual tropes that one would associate with a thriller of this vintage. Creepy old mansion - check; assortment of characters assembled and trapped against ...

The Lady in the Van – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

5Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Lady in the Van – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

In common with most people who love the theatre, I adore the prodigious output of plays, books and diaries that Alan Bennett has produced over the course of the last half century, however, I have never really subscribed to the view that he belongs in the pantheon of comfortable personalities that make up our 'National Treasures'. Bennett himself despises the term, and there has always been as much vinegar as sugar in his writing as he wryly chronicles the state of the nation, so to bracket him with as characters as bland as David Beckham and Joanna Lumley, is to give a somewhat distorted view of his place in modern Britain. His style is perfectly exemplified by his 1999 play 'The Lady in the Van', which started its week long run at the Garrick Playhouse in Altrincham this evening, in this ...

The Mountaintop – Royal Exchange, Manchester

1Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Mountaintop – Royal Exchange, Manchester

In 2009, the Memphis born playwright Katori Hall was unable to secure a venue in the United States for her new play 'The Mountaintop'. Instead, she brought it to London, where it received huge acclaim for the portrayal of Dr Martin Luther King on the eve of his assassination in April 1968. Now Roy Alexander Weise, the new Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange, has chosen this blisteringly funny and timely play for his debut here, and launches the Autumn season with an absolutely stunning production. The difficulty Hall had with this play in the US, centres around her portrayal of Dr King; rather than the hagiographic figure of grainy newsreel footage, we see King as a fully rounded human being with all the faults and foibles that entails. He smokes constantly, is unfaithful to his wif...

28Sep

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Wales

Dial M For Murder – Theatr Clywd

The 1954 film adaptation, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, will always cast a long shadow in any staging of of this Frederick Knott penned masterpiece. It was a huge favourite of mine growing up, evoking Proustian memories of rainy, Autumnal Sunday afternoons in front of the family television; the film poster still adorns the wall of my study. Therefore, I was both excited and apprehensive making my way across the Welsh border to the beautiful and welcoming 'Theatre on the Hill' in Flintshire, to see the latest incarnation of this taut psychological thriller. For those unfamiliar with the plot, Knott created more of a 'Howdunnit' than a 'Whodunnit'. The audience are privy from the outset to the plan by suave ex tennis professional Tony Wendice (Tom Chambers), to murder his rich and beautif...

Nathan Cassidy: Bumblebee – Salford Arts Theatre

26Sep

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Nathan Cassidy: Bumblebee – Salford Arts Theatre

Being a theatre reviewer asked to write about a comedy gig is a tricky proposition. Does one deconstruct the jokes, analyse the structure and critique the persona of the main protagonist? In the case of ‘Bumblebee’, the new show from the self-deprecatingly titled ‘award nominee’, Nathan Cassidy, all such considerations are superfluous, just sit back and watch a very talented and funny man construct a jigsaw puzzle, where all the pieces neatly slot into place at the end of an hour in his company. The purported premise of ‘Bumblebee’ is the rash decision Cassidy makes following the burglary of his flat, to pursue the thief. To the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, he gives chase, and it is the random thoughts that occur to him during this pursuit form the real heart ...

The Formidable Lizzie Boone – The Anthony Burgess Foundation

26Sep

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Formidable Lizzie Boone – The Anthony Burgess Foundation

Ever since Phoebe Waller-Bridge wowed the Edinburgh Festival in 2013 with 'Fleabag', a litany of semi-autobiographical dark comedies have trod the same path in the hope of emulating her success. Selina Helliwell has the latest hopeful incarnation of this confessional oeuvre, bringing 'the Formidable Lizzie Boone' to the Anthony Burgess Foundation for a two-night residency, beginning on 24th September. Helliwell appears alone onstage throughout the hour-long performance, her only support being a number of recorded voice artists playing the various characters that flit in and out of the narrative she unfolds. As Lizzie Boone, she unburdens herself to an unseen therapist (Marie) and we move through the chronology of her sad childhood and adolescence, chronicling broken relationships with w...

6Sep

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Leaving Vietnam – The Kings Arms

'A Bright and Shining Lie' was how writer Neil Sheehan referred to the forty-year involvement of America in the conflict in Vietnam, and this view has formed the basis of a new one man show by Richard Vergette, premiered at the Kings Arms, Salford for the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival over two consecutive nights. Vergette creates the character of Jimmy Vandenberg, an ageing mechanic in a decaying suburb of Detroit, who fixes classic automobiles following his retirement from the local Ford factory in Dearborn. Jimmy is bitter with the world, a bitterness that has its roots in his decision as a 21-year-old to enlist as a US Marine and fight for his country in Vietnam, the scenes he witnessed there having a marked effect on the course of the rest of his life. Vergette is alone onstage...