REVIEWS Archives - Page 23 of 547

Bleak Expectations – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

30Sep

By Dan GrimesNo Comments

North West

Bleak Expectations – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

My son, Sam, and I were thrilled to have been invited to the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse to spend an evening watching this hugely entertaining and funny play. Full disclosure, I was a big fan of the original Radio 4 series that inspired this stage adaptation, so my hopes were set high. There is something quintessentially British about the combination of the surrealist, gag-filled scripts from writer Mark Evans and their gentle parodying of all things Victorian that just invokes a knitted tea cosy and a plate of hot, buttered crumpets. How to describe the plot of Bleak Expectations? Basically, take every Dickensian Sunday night telly adaptation you’ve ever seen, pop them all in a blender, add a liberal splash of absolute nonsense and, hey presto! Roughly speaking the story follows the h...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Golden Goose Theatre

29Sep

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Golden Goose Theatre

For the Lambeth Fringe, The New Rep Theatre tears through Richard Pepper’s adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in just 90 minutes. Focusing on the four lovers as they get twisted up by the fairies in the forest, while also bringing in the mechanicals, the actors in a play within a play - rehearsing in the forest and caught up in the fairies playing around. There’s a lot of fourth wall breaking, asides to the audience and some very modern moments, New Rep have certainly gone all out for the comedy to - mostly - success but a few moments land awkwardly and feel tacked on, pulling us out of the world rather than deeper into it. A sharper edit or simply more restraint would have helped here. Jack Gogarty’s Bottom works well but has a naive earnestness despite his se...

29Sep

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Punch – Apollo Theatre

“Inspired by the true story Punch” this production at the Apollo Theatre features a small but impressive cast of six and production team credited for bringing this life story to the West End stage. The staging is set to resemble a dark place for a conclave, on the steps, the bridge and on stage which enabled an astonishing style of creative movement, as the actors moved freely and smoothly from character to character, to scene change in synchronised motion. Credit to Leanne Pinder the movement was so emotionally moving aligning with the tragedy and empathy, which I’m sure was felt very strongly by the audience, just WOW. Scenes with strobe and flashing lights, the play has references to violence, death, alcohol and substance misuse. What strikes you in the opening scenes of th...

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton – The White Bear

29Sep

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton – The White Bear

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton opens like a gothic horror: thunder and rain set a moody scene as a figure sits slumped over in a white hospital gown, before jolting to life and erupting into a crazed monologue complete with manic laughter. This play – like the novels and plays of the real-life Patrick Hamilton – boldly explores dark themes and incorporates spooky imagery. Life – the play seems to suggest – can be as terrifying as any fictional ghost or demon, but we can still smile and laugh. Above all, this play tells an interesting story about an interesting character and is masterfully performed. This one-man show (written and performed by Mark Farrelly) follows almost the entire life of Patrick Hamilton from his youth in the 1910s and ‘20s to his declining hea...

The Secret of the Black Spider – Leeds Grand Theatre

29Sep

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Secret of the Black Spider – Leeds Grand Theatre

Opera North opened its 2025–26 season with something quietly radical: the UK premiere of the extended Hamburg version of Dame Judith Weir’s The Secret of the Black Spider, performed not by the mainstage company but by the Opera North Youth Company—soloists, chorus, and orchestra. It was the first time an opera by a female composer had featured on the company’s main stage, and the first time its young performers had opened the season both on stage and in the pit. With the composer in attendance and a warm response from a mixed-age audience, it was a landmark evening in every sense. The opera weaves together a 19th-century gothic novella with the real-life story of a supposed curse that followed the 1980s opening of a royal tomb in Wawel Cathedral, Kraków. Weir’s score and libretto blend ...

29Sep

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

North West

Silent Approach – New Adelphi Theatre

Silent Approach is a sobering play depicting a timeline of emotional battles, with mental health, guilt and feelings of overwhelming shame to a place of “triumphant recovery”. Marcella Hazell is Rebecca House, a Lancashire serving policewoman who tells her story through an unfiltered lens. A raw hard-hitting portrayal of life as a respected functioning police officer protecting the public to a time in slow motion when she couldn’t even protect herself from her dark thoughts and suicidal ideations. The scenes are a hybrid between video footage to on stage performance which is becoming popular in small stage productions and is highly effective. At times it felt a little uncoordinated as the scene changes came quickly but this didn’t distract too much from the essence of the meani...

26Sep

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Love Quirks – The Other Palace

Four friends living in London brought together by unfortunate events: their love life sucks. Ryan (Lewis Bear Brown), Stephanie (Clodagh Greene), Chris (Tom Newland) and Lili (Ayesha Patel) have struggled to keep their love life on the upward trajectory. Stephanie announcing her divorce, Chris being cheated on by his fiancé, Ryan struggling to find a man he truly likes and Lili never quite getting over Ryan- the only man she’s ever loved. We are slightly rooting for Stephanie and Chris as it’s revealed they have a past and potentially through their heart break, they can find comfort in each other. However, the story does feel quite dated and limiting for the actors as every time we explore a complexity to heartbreak the script stays very 2 dimensional. Lili is a masters student who i...

26Sep

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

Man’s Best Friend – Traverse Theatre

The acclaimed Douglas Maxwell’s new play, Man’s Best Friend, opened at the Traverse Theatre having previously played at the Tron in Glasgow. Directed by the Tron’s Artistic Director, Jemima Levick, and starring Jordan Young, a rising star in Edinburgh’s famous panto, this play is both laugh-out-loud hilarious and also beautifully emotive. Ronnie (Young) is a dog walker tasked with walking his neighbor’s beloved pooches. However, when the belt holding their leads breaks, the dogs are left running free into the woodlands of the local park. Alone, Ronnie is left with his thoughts as he navigates through the trees, searching for the runaway canines. And his mind begins to wander, perhaps it's answers and understanding he’s looking for also. From the outset, Young crafts a natural and...

26Sep

By Louise KershawNo Comments

North West

JB Shorts 27 – 53two

Although the first JB Shorts was produced in March 2009 as a one off ‘festival’ of short plays it has grown each year and is now a much anticipated bi annual event presenting 6 short plays over one evening and last night presented its 27th iteration of the format. Track and Field by Sarah Macdonald Hughes Directed by Martin Gibbons When two women meet at a local athletics club attended by their children, a friendship develops between them as their cheer on their offspring from the sidelines. Performed beautifully by Sarah Macdonald Hughes and Rosina Carbone this hilarious observation of friendship between women was an excellent opener to the evening’s entertainment. Its darkly comic content performed with great rapport between the two actors observed the mundanity o...

26Sep

By Carole BaldockNo Comments

North West

Syncopated – Liverpool Playhouse

The meaning of syncopated is explained at the end, tho perhaps more sensible if used to introduce the play, the simplest definition being ‘a variety of rhythms’. There is also a question of balance: between a present day brief encounter and the story of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, who brought jazz from America to the UK back in 1919. And it is a fascinating story; they enjoyed remarkable success, playing all over the country, including Buckingham Palace. But… Boy meets girl, boy annoys the hell out of girl (he’s a Londoner apart from anything else… boy asks for her help to compose a musical. Unfortunately, rather a contrived framing, not helped by being delivered in epistolatory style: after Frank from the Orchestra meets Liver Bird Penny, he sends her letters describing events - bu...