REVIEWS Archives - Page 17 of 548

23Oct

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Outlawed – Hull Truck Theatre

I might possibly need counselling after sitting through a performance of Outlawed, at the Hull Truck Theatre, on Wednesday night. And I’ve only myself to blame for breaking my own lifetime golden rule and willingly “audience participating”. I’ll never know what possessed me to roll a chunk of dry bread up into a ball and throw it at Robin Hood performing a heartfelt ballad on the stage. Poor thing didn’t deserve it. Mind you, it’s a good job my theatre buddy sister, Chrissy, was more restrained and didn’t throw a large potato gifted earlier to her by the balladeer - now that would have hurt. On second thoughts, I’m putting all the blame on my demise on to the four madcap performers acting out a night of burlesque, drag and comedy. The intimate Godber Studio at Hull Truck was...

23Oct

By Johanna RobertsNo Comments

North West

Breaking the Code – Liverpool Playhouse

Occasionally, a production comes along that is so remarkable on so many levels you know it is going to stay with you for a very long time, and the current production of Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code fits that bill. I say ‘current production’, as I first saw this in London with Derek Jacobi, so my expectations were understandably high. However, this revived production surpassed all those expectations and then some. While the central element of Turing’s life is his work at Bletchley Park in breaking the Enigma code, the play reaches back into his boyhood and afterwards to his life as an academic to explore what inspired his brilliance at mathematics and cyphers and how society’s attitude towards his homosexuality drove him to suicide. The first two scenes, where the action jumps f...

The Shawshank Redemption – Hull New Theatre

23Oct

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Shawshank Redemption – Hull New Theatre

At precisely 7.30pm on Tuesday evening, the chatter among the Hull New Theatre audience quieted as the curtain rose on a production of The Shawshank Redemption. Seconds later the chatter resumed - the curtain having changed course and descended downwards. An apology resounded around the theatre. However, it was only another few seconds before the curtain rose again; and the aforementioned chatter ceased once more. That damn curtain seemed to have a life of its own as it descended once again; this time joined by its accomplice in crime, the fire safety curtain. Ten minutes after the scheduled start time, both barriers to the stage rose revealing the grey, grim interior of the Shawshank Maximum Security Penitentiary, in Maine, US. At first I thought I was watching The Full ...

To Kill a Mockingbird – Festival Theatre

23Oct

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

To Kill a Mockingbird – Festival Theatre

All rise. Atticus Finch is back in court, and on this particular evening in Edinburgh it isn’t Richard Coyle behind the spectacles but John J. O’Hagan, stepping up from first cover to take on one of American literature’s most beloved men of principle. He does so with quiet assurance. Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, reborn for the stage by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher, has been touring the UK with glowing tributes. The Edinburgh stop at the Festival Theatre proves both admirable and exhausting, a beautifully acted, morally charged evening that never-the-less feels every minute of its bloated three-and-a-quarter-hour runtime. Sorkin’s adaptation has long been praised for shifting the novel’s moral centre from saintly nostalgia to uneasy realism. His Atticus isn’t carved...

22Oct

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dear England – Sheffield Lyceum

Brought by the National Theatre, this production covers the sporting tale of near-missing, culture-creating half-darling of the English eye Gareth Southgate, and his impactful tenure as manager of the England men’s national football team. Whilst it flirts with the bluster of testosterone fuelled dressing rooms, it brings with it a very deliberate and in-your-face softness that is credited as being part of the winning formula for Southgate and the England team. Except they didn’t win. So why are we hearing this story? The first thing that needs to be said is Es Devlin’s set design is sensational. Slick, bold and powerful, it is alive and breathing and extremely well utilised. Jon Clark’s lighting design accompanied with Ash J Woodward’s video design make the piece a pleasant feast ...

22Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Albert Herring – The Lowry

English National Opera’s first official foray North sees director and designer Antony McDonald delightfully serve up Britten’s 1947 witty comic opera Albert Herring exposing the whimsy and hypocrisy at the heart of post-war British society. Lady Billows (Emma Bell) and her committee’s – aide Florence Pike (Carolyn Dobbin), headteacher Miss Wordsworth (Aoife Miskelly), vicar, Mr Gedge (Eddie Woods), Mayor, Mr Upfold (Mark Le Brocq), and Superintendent Budd (Andri Björn Róbertsson) of the local constabulary – attempts to identify a May Queen for the village come unstuck as they realise all the local girls are lacking the necessary virtuosity. The only option is the shy and reserved Albert Herring (Caspar Singh) who works at his mother’s (Leah-Marian Jones) greengrocers, where he is regula...

Fawlty Towers The Play – New Wimbledon Theatre

22Oct

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

Fawlty Towers The Play – New Wimbledon Theatre

John Cleese’s iconic Fawlty Towers begins its UK and Ireland tour in Wimbledon following its record-breaking sold-out run in the West End and it does not disappoint. The nostalgia is evident from the start. The iconic opening theme track plays as the audience settle down into a completely immersive and true to style sequence at Fawlty Towers. The set is eye catching and captures the essence of the series completely. The familiar reception and dining area are the perfect spaces for the dialogue and humour to play out and the characters float effortlessly between the two sets, providing the perfect backdrop for the chaos to unfold. What makes this show standout is the performances from each cast member, their impeccable acting skills and comedic timing which is a true joy to experience...

22Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Fiddler on the Roof – Palace Theatre

This 2024 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production has been cleverly restaged for an extensive UK tour, landing at the grand old Palace Theatre on Oxford Road for a two week stay from this evening, Whilst retaining all of the energy that makes this one of the most popular and profitable musicals in theatre history, Director Jordan Fein manages to place a liberal and humanitarian message about the plight of refugees in amongst a fantastic evening’s entertainment. The story centres around Anatevka, a village in Tsarist Russia at the start of the 20th Century, where Tevye (Matthew Woodyat) is the local Milkman, a pious soul struggling to bring up his five daughters with his wife Golde (Jodie Jacobs) in poverty, subject to the cruel whims of an uncaring system. His three oldest girls...

20Oct

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Skeleton – Etcetera Theatre

Skeleton is a new one-woman horror play, written and performed by Lucy Spreckley, which delivers some intriguing and spooky thrills. At its best moments, Skeleton is atmospheric, unsettling, and creepy. Spreckley’s script does an excellent job of keeping the audience slightly disorientated, by drip feeding just the right amount of information to keep us intrigued and wanting to know more, without leaving us totally confused. Uncomfortable descriptions of childhood trauma are sprinkled in with just the right amount of frequency to gradually build a sense of mystery and dread. Lloyd Smith’s direction makes effective use of sound and lighting design to enhance this sense of dread further. Spreckley’s performance is solid; she equally effectively portrays emotional vulnerability, panicked t...

Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir

20Oct

By Johanna RobertsNo Comments

North West

Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir

This afternoon saw Vasiliy Petrenko making one of his welcome returns to the Philharmonic Hall, this time to conduct the orchestra in three pieces: Liadovs’s Baba-Yaga; Haydn’s Concerto in D Major for Cello and Orchestra (following a change in programme) and Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 7. Baba-Yaga, while lasting only three minutes, gave the orchestra ample opportunity to demonstrate their flair for storytelling, creating drama and tension to convey the menace of the iron-toothed witch stalking the forest in search of human children to eat, though the final chord suggests that – this time at least – her prey escaped. While the original programme had scheduled a concerto by the Russian-born composer Victoria Borisova-Ollas, reduced rehearsal time due to the breakdown of the...