REVIEWS Archives - Page 125 of 548

11Dec

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

Sleeping Beauty – Storyhouse Chester

Back for their 8th Christmas Season, we have another Storyhouse original production, this time the classic Sleeping Beauty, but as usual, done in their own way. This year, Storyhouse have tried something different and produced their show on the proscenium stage rather than the thrust stage. This gives them more scope to include a bigger set and more stage magic including flying and pyrotechnics. It does feel like it loses a little bit of magic not having the cast as close as usual as in the past, with the audience surrounding the stage and the cast entering through the audience at times but what they have done with this year’s set and storytelling makes up for that. Written by Samantha O’Rourke who also wrote last year Cinderella, we are taken on a journey of love, self-discovery and be...

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary – Southwark Playhouse

11Dec

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary – Southwark Playhouse

‘The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary’ playing at Southwark Playhouse, attempts a brave, comedic overhaul of Gustave Flaubert's sobering classic, with varying degrees of success. For those of you not familiar with the novel (which is, as pointed out at the start of the show, most of us), the story centres around a woman battling the constraints of the patriarchy. Emma is portrayed as profoundly disenchanted, bored with her uninspiring doctor husband, her mundane provincial village, and her stifling role as a dutiful wife in nineteenth-century France. The character extravagantly spends beyond her resources to flee the dullness and void of provincial existence. This narrative is upended by Ha Hum Ah Productions & Minack Theatre as the audience is ushered into a more modern and rau...

9Dec

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

Cinderella – Gladstone Theatre

It’s that time of year again… oh yes, it is! And Dreamworld Entertainment returned for the nineth year with a fabulous Cinderella, to a full house of laughter and appreciation. Everyone loves a panto with its upbeat songs, glittery costumes, corny jokes and audience participation and this has it all in abundance. Director Laura Newnes and Choreographer Jamie-Leigh Christian, also producers, have assembled a tight professional cast and slick technical team to give us the wow factor and a jolly good entertainment. We all know the story, but writer Fortina Stone gives us a little bit extra with an amusing dynamic between the Prince and Dandini (who frankly are usually a bit wet) as well as all the usual slapstick and “it’s behind you” we come to expect. Some excellent si...

Waiting for Godot – Theatre Royal Haymarket

9Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

Waiting for Godot – Theatre Royal Haymarket

Director James MacDonald breathes new life into Samuel Beckett’s absurdist 1953 tragicomedy about two down at heel men waiting for a mysterious figure to appear, with a fresh and engaging interpretation that focuses more on the inherent humour within the play rather than just the disconsolate existentialism with which it is usually associated. Opening to a dystopian landscape bereft of any positive discernible feature other than a leafless tree, we encounter Estragon/Gogo (Lucian Msamati) and Valdimir/Didi (Ben Whishaw), as they wait for Godot. Whilst their connection to each other is unstated, there is an endearing affection between them that pervades their ongoing conversations about something and nothing, which distracts from the obvious bleakness of their everyday lives. The appe...

8Dec

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

White Christmas – The Mill at Sonning

Jonathan O’Boyle’s production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at the Mill at Sonning offers a delightful escape into festive cheer, perfectly defying the post-lunch slump. The story follows Bob and Phil, two old army buddies and successful performers, who join forces with the charming Haynes Sisters, Betty and Judy, to save a struggling Vermont inn owned by their former General. Together, they plan a spectacular Christmas show to boost the inn’s finances, enlisting their old army division for support. It’s a classic tale of friendship, love, and the magic of the holidays. Gary Lloyd’s choreography truly stands out, featuring a fabulous tap dancing sequence that leaves the audience wanting more and the performers a bit breathless—in the best way possible. Jason Denver’s luscious set d...

8Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

The Mousetrap – St Martin’s Theatre

Director Philip Franks wonderfully maintains the suspense of what is the longest running play in the world, which now in its 73rd year, having first opened in London’s West End in 1952, continues to play to packed houses which is a testament to Agatha Christie’s suspenseful writing and the accompanying performances from the cast with the support of an accomplished creative team. Set in early 1950’s England, Mollie Ralston (Lara Lemon) and Giles Ralston (Harry Bradley) have been married for one year and having decided to repurpose her inherited stately home, Monkswell Manor, as a guest house, they nervously await their first guests amidst a snowy blizzard that has just descended. First to arrive is the excitable Christoper Wren (Richard Leeming), an architect no less who loves to coo...

7Dec

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Corpse For Christmas – Bilton Theatre

As Storm Darragh raged outside on Friday night, the cosy little Bilton Theatre, in Bilton, near Hull, began to fill up with theatregoers eager to find out who’d “dunnit” in Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society’s production of A Corpse For Christmas. Billed as a “thriller with a touch of comedy”, all the action takes place in the front room of Philip and Alison Winter, and their daughter Naomi. There’s nothing posh about the Winter’s home - a comfy, but worn, beige three-piece suite, a fireplace, coffee table and some pictures on the wall. A Christmas tree stands in the corner waiting to be decorated by Alison, who usually doesn’t like anyone else interfering with what she considers her territory. Other decorations hang over the back of the sofa, waiting for Naomi to drape them over...

Jack and the Beanstalk – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

7Dec

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Jack and the Beanstalk – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Panto is about tradition. Where the big producing houses, and their star-led shows, can never succeed is in developing a joyful familiarity that is nurtured and continued from year to year. That is the superpower of smaller venues, like the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse. But not all theatres are aware of that. Some stray from the path of success. It is a pleasure to report that, yet again, the Garrick gets it and has delivered. There was a slight first night hitch, however. Cast illness meant there was a panto dame-shaped hole to fill. Step up show director, and artistic director, Joseph Meighan. After a long rehearsal process, it is the kind of problem that must feel insurmountable backstage. On stage, however, the audience experience was no less at all. In fact, theatregoers ...

An Evening of Talking Heads – Hope Street Theatre

7Dec

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

An Evening of Talking Heads – Hope Street Theatre

When Alan Bennett wrote the play Enjoy, in which an elderly couple find themselves being packed up to become a living museum exhibit, there’s a chance he might have been seeing the future for many of his other characters. Tonight, we have three monologues from Bennett’s first series of Talking Heads, first broadcast in 1988. The series, which has become a staple of English literature syllabus’, provides a variety of perspectives on themes such as isolation, guilt, and loneliness. Pieces like these will always present a bit of a challenge to some audiences – those who remember the time-period will find warmth in evocative references to times gone by, but younger audience members may find the idea of regularly writing letters, waiting for a call on a landline, or the 1980s buying power...

Butterflies & Benefits / Cheapo – Traverse Theatre

7Dec

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Butterflies & Benefits / Cheapo – Traverse Theatre

As Part 2 of 4Play at The Traverse Theatre’s support of new writing, four brand new plays by four Edinburgh Playwrights are given their first airings over two nights. Tonight it is the turn of plays 3 and 4 in the roster to have their premier outings to an almost full Traverse 2. Butterflies & Benefits follows the lives of four twenty-something friends, starting at Hogmanay in 1998, the year before the dreaded Y2K, and is set to a soundtrack of dance tunes from that time. Whilst I like a ‘banger’ as much as the next guy, it is fair to say that there is an over reliance on music to both set the scenes and to fill dead air. Character development is left behind in favour of pounding music, dancing madly around, drinking and taking drugs, Coke seemingly the flavour of choice. Maybe ...