Monday, May 13

REVIEWS

The Fall – Dazed New World Festival
REVIEWS

The Fall – Dazed New World Festival

Coracle Arts’ The Fall, written and performed by Sarita Plowman under the direction of Alex Howarth, is a poetic and unique exploration about how we are shaped by tradition, particularly religion, and how this effects the place of women in the world. A simple set with one chair and a table represents the detailed, and often overwhelming, world that Plowman creates. The lyrical language of the piece is captivating from the beginning and emphasises Plowman’s switches between herself in adulthood and her childhood memories, which are emphasised beautifully by a change of voice and body language. Sound effects such as loud, but incomprehensible conversations, are also used to recreate the sense of being a child in an adult’s world, something which everyone is familiar with. Plowman’...
Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Royal Opera House (2016 Revival Production)
London

Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Royal Opera House (2016 Revival Production)

Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann is the most enduring ‘serious’ opera from a composer better known for his operettas and this 2016 revival of legendary film director John Schlesinger’s sumptuous 1980 production provides the perfect vehicle in which Offenbach’s story – in turn witty, erotic, and macabre – and highly melodious music come together to form a deeply and satisfying whole. Set in the 19th C, the great storyteller Hoffmann (Vittorio Grigòlo) is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf (Thomas Hampson), claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… First Hoffmann tells of his infatuation for the mechani...
Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show – Leeds Playhouse

imitating the dog are a company who make things difficult as part of their creative DNA so it’s not much of a surprise they are the first company to try a national tour in the midst of a pandemic. The audience are placed on socially distanced cones outside Leeds Playhouse, sans cover, as are the three strong cast also exposed to the elements playing a gang of ghoulish vigilantes who travel the country righting wrongs. This time they are on the trail of a crooked mayor, a bent chief constable and a dodgy headteacher who are conspiring to build the biggest casino in the UK before pocketing in the profits. Some critics who like to over intellectualise work will no doubt bemoan the slight narrative, and the chance to rub their chin reflectively. The rest of us are just grateful it’s ...
Royal Ballet: Back on Stage – Royal Opera House
London

Royal Ballet: Back on Stage – Royal Opera House

Describing what has happened to the performing arts as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is difficult and upsetting. In a time when the arts were needed more than ever, stages were emptied and orchestras were silenced for the sake of safety. Royal Opera Houses’ ‘Royal Ballet: Back on Stage’, is more than just a selection of ballet excerpts, but a battle cry on behalf of artists up and down the nation who work on and off stage. It urges us to dream of a future when the arts will be safe and possible again. As the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House begins the Overture from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake under the baton of Jonathan Lo, one could be forgiven for thinking the mess was all over-that we were once again back to normal.  At this moment, the orchestra, the dancers, and the theatre...
The Color Purple – Digital Concert
East Midlands

The Color Purple – Digital Concert

The Color Purple – Digital Concert features reflections and performances from the cast and creative members of the 2019 Made at Leicester Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome co-production. This digital concert was recorded remotely over the Summer and commissioned to mark Black History Month. Directed by Tinuke Craig with Musical Direction and Piano by Alex Parker, the concert includes seven songs from the show including Brown Betty, African Homeland, The Color Purple and the stunning I’m here. In between songs we have cast and creatives talking about how important the show is, how it tackles many issues, especially those of which black women have had to go through and in some ways, still are. About the coming together of people and finding the strength within, and within your community to...
Tonight at the Coliseum: Kerry Ellis
London

Tonight at the Coliseum: Kerry Ellis

As most theatre lovers will know, Take Two Theatricals in conjunction with Carter Dixon Productions and stream.theatre began streaming a series of one-off concerts on 18th September, and this week was the turn of Kerry Ellis. Best known in theatreland from her time as Elphaba in Wicked and Meat in We Will Rock You, Ellis is also an extremely successful recording artist, and she finished recording her sixth album, Feels Like Home, just before lockdown. Produced by Nikki & Joe Davison at Auburn Jam Music, Ellis had intended to sell the album as exclusive merchandise at her 2020 live gigs, but when the coronavirus pandemic put an end to her touring plans, she decided to sell the album online. Tonight, with a backdrop of the empty Coliseum as a haunting reminder of the current challeng...
Apollo 13: The Dark Side of The Moon – The Original Theatre Company
REVIEWS

Apollo 13: The Dark Side of The Moon – The Original Theatre Company

I have always been in awe of those committed individuals who would dare to take on the challenge of space travel.  Having been a fan of the movie version, I tuned in with high expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed. It is 50 years this year since the aborted lunar mission took place in April 1970, and so it is fitting that on the anniversary that writer Torben Betts has penned his play using the original transcripts as his guide.  Using the same creative team that gave us the wonderful online plays ‘Birdsong Online’ and ‘Watching Rosie’, the skills needed to create the effects, have clearly been sharpened by practise.  The introduction allows the joining together of two time periods.  We meet Jim Lovell 2020 (Philip Franks) and Fred Haise 2020 (Geoff Aymer) who ...
The Death Of A Hunter – The Finborough Theatre on Scenesaver
REVIEWS

The Death Of A Hunter – The Finborough Theatre on Scenesaver

We know the name Ernest Hemingway from his successful novels, ‘A Farewell To Arms’, ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’, ‘The Sun Also Rises’.  We also know that he committed suicide in 1961, but the reasons behind his suicide were vailed in uncertainty.  This play written in 1977 by controversial German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, known for his plays ‘The Representative’, ‘The Deputy’ and ‘Soldiers’, attempts to examine the last hours before Hemingway’s death to gain a greater understanding of what was going through his mind in those last hours. The Finborough Theatre has a knack for delving into theatrical pieces that have remained undiscovered or have rarely been performed.  The theatre have resurrected other plays written by Hochhuth including ‘Sommer 14 – A Dance of Death’, ‘So...
Lone Women – Tmesis Theatre
REVIEWS

Lone Women – Tmesis Theatre

Lockdown has produced some inventive gems from resourceful artists, often operating in physical isolation and on a shoestring, & these five short films by women based in the North from Tmesis & First Take are treasured fragments, quietly & poetically reminding us of our fragility and humanity in the face of individual, personal struggles and uncertainty. All the pieces are performed as physical theatre pieces with character voice-over monologues and delicately composed scores by Meike Holzmann. Award winning scriptwriter Lizzie Nunnery’s film, It Hurts, deals with the plight of the parent in lockdown, trying to soften the crisis & protect her child from her own needs, frustrations and psychological suffering; a simple mishap, however, brings everything into focus. Po...
Così fan Tutte – Royal Opera House (2019)
London

Così fan Tutte – Royal Opera House (2019)

Jan Philipp Gloger’s production from 2019 starts not at the beginning of the show but rather at the end with a curtain call for a traditional period-piece – perhaps Così – being played out during the overture, after which the four young lovers emerge from the audience into a world of theatrical fantasy orchestrated by Don Alfonso (Johannes Martin Kränzle), who proceeds to put the two young couples – Ferrando (Daniel Behle) and Dorabella (Angela Brower), and Guglielmo (Alessio Arduini) and Fiordiligi (Corinne Winters) – through their respective paces with the assistance of an oft-disguised Despina (Sabina Puértolas). With an emphasis on the artificiality of the plot and the need for strong theatrics to pull it off, we are taken on a time-travelling whistle-stop tour of sets that include...