Saturday, December 6

REVIEWS

Northern Lights and German Resonance – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
28Oct By Paul DownhamNo Comments
North West

Northern Lights and German Resonance – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

There was nothing Fawlty about the RLPO in last night’s performance—a real Touch of Class, you might say. In that BBC comedy classic, Sybil famously complained about her henpecked husband “listening to that racket”—prompting Basil’s comic rejoinder that it was Brahms’s Third racket. Perhaps she would have preferred his Fourth Symphony, one of the great Romantic masterpieces, brought vividly to life at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall by debutant Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska. The programme opened with little-known Swedish composer Ida Moberg’s evocation of dawn, traversed Sibelius’s elemental drama, and closed with Brahms at his most romantic and architecturally grandiose. All of it under the guidance of a left-handed baton—a rare sight, even in Liverpool, the city of famous left-hand...
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So Young – Traverse Theatre
27Oct By Dylan MooneyNo Comments
Scotland

So Young – Traverse Theatre

Off the back of its Edinburgh Fringe run, Douglas Maxwell’s So Young returns to the Traverse Theatre, directed by Artistic Director, Gareth Nicholls. Milo (Robert Jack) is in his forties and has recently lost his wife, Helen. Struck down with grief, he invites his friends, married couple Liane (Lucianne McEvoy) and Davie (Andy Clark) for an evening of food, drinks and reminiscing. However, he also invited his new partner, Greta (Yana Harris), who is 20 years younger than him. It isn’t long before tensions rise, and feelings are made known between these life-long friends. So, Young explores the different ways in which grief affects people as well as the struggles of getting older. Maxwell approaches his themes with his notorious wit, providing the audience with many laughs throughout ...
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The Monkey’s Paw – The Hope Theatre
27Oct By Zain RussellNo Comments
London

The Monkey’s Paw – The Hope Theatre

The Monkey’s Paw, currently haunting the intimate Hope Theatre, is a stage adaptation of the classic supernatural tale of the same name. This version narrows its focus onto a young married couple wrestling with real-world struggles, mounting bills and the deep emotional fallout of a recent miscarriage. The show opens with a beautifully staged movement sequence tracing their relationship from first sparks of romance to marriage, pregnancy, and heartbreak. It’s wordless but full of emotional detail, giving the audience a sense of the life they’ve built, and what they’ve lost, before the supernatural intervenes. When a mysterious talisman, the titular monkey’s paw, enters their lives, it allows them to grant their desperate wish: a child of their own. But as with all good cautionary tal...
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The Signalman – Floral Pavilion
27Oct By Jenn McKeanNo Comments
North West

The Signalman – Floral Pavilion

As someone who spends a lot of their life on trains, I’ve always wondered what happened in the old signal boxes along the routes… not so much anymore! The Signalman has been adapted for the stage from the short story by Charles Dickens, by Francis Evelyn. With the book only being 30 pages, Evelyn managed to create a 2-act play from it, while still keeping the Dickens essence in it. It tells the story of a signalman in the 1880s, who is rigorous in his routines, being visited by a traveller and them sharing their stories. The signalman is adamant that he is visited by a Spirit, that foretells of a dangerous event occurring – train crashes, women falling to their deaths from trains and so on… It is comprised of a small cast of actors and relies on clever tricks, to convey the presence of ...
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The Constant Cold – Baron’s Court Theatre
27Oct By Charles PipeNo Comments
London

The Constant Cold – Baron’s Court Theatre

With a runtime of just 30 minutes, The Constant Cold by Zoë Cooper delivers a tight package of thrills and jump-scares while attempting to explore wider themes of misogyny, gaslighting, sexual assault, and the silencing of women’s voices. The plot follows three flatmates, one of whom – Megan – comes home frightened after a terrifying experience while walking home at night. As more and more frightening and unexplained things happen, the three are forced to face the existence of the supernatural as well as confronting difficult truths about one another as past events resurface. The script is engaging and creepy at times, but falters during the more intimate, character-focused moments. The characters aren’t well-developed, including the protagonist Megan (Zoë Cooper). Most of what we le...
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Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse
24Oct By Angela KellyNo Comments
North West

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Arguably the most well-known of all Roald Dahls novels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is being performed at Altrincham Garrick Playhouse this week. Directed by Joseph Meighan, it is also a story with very popular film versions and so is a brave undertaking for any theatre to perform.For those few who have never heard of the story it is essentially about young Charlie Bucket and a winning golden ticket that entitles the holder to a rare entry into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Wonka, the eccentric and largely unseen owner of the factory, meets Charlie and the rest of the winners and the story ensues with much surrealism, a lot of sugar and some strange 'umpa lumpa' people along the way!Charlie Bucket is performed by Rui Yang Lau. He performs as Dahl described Charlie in his novels. W...
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Batshit – Traverse Theatre
24Oct By Greg HolsteadNo Comments
Scotland

Batshit – Traverse Theatre

There’s a certain audacity to a one-person show. One performer, one story, one mind in charge of the entire evening. Batshit, created and performed by Leah Shelton, turns that control into both its subject and its triumph. In a world quick to label women “mad”, Shelton calmly, stylishly, and with extraordinary precision, takes charge of her own narrative, and everyone else’s for that matter, for sixty taut minutes.When you enter the tight Traverse 2, the first thing that hits you is the bank of LED strips looming above the stage like a silent judge. It’s no decorative flourish: throughout the show, that strip becomes an emotional metronome, pulsing and flickering in unnervingly close rhythm with the sound design. The coordination of light and sound, operated, I assume, from a pre-programme...
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The Wolf of Poyais – Golden Goose Theatre
24Oct By Charles PipeNo Comments
London

The Wolf of Poyais – Golden Goose Theatre

The Wolf of Poyais is a new one-man historical satire play from BlueBar productions, written by Sam Went and starring Joz Norris. It tells the fascinating true story of con man Gregor MacGregor, who – in the early 1800s – swindled hundreds of people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds with an outrageous, fraudulent scheme. Sam Went’s script is both well-researched and very entertaining. The story itself is absolutely fascinating in itself, but Went’s script injects it with even more humour and poignancy. The script is darkly funny; it revels in the absurdity of MacGregor’s scheme, while still treating the devastating impact it had on people’s lives with gravitas.  Many plays based on true stories fall into the trap of simply depicting one historical event after another, w...
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The Wanderers – Marylebone Theatre
24Oct By Zain RussellNo Comments
London

The Wanderers – Marylebone Theatre

The Wanderers is a moving and thought-provoking play inspired by true events. It delves deeply into the complexities of relationships, faith, and family, offering a nuanced exploration of how people navigate love and identity within different cultural frameworks. Set within the Jewish community, the story follows two very different marriages that reflect contrasting worlds. Esther and Schmuli are Orthodox Jews living within the confines of strict religious rules and traditional gender roles. Their lives are guided by faith and duty, highlighting the tension between devotion and personal freedom. In contrast, Sophie and Abe are secular Jews, free to make their own choices, yet still bound by the universal struggles of marriage, expectation, and emotional fulfillment. The narrative cen...
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The Unbelievers – Royal Court Theatre
24Oct By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments
London

The Unbelievers – Royal Court Theatre

Silence sits heavily in Nick Payne’s “The Unbelievers”, a play that dares to explore the uneasy space between grief, uncertainty and the fragile bonds of family. In a production of striking control and emotional weight, the Royal Court presents a portrait of people suspended between hope and despair, clinging to ritual as time slips around them. It is a thoughtful and often gripping piece of writing, although it leaves behind an unsettling aftertaste that is difficult to define. Designer Bunny Christie’s set is extraordinary in both concept and execution. What initially appears to be an ordinary kitchen slowly becomes a canvas for the passage of time. Subtle changes in lighting (Jack Knowles), shifts in everyday clutter and the creeping disarray of domestic life reveal the ache of waiti...
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