REVIEWS Archives - Page 224 of 549

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...

13Mar

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

London Zoo – Southwark Playhouse

London Zoo is set at the dawn of the Millenium, as print media faced the oncoming juggernaut of online content. Job losses and a decline in quality journalism came in its wake, except in a few rarified and fortunate corners. This play highlights the subtle ways in which prejudice, power and ambition are thinly veiled by passive aggressive marketing jargon, jokey office politics and the cold reality of number crunching. As someone who left print media at the turn of the century and then worked for an online brand that expanded in the boom, I can attest to the accuracy of some of the vibes seen in this odd window onto that period. Much like this fictional news corporation, GAY.com, where I held the role of Editor, imploded due to rapid expansion, shareholder tyranny and phantom accountanc...

A View From the Bridge – Players Theatre

12Mar

By Angela KellyNo Comments

North West

A View From the Bridge – Players Theatre

Directed by Josh Holden, Arthur Miller’s classic drama, ‘A View From the Bridge' is being performed this week at the Players Theatre in Cheadle Hulme. First performed in 1955, it must be acknowledged that to take on such a classic tale is a brave undertaking for any amateur theatre company. However, one thing that is certain is that this award-winning group are consistent in their passion to produce quality productions.Set near Brooklyn Bridge, the story follows ‘Eddie Carbone’, a working-class longshoreman and the arrival of his wife Beatrice’s two cousins who arrive illegally from Italy and stay with them in their apartment. Eddie had also become fixated by his wife's niece ‘Catherine’ and struggles to keep his complicated feelings to himself. The struggle deepens as Catherine falls in l...

La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

11Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

It has been some thirty years since there was a new production of this opera at the Met and twenty years since that’s last production with a more recent attempt in 2017 faltering due to financial reasons. Well, the financial challenges remain, as they do for all of us, so it was a treat to take in Director Mariusz Treliński’s dark contemporary re-telling which coming in at almost four and a half hours, including two intervals, is a big production in every sense. Leonora (Lise Davidsen) plans to elope with Alvaro (Brian Jagde) but when her father, the Marquis of Calatrava (Soloman Howard), storms in, Alvaro’s attempts to make peace accidentally results in her father’s death. Leonora flees from her revengeful brother, Carlo (Igor Golovatenko), and whilst Preziosilla (Judit Kutasi) sings a...

La Nina Barro (The Clay Girl) – Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh

10Mar

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

La Nina Barro (The Clay Girl) – Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh

Writer Marta Masse joined the audience at the Roxy tonight, to see her life-affirming poetry brought to life for the first time in almost ten years. It must have been an emotional reconnection with her prose and with the original all female cast on what was International Woman’s Day. Ten years on from its first performance during the Edinburgh Free Fringe in 2014, Elizabeth Sogord, returns as La Nina (the clay girl) and Alexandra Rodes as Woman / mbira player. Relying on very minimal set and costume, or in Sogord’s case no costume at all. From a winding sheet of clay-spattered plastic we see the clay girl squirming and wrestling and moaning, and eventually releasing herself into existence to the weirdly haunting (think ancient music box) sound of the mbira, a mini piano from Zimb...

10Mar

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

The Duchess of Malfi – Globe Theatre

For the Sam Wanamaker’s 10th anniversary season, we are treated to John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi. This beautifully clear and impactful performance modernised the themes to highlight the sexism and misogyny of men in power, lit only by candlelight and at one point plunged into darkness completely. We follow this tale with huge anticipation and energy: Francesca Mills as Duchess lights the stage with incredible generosity and spirit as she takes on this ‘young Widow’ to discover her new love in life. Passionate to find romance herself and not on her brother’s command. Her twin Ferdinand (Oliver Johnstone) shares the deepest connection with her and yet betrays her so suddenly when discovering her pregnancy. His rage from losing control of her sends him mindless and he loses his sanity. The ...