REVIEWS Archives - Page 31 of 563

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

24Oct

By Angela KellyNo Comments

North West

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Arguably the most well-known of all Roald Dahls novels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is being performed at Altrincham Garrick Playhouse this week. Directed by Joseph Meighan, it is also a story with very popular film versions and so is a brave undertaking for any theatre to perform.For those few who have never heard of the story it is essentially about young Charlie Bucket and a winning golden ticket that entitles the holder to a rare entry into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Wonka, the eccentric and largely unseen owner of the factory, meets Charlie and the rest of the winners and the story ensues with much surrealism, a lot of sugar and some strange 'umpa lumpa' people along the way!Charlie Bucket is performed by Rui Yang Lau. He performs as Dahl described Charlie in his novels. W...

24Oct

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Batshit – Traverse Theatre

There’s a certain audacity to a one-person show. One performer, one story, one mind in charge of the entire evening. Batshit, created and performed by Leah Shelton, turns that control into both its subject and its triumph. In a world quick to label women “mad”, Shelton calmly, stylishly, and with extraordinary precision, takes charge of her own narrative, and everyone else’s for that matter, for sixty taut minutes.When you enter the tight Traverse 2, the first thing that hits you is the bank of LED strips looming above the stage like a silent judge. It’s no decorative flourish: throughout the show, that strip becomes an emotional metronome, pulsing and flickering in unnervingly close rhythm with the sound design. The coordination of light and sound, operated, I assume, from a pre-programme...

The Wolf of Poyais – Golden Goose Theatre

24Oct

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

The Wolf of Poyais – Golden Goose Theatre

The Wolf of Poyais is a new one-man historical satire play from BlueBar productions, written by Sam Went and starring Joz Norris. It tells the fascinating true story of con man Gregor MacGregor, who – in the early 1800s – swindled hundreds of people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds with an outrageous, fraudulent scheme. Sam Went’s script is both well-researched and very entertaining. The story itself is absolutely fascinating in itself, but Went’s script injects it with even more humour and poignancy. The script is darkly funny; it revels in the absurdity of MacGregor’s scheme, while still treating the devastating impact it had on people’s lives with gravitas. Many plays based on true stories fall into the trap of simply depicting one historical event after another, w...

24Oct

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

The Wanderers – Marylebone Theatre

The Wanderers is a moving and thought-provoking play inspired by true events. It delves deeply into the complexities of relationships, faith, and family, offering a nuanced exploration of how people navigate love and identity within different cultural frameworks. Set within the Jewish community, the story follows two very different marriages that reflect contrasting worlds. Esther and Schmuli are Orthodox Jews living within the confines of strict religious rules and traditional gender roles. Their lives are guided by faith and duty, highlighting the tension between devotion and personal freedom. In contrast, Sophie and Abe are secular Jews, free to make their own choices, yet still bound by the universal struggles of marriage, expectation, and emotional fulfillment. The narrative cen...

24Oct

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Unbelievers – Royal Court Theatre

Silence sits heavily in Nick Payne’s “The Unbelievers”, a play that dares to explore the uneasy space between grief, uncertainty and the fragile bonds of family. In a production of striking control and emotional weight, the Royal Court presents a portrait of people suspended between hope and despair, clinging to ritual as time slips around them. It is a thoughtful and often gripping piece of writing, although it leaves behind an unsettling aftertaste that is difficult to define. Designer Bunny Christie’s set is extraordinary in both concept and execution. What initially appears to be an ordinary kitchen slowly becomes a canvas for the passage of time. Subtle changes in lighting (Jack Knowles), shifts in everyday clutter and the creeping disarray of domestic life reveal the ache of waiti...

24Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

EXXY – Leeds Playhouse

Dan Daw is described as a queer, crippled dance artist and EXXY traces his journey from a disabled working class kid deep in the Australian outbreak to international touring performer. EXXY is Aussie slang for ‘that’s expensive, mate’, and It’s a deeply personal response to the success of his last self titled show that left Daw with the sort of imposter syndrome that most working class artists will recognise. The good news is that EXXY on the whole works as Daw uses spoken word and dance to reflect on his life and work. This show is presented as part of the Leeds based Transform Festival that brings challenging international acts to the city, and they have a proud record of supporting disabled led theatre companies. As does Leeds Playhouse, and this is a really inclusive production w...

Come From Away – Northwich Memorial Court

23Oct

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

Come From Away – Northwich Memorial Court

This evening The Musical Theatre Company transported us to Gander and treated us to the emotional true story of 7000 people who were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland on September 11th 2001, when the world stopped and lives were changed forever. TMTC are one of the first amateur companies to get the rights to Come From Away and they put everything into telling this story with as much truth and emotion as humanly possible. With Direction from Ben Ireson, Musical Direction from Michael J Scott and Choreography from Ceris Shadwell, you can feel that they’ve thrown all they have in to this story and along with the incredibly talented cast and the on stage band, you become lost in this world and go from laughing to crying within seconds. Come From Away is a complete ensemble piece with the...

Every Brilliant Thing (Minnie Driver) – Soho Place Theatre

23Oct

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Every Brilliant Thing (Minnie Driver) – Soho Place Theatre

With a premise like the one mentioned for Every Brilliant Thing, it is seldom that one can go through the entire play without feeling a sense of alienation from the theme in an attempt to keep oneself safe from the seriousness of it. But Every Brilliant Thing amalgamates the journey of a seven-year-old child grappling with her mum’s depression and suicide attempts with such tenderness and light humour that one can’t help but simply connect completely with the whole of it, while holding a smile through it all. The narrator (Minnie Driver) starts writing down every brilliant thing about the world at seven, a list that continues well into her adulthood, hoping to change her mother’s perspective on life. Driver brings a sense of sublime charisma to the character, inviting her audience i...

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...