Tuesday, October 15

REVIEWS

Don Carlos – Operaen, Det KGL Teater
REVIEWS

Don Carlos – Operaen, Det KGL Teater

There are different versions of Verdi’s masterpiece about love and duty with director Davide Livermore’s new production drawing on the 1884 Milan version, performed in Italian, which jettisons the original’s scene-setting first act, and relies upon strong performances from the cast to move the production along, which it gets here in droves. It's a tough story with far too real parallels to ongoing events in the Ukraine and Middle East which serves to reinforce the piece’s uncompromising assessment of the ways of human nature as we are thrust via a love triangle into a courtly world, although not 16th Century Spain here, but rather that of the Franco era, emboldened by costume designer Mariana Fracasso, and to which the principles of religious Inquisition and destructive suppression of p...
A Night at the Opera: Flat Pack Music Gala Concert – Chester Cathedral
North West

A Night at the Opera: Flat Pack Music Gala Concert – Chester Cathedral

Chester Cathedral is many things to many people: a vibrant community of worship, an ancient abbey, an archaeological treasure, a cultural hub, a centre of musical excellence and a unique blend of medieval and modern history. Flat Pack Music’s gala concert, A Night at the Opera, added another layer as we were taken through twenty-three operatic classics that gave everyone taking part the opportunity to shine: whether this was your first experience of opera or you’re a more seasoned pro, this production was an absolute treat. Featuring L’orchestra dell’Arte and joined by Mersey Wave Choir and the Runcorn Community Chorus this spectacular candle-lit evening served up five professional soloists: soprano Heather Buckmaster; tenor Joseph Buckmaster; baritone Matthew Durkan; mezzo-soprano Imog...
Dementia The Musical – The Sudio, Edinburgh
Scotland

Dementia The Musical – The Sudio, Edinburgh

Written by Ron Coleman (aka The Demented Poet), himself a dementia sufferer, the inspiration for this thought-provoking musical was three people living with the diagnosis.  They are James McKillop, Nancy McAdam and Agnes Houston, dementia activists, who are portrayed on stage by three 30 somethings.  More of that later.   Having started life as a play, it soon turned into a musical, composed by Sophie Bancroft with additional music by Andrew Eaton-Lewis.  The narrative is based on the campaigning work of the three dementia activists and set in the near future when the fictitious British Bill of Rights allows the system to control individuals with dementia, deciding for them where they live and what they can do. Karen Tennent’s set design is simple and versatile,...
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Leeds Grand
Yorkshire & Humber

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Leeds Grand

The journey to Leeds across the M62 saw far from midsummer weather – gusting winds, driving rain, whirling leaves – but once inside the Grand Theatre and Opera House a much warmer welcome awaited. Opera North’s revival of Martin Duncan’s production is directed this time by Matthew Eberhardt.  Johan Engels’ set is minimalist but very effective – translucent Perspex pillars signify the trees of the forest, whilst the canopy (or are they dream bubbles?) float high above the stage.  These pillars then take the colour of Bruno Poet’s subtle lighting design, which contrasts beautifully with the 1960s-flower-power-style outfits of the lovers, Helena and Demitrius, Hermia and Lysander. And setting this production in the swinging sixties, when the work was first performed, with its ...
Barbara Nice: Fun – Waterside Arts
North West

Barbara Nice: Fun – Waterside Arts

Barbara Nice, the stand-up comedy alter ego of actress Janice Connolly, returned to the region of her birth to appear at Waterside Arts with her new tour entitled Fun.  The character of Barbara Nice cannot avoid comparisons with Victoria Wood in her housewife persona and Caroline Aherne's Mrs Merton. This comparison is not always favourable. A Stockport housewife, cleaner to the stars, the entire act is a caricature of a northern homemaker of thirty years ago with most of the comedy feeling like it could have been performed then too.  Even then it would have felt dated.  There are occasional more modern notes, but the majority of the show is very much based on the era of the seventies and eighties.  It is very much a woman of a certain age with a principal target aud...
Re:INCARNATION – Hull New Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Re:INCARNATION – Hull New Theatre

Not being familiar with the Yoruba philosophy which forms a big part of Re:INCARNATION, a show brought to the Hull New Theatre stage by the QDance Company, I Googled and learned of its values - in the hope of it helping me to understand more of what I witnessed on Friday evening. Reading that there is a supreme being known as Olorun or Olodumare, plus numerous divinities known as Orisha, revered ancestors and malevolent or benevolent spirits, and that Yoruba people's cardinal virtues - love, morality, temperance, honesty, honour, bravery, justice, prudence, and fortitude - helped me not a jot. So, I relied on my imagination, relaxed in my seat on Row I and prepared to soak up what turned out to be an amazing spectacle produced by 10 young Nigerian dancers, plus two on-stage musicians...
JB Shorts 25 – 53two, Manchester
North West

JB Shorts 25 – 53two, Manchester

Under the arches at 53two’s Watson Street headquarters, JB Shorts is now firmly established on the Manchester theatre scene as the place to experience sharp new writing and watch both emerging and established actors hone their craft. Now in its 25th iteration, tonight’s offerings were as eclectic as ever, managing to mix the farcical and surreal with more thoughtful offerings to delight the packed midweek audience. Railway Sleepers Kicking off the evening with a familiar train journey from Piccadilly to Euston, we meet Frank (Will Travis) and Sue (Sue McCardle) ostensibly travelling south for a conference and striking up a conversation with fellow passenger Cheryl (Rosa Brooks) around how best to reply to a text message received from Frank’s mysterious boss. The piece worked quite we...
The Lehman Trilogy – Gillian Lynne Theatre
London

The Lehman Trilogy – Gillian Lynne Theatre

Many people only know of the Lehman Brothers name on account of their failure. The Great Financial Crash of 2008 sent economic shockwaves through the world. Why then, one may ask, would anyone want to watch a three hour play about banking? The answer: it is possibly the most epic outstanding production you will ever see, and it is about so much more than banking. The stage is a rotating glass box. The backdrop is a digital screen. There are three actors. One pianist. Several cardboard boxes. On paper it shouldn’t work, but it is the magnificence of every key element and the outstanding direction by Sam Mendes which elevates this production to something you rarely witness in the West End. The story starts with Henry Lehman (Leighton Pugh), a Jew, making his way across the sea from Bav...
The New Real – The Other Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon
West Midlands

The New Real – The Other Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon

David Edgar’s 10th premiere at The Other Place follows on from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1991), Written on the Heart (2011), and A Christmas Carol (2022), and continues his relationship with the RSC following on from his appointment in 1989 as an Honorary Artist.  The New Real, is a bringing together of Headlong, the RSC and David Edgar to produce a new political drama, staged in the RSC’s studio theatre, The Other Place. Set in a former communist country in Eastern Europe, two American political strategists are working for competing candidates and predict that they will teach the East how to do elections, but the tables are turned…  Globally, we witness diplomacy a time when the Right competes with populist politics, as seen in Britain’s recent election wit...
Blue Man Group: Bluevolution World Tour – Festival Theatre
Scotland

Blue Man Group: Bluevolution World Tour – Festival Theatre

Where to start?  Well, if you don’t like rib rattling drumming, strobe lighting and a full on multisensory happening, don’t see this show!    It is an experience of epic proportions, colourful, loud, funny and stompingly engaging. The fun starts before the show begins, with public announcements being displayed on a board reminiscent of those motorway signs. Neon red letters requested us not to be annoying with our phones and announced that the flying of drones was definitely not allowed.  Blue Men come in threes.  They are mute, bald, blue and strangely endearing.  They are curious about everything, like silent aliens they seek to connect with the unfamiliar world in which they find themselves.   Essentially, I suppose the Blue Men are dru...