REVIEWS Archives - Page 223 of 548

14Mar

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Blue Beard – The Lyceum, Edinburgh

In the early 1400s, a French nobleman, Gilles de Rais, was found guilty of kidnapping, raping, torturing and murdering children. He got away with his heinous crimes for longer than he should due to high birth rate and fear, amongst the lower classes, of retribution, should they speak up. This true story became the legend of Blue Beard and the children he murdered morphed into a series of murdered wives, whose mutilated bodies Blue Beard hid in the cellar. The fairy tale explores and warns of the perpetual fear, always in society, of abuse and cruelty forced upon the innocent and the weak. Emma Rice has reworked this famous Bartók opera into a modern-day musical, balancing fresh, boozy, party-loving female confidence against the scales of ongoing malevolence towards specific, known, w...

13Mar

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Macbeth (an undoing) – The Rose Theatre

She didn’t know what she was headed for, and when she found out what she was headed for, it was too late. Macbeths come undone. Playwright and director Zinnie Harris’s new and old work, Macbeth (an undoing) sets out to prove that what is done can in fact be undone rather than merely redone. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is arguably overdone, especially at the moment. From Ralph Fiennes to David Tennant, powerful male actors can’t take their grubby hands off it. Audiences too never seem to tire of it. It’s an enduring story, full of sound and fury, and rife with juicy monologues for actors to sink their fangs into. The juiciness of the plot even translates well into foreign adaptations and lubricates applications to very specific historical metaphors. However much of its adaptive appeal rests on wh...

Locomotive for Murder: The Improvised Whodunnit – Theatr Clwyd

13Mar

By Coral MourantNo Comments

North West

Locomotive for Murder: The Improvised Whodunnit – Theatr Clwyd

All aboard the murderous train for a fast paced, laugh a minute ride! Amateur detectives, this is your time to shine and find the culprit. With this production, the company of Pinch Punch has managed to add more fun to the “murder mystery” trope, with a slick and silly show for all the family. The detective leads the audience through a tale of murder, mayhem and… whatever you want it to be! That’s the fun of this show, it is totally dependent on the audience’s input. Whether it be choosing a character’s occupation, the train destination, or who the tragic victim may be, it’s all up to you. The actors boast that they have never (and will never again) perform this show, and they take on whatever the crowd comes up with. Even the characters themselves were forged from snippets of audience ...

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Stockport Plaza

13Mar

By Philip EdwardsNo Comments

North West

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Stockport Plaza

Sometimes, reviewing theatre productions can be a bit like pulling hens teeth. You sit there, you get acted at, you clap then you leave. All very nice, but you can’t say very much about what you’ve seen. Then there are the nights when you get blown away by a production. A production so good, you can’t stop saying things about it. I saw one of those tonight. By any criteria you can name, this production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was a joy from start to finish. I guess you will know the plot by now. Three drag queens schlep across Australia in an old bus, (the titular Priscilla). They encounter the sort of people who don’t take naturally to people who are different. They are despised, assaulted in the vilest way. One finds romance, one a family but they all have adventures they wo...

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

13Mar

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

After taking time to catch up on sleep and sustenance, it is comforting to reflect on what a special event the London Improvathon is. I covered the whole show but had breaks to grab a couple of hours sleep and to eat, so you could consider me to be a lightweight in comparison with these improvathoners. For cast and audience, there is an invisible bond that forms over the fifty hours, the commitment to perform, or to watch the equivalent of twenty-five shows back-to-back, binds the two together, and the final bows are met with celebration. For those who do not wish to commit to fifty hours, there was an option to buy a two-hour episode ticket. The history of the Improvathon goes back to 1993, when the first Canadian Improvathon took place, and then some years later Ken ...

13Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Murder in the Dark – Floral Pavilion

As the audience opens their programmes for tonight’s performance, they are greeted with a simple plea – do not spoil the show for others. With that in mind, what can be said about the show is that it absolutely won’t be what you expect. I’m just not sure that’s a good thing in this case. We start with a simple premise. Faded pop star Danny (Tom Chambers) and his young girlfriend Sarah (Laura White) arrives at a ramshackle cottage with a handily unreliable power supply and no wi-fi, having crashed his car. They are taken under the wing of the eccentric owner Mrs Bateman (Susie Blake) and soon joined by the car’s other passengers; Danny’s estranged brother William (Owen Oakeshott), ex-wife Rebecca (Rebecca Charles) and his uninterested son Jake (Jonny Green). Directed by Philip Fra...

Richard, My Richard – Shakespeare North Playhouse

13Mar

By Jan MellorNo Comments

North West

Richard, My Richard – Shakespeare North Playhouse

Fantastic! Gripping! Awesome! Mesmerising! Stunning! I could end this review there - describing the thrill of watching this truly inspirational play, the first from the historian author Philipa Gregory, but I won’t - as I need to share this amazing piece of theatre. As you may know, Philipa Gregory is a historian who has written novels covering the history of England’s traumatic times during the War of the Roses. Of these times, when the dissolving Plantagenets were to be overthrown by the Tudor dynasty, a certain great playwright, William Shakespeare, felt inspired to share his views of these treacherous years and penned Richard III, convincing his readers and theatregoers into believing that this king was an evil, disfigured, murderous, tyrant. We have all believed this of Richa...

13Mar

By Grace AnnabelNo Comments

North West

Come From Away – Liverpool Empire

This evening, I was honoured to have been invited to the first ever UK tour of ‘Come From Away’ - Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s show that has truly moved the masses, telling a remarkable tale of human spirit in times of tragedy. ‘Come From Away’ is set in the wake of 9/11 and follows the lives of air passengers from all over the world who were grounded in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland. It shows how the close-knit community welcomed strangers into their lives with open arms in a time of desperate need, and how unlikely friendships and bonds were forged for a lifetime. This show can only be described as uniquely thought-provoking. As the show begins, the scene is set with such simplicity, with the stage only comprising of a large wooden panel lining the entire back wall of th...

13Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Drifters Girl – Hull New Theatre

There aren’t many 1950s singing groups whose story can still pack theatres 70 years later. But The Drifters are no ordinary group as we discovered while watching The Drifters Girl, a new musical, at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday. This entertaining production was as much about the group’s manager, Faye Treadwell, as about the group itself. Treadwell (the amazing Carly Mercedes Dyer) managed the group from the 1970s for 30 years, when women weren’t expected to be in business, never mind actually running the whole shebang. And being the first female African American manager brought its own difficulties. Faye’s husband, George, was the original manager of The Drifters, but when he died in 1967, his wife took over the management. Facing litigation in the US and needing to ma...

13Mar

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Frankenstein – The Lowry

imitating the dog's production of Frankenstein at The Lowry Theatre in Salford attempts a daring fusion of Mary Shelley's classic gothic tale with the personal journey of a modern couple on the brink of parenthood. While this ambitious endeavour promises a fresh interpretation of a timeless story, the execution ultimately falls short, resulting in a bewildering narrative experience that leaves much to be desired. The decision to intertwine the lives of the modern couple with the character of Victor Frankenstein proves to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, the juxtaposition of Shelley's cautionary tale with the intimate struggles of impending parenthood holds promise for a thought-provoking exploration of creation, responsibility, and the human condition. However, in practice, the ble...