REVIEWS Archives - Page 356 of 415

Saucy Jacks and the Space Vixens – TriBeCa Manchester

7Sep

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Saucy Jacks and the Space Vixens – TriBeCa Manchester

In the great fringe tradition, Saucy Jacks and the Space Vixens begins before you even enter Manchester’s TriBeCa venue. An American diner waitress takes the tickets, a moody cabaret boss is sat in the corner and the club acts are cleaning tables and interacting with the audience members, even sending voice messages using peoples’ phones. A delay to press night was another chance for improv as one of the cast ushered the audience back upstairs, declaring “some diva isn’t ready”. But if the production feels haphazard when you arrive, the quality of the material and performances soon convince you otherwise. The show isn’t new. After premiering in Edinburgh in 1995, Saucy Jacks has been staged by both amateur and professional groups - on and off - ever since. The overarching theme isn’t gr...

Dear Elizabeth – The Gate @ Theatro Technis

7Sep

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Dear Elizabeth – The Gate @ Theatro Technis

Dear Elizabeth (written by Sarah Ruhl) is an exploration of the deep yet complicated friendship between American poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Ruhl’s script is a vast selection of the letters the two wrote to each other over several decades, and each night a fresh pair of unprepared actors arrive to take on the roles of Bishop and Lowell, unaware of what they’ll be performing. This interesting if not risky concept means that each audience will have a somewhat different experience, and while the letters are funny and searingly honest there wasn’t enough there for me to make up for the lack of characterisation. I found it frustrating being offered a window into the lives of two fascinating people but not being able to dig deeper into their personalities and motivations. Tha...

7Sep

By Alison BainesNo Comments

North West

Toxic – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Suicide is a perennially important topic and one that has to be approached with care, compassion and tact. This was the subject of Toxic; no easy task to take on. As part of Manchester Fringe festival, Toxic, at The Altringham Garrick, is a story that follows two best friends and the circumstances which have caused them to spiral. Andy discovers his husband has been having an affair. Stuck in a soul-crushing job, his lifejacket of love was the only thing keeping him afloat. His best friend James is a man’s man who uses gags to disguise his vulnerability. The writer, Dan Lovatt, explores toxic masculinity, with each character clearly defining the traits of men you recognise from your own life. As a woman, the pressures upon men within a toxic society can be alien, but the piece does w...

Act Your Age Writing Festival – Hope Mill Theatre

7Sep

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Act Your Age Writing Festival – Hope Mill Theatre

Douglas Adams wrote, ‘The main thing that flying requires is the ability to throw yourself at the ground and miss.’ Trying to fly was a theme that ran through the three plays on show on the final night of this ‘Act Your Age’ new writing season hosted by Hope Mill Theatre. All the plays had characters that were mostly aged over 40 and were performed as rehearsed reading radio plays. In the play Birdman by Wendy Storer a chicken farmer and part time inventor, called Richard Head, known as Dick (Steve Titley), wants to fly. He thinks he can help solve the environmental crisis by inventing a way for humans to be like birds. Using chicken feathers and a Heath Robinson style contraption of skipping ropes and wood he plans to take to the skies. His wife, who is enjoying French lessons with ...

7Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Looking Good Dead – Leeds Grand Theatre

When crime authors like Ian Rankin and Val McDermid sell squillions of books it seems odd producers insist on sending out creaky old stage versions of novels written in the middle of the last century. So, thank God for Peter James who is another of those crime superstars - selling 21 million books of his Roy Grace novels worldwide - who has worked out there is an appetite for stage versions featuring the troubled south coast detective. This time Grace is investigating a couple of bizarre murders that seem to be linked to the suburban Bryce family. It all starts when Father Tom brings home a memory stick he says he found on a train, which proves to contain something gruesome that puts his wife Kellie and teenage son Max in danger, and it’s up to Grace to solve it. James acts as pr...

An Evening without Kate Bush – Liverpool Theatre Festival

7Sep

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

An Evening without Kate Bush – Liverpool Theatre Festival

Before there was Ga Ga, Bjork or Sia, there was Kate Bush. Considered by some as genius, by others as just plain weird, Bush has entertained and bemused for some five decades with her otherworldly vocals and lashings of theatrical flair. Tonight, she’s not here, but we are. Created by Sarah-Louise Young- who has cut her comedic chops with stints in Fascinating Aïda, and the award-winning musical improv troupe The Showstoppers- and Russell Lucas, ‘An Evening Without…” celebrates not just the music but the loyal and devoted fans who have steadfastly followed their idol for years. Describing this show as merely a ‘tribute act’ would do a massive injustice to Young’s sensational performance. Whilst she modestly brushes away any ambition to sound precisely like Bush, (‘who cou...

Electric Dreams – Liverpool Theatre Festival

6Sep

By Donna M DayNo Comments

North West

Electric Dreams – Liverpool Theatre Festival

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Shakespeare’s classic tale of love and longing set in a magical forest overrun by mischievous fairies. Every summer several companies around the country stage a version, usually promising their own unique twist on it, but rarely managing to do anything that hasn’t been done countless times before. Enter Electric Dreams, a 1980s themed jukebox musical version, under the artistic direction of Kate Allerston and artistic and musical direction of Chris Bastock, creating a truly refreshing piece of Shakespearean theatre which is a colourful and fun piece to welcome autumn in the spectacular grounds of Liverpool’s Bombed Out Church. Opening with a full cast performance of We Built This City, a solid wall of trench coats and sunglasses keeps the bright colour...

6Sep

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Leaving Vietnam – The Kings Arms

'A Bright and Shining Lie' was how writer Neil Sheehan referred to the forty-year involvement of America in the conflict in Vietnam, and this view has formed the basis of a new one man show by Richard Vergette, premiered at the Kings Arms, Salford for the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival over two consecutive nights. Vergette creates the character of Jimmy Vandenberg, an ageing mechanic in a decaying suburb of Detroit, who fixes classic automobiles following his retirement from the local Ford factory in Dearborn. Jimmy is bitter with the world, a bitterness that has its roots in his decision as a 21-year-old to enlist as a US Marine and fight for his country in Vietnam, the scenes he witnessed there having a marked effect on the course of the rest of his life. Vergette is alone onstage...

Everyone’s Talking About Musicals – Liverpool Theatre Festival

5Sep

By Hannah WildeNo Comments

North West

Everyone’s Talking About Musicals – Liverpool Theatre Festival

If, like me, you’re mad about musicals, “Everyone’s Talking About Musicals” is the perfect antidote to the humdrum of everyday life, a feel-good elixir that lets you escape reality and become submerged in the wonderful world of musicals - if only for a brief interlude. Produced by Pearson Productions & Curtis Productions, this show is the second of 16 specifically curated shows that make up this year’s second annual Liverpool Theatre Festival. Designed to kick off the city’s autumnal live entertainment calendar (1st - 12th September 2021), this celebration of the regional arts was first put on in 2020 as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year’s offering was a 9-day festival of drama, comedy, musical theatre, opera and cabaret designed to give the stagnant performin...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Lowry

5Sep

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Lowry

His psychometric test might say he’s destined for life behind the wheel of a forklift truck but Jamie New harbours a secret wish - to be a drag queen. Welcome to the hottest ticket in town, as Everybody’s Talking About Jamie opens to a packed house at Salford’s Lowry, the first stop of the UK tour and ahead of the highly anticipated movie adaptation. Based on the real-life story of Jamie Campbell, from Jenny Popplewell’s 2011 documentary ‘Jamie: Drag Queen at 16’, it’s a tried and tested ‘coming of age’ tale that we’ve seen in many other guises – Billy Elliot; Our House; Hairspray to name a few. Here we swap ballet shoes for sequins as we follow 16year old Jamie who lives with his single mum, living hand to mouth and attempting to beat the odds despite jeers and bullying from clas...