REVIEWS Archives - Page 374 of 549

<strong>The Mousetrap – Liverpool Empire</strong>

9Nov

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

The Mousetrap – Liverpool Empire

There's been a murder within the community. Now when you think of murder mystery shows you either get a 3-course meal or your gathered around a Cluedo board wondering if it was Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the knife. But this, however, was a full-scale production at the Liverpool Empire theatre. Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap directed by Ian Talbot OBE and Denise Silvey. A new guest house has opened, and the hosts Mollie Ralston (Joelle Dyson) and Giles Ralston (Laurence Pears) are ready and waiting to welcome their guests. However, all is not as it seems, a murder has been committed by someone in a long coat, light scarf and a velvet hat. Everyone is a suspect. The first guest to arrive is Christopher Wren (Elliot Clay) an architect who loves to cook and find every person...

<strong>Antigone: A Russian play essaying Authoritarianism – Cockpit Theatre</strong>

7Nov

By Akshay RahejaNo Comments

London

Antigone: A Russian play essaying Authoritarianism – Cockpit Theatre

Antigone: Sophocles' Greek tragedy is adapted-rewritten by Evgeniya Palekhova into a compelling two-hander anti-authoritarian debate between the transgressive niece, Antigone and the dictator Creon. The war has ended. Antigone learns that both her brothers are dead. Forced onto opposite sides, they have killed each other in battle. When dictator Creon takes control of the torn and hostile state, he buries one and proclaims the other as a traitor, leaving him to rot in the streets of Thebes. Antigone chooses to bury her brother despite the danger it entails. The director, Ovlyakuli Khodzhakuli is very sensitive to the use of the material in the play. Each property is either destroyed or broken by the end of the play. The continuous smoke and flashing lights appropriately create a post-wa...

<strong>The Haunting of Blaine Manor – Epstein Theatre</strong>

5Nov

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

The Haunting of Blaine Manor – Epstein Theatre

Halloween may have passed, with thoughts turning towards mince pies and Maria Carey, but our ensemble tonight is not quite ready for us to completely escape all things that go bump in the night. Written and directed by award-winning writer Joe O’Byrne, ‘…Blaine Manor’ takes us back to the 1950s, introducing us to renowned American parapsychologist Doctor Roy Earle, (Peter Slater) famous for discrediting hauntings and exposing fake mediums. He has been invited to a séance at the most haunted building in England, but it soon becomes clear that there are more demons lurking than just the ones that Blaine Manor claims to house. As a storm sets in, secrets and lies are ripe for revealing, as well as the manor’s more unearthly inhabitants. The Epstein is an excellent choice for tonight’...

<strong>The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunter Becomes – Leeds Playhouse</strong>

5Nov

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunter Becomes – Leeds Playhouse

It’s hard to think of many pieces of work where actors with disabilities are lead actors and even less so where they have roles that offer them much more. This powerful piece was devised by Australian people with disabilities working with Back to Back Theatre in Geelong. It’s performed by three actors with different intellectual disabilities (the term used in their native land) and is a breath of fresh air as it makes the audience understand them as people with the same hopes, dreams and faults as anyone else as they explore what true equality might look like. Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring and Scott Price have called a public meeting ostensibly to discuss what a civic society might look like, but soon turns into a passionate debate about what it means to be seen as just a disabled ...

<strong>My Neighbour Totoro – Barbican Theatre</strong>

5Nov

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

My Neighbour Totoro – Barbican Theatre

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) latest collaboration with Joe Hisaishi (Composer), Tom Morton-Smith (Adaptor), and Phelim McDermott (Director) who is best known for his work on the Philip Glass operas Akhnaten and Satyagraha, certainly has all the ingredients for that perfect production! The team have adapted one of the world’s most famous animated movies by animator master, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, to create something that is not only entirely fit for the stage, but in doing so have created an act of pure theatrical brilliance. Every minute of the production was magical and at times astonishingly beautiful. For those who are unfamiliar with the 1980’s movie, ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ is set in 1950’s Japan, and features two young sisters, Satsuki (Ami Okumura Jon...

Avocado Presents: Improv – Barons Court Theatre

4Nov

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

Avocado Presents: Improv – Barons Court Theatre

Avocado presents improv started and ended with Hazma Mohsin and Jake Migicovsky eating guacamole and chips. Through the show Jake and Hazma experimented with various different characters. Every time the story ended they rearranged the chairs and started a new story with different characters. Avocado Presents: Improve is a fun way to shake up your Thursday night trip to the pub. At the end of the show the actors also invited the audience to come and hang out with them! Jake and Hazma did have some funny moments and demonstrated that they had good chemistry on stage together. This show has allot of potential and room for further growth. With some more work this show could be hysterical. It would be good to see Jake and Hazma ask the audience for some prompts rather than doing a ...

<strong>A Butcher of Distinction – Barons Court Theatre</strong>

4Nov

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

A Butcher of Distinction – Barons Court Theatre

Who would enjoy a butcher of distinction? Well, I can firmly say that this show is not for vegetarians. The show contains references to animal cruelty, death, sexual assault, suicide and blood (as thankfully we are warned before entering). This play by Rob Hays is chaotically dark and by touching on so many striking dark themes this play is not able to deal with any of these issues with any depth or meaning. The result is a play that successfully shocks its audience at every turn. Connor McCrory plays the bossy twin Hartley whilst his brother Hugo (Joseph Ryan-Hughes) timidly struggles to stand up to him. Hartley and Hugo however are terrified by Teddy (Ethan Reid) the debt collector who comes to collect their late fathers’ debts. Pretty early on it’s clear that Hartley isn’t sta...

<strong>The Time Machine: A Radical Feminist Reworking – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh</strong>

4Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Time Machine: A Radical Feminist Reworking – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Nearing the end of a one-month tour, Feminist Theatre group Jordan and Skinner bring their own take on the H.G. Wells classic tale to Edinburgh’s Traverse No. 1 Stage. On a well-attended opening night, the first priority is to find a seat amongst the predominantly young and female audience. Not easy - squeezing past tightly drawn calves whilst trying not to fall down the cliff of heavily raked seating ultimately, happily, pays dividends. Note to self – come early next time or bring rope! At the start of the play one of the cast asks the audience, ‘if you had a time machine where would you go?’. An interesting question. ‘You would go to visit your favourite painter, or ancient Greece or Rome maybe, you wouldn’t go to the future, it’s going to be sh*t!’. Yes…. well, set against rising ...

<strong>Edinburgh Gang Show 2O22 – Festival Theatre</strong>

4Nov

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Edinburgh Gang Show 2O22 – Festival Theatre

The Edinburgh Gang Show is the annual Scouting and girl-guiding variety show of singing, music-playing, dancing and comedy, which has now been happening since 1932, though Edinburgh's first one was in 1960, with the girls first joining in 1967. Covid has affected the continuity of the Edinburgh Gang Show, and not just in the usual ways the arts and other sectors have seen. Three years are a great deal of time in terms of age groups: the usual five sixths of participants being veterans from previous years and one sixth newbies have been reversed, with 100 members being new and only 20 returning, and only 20% of the Junior gang having even seen a previous year's show. Reviewing the artistic endeavours of minors runs the risk of becoming a real-life, non-comedy version of Alfred Molina's C...

<strong>The Importance of Being Earnest – The Rose Theatre</strong>

4Nov

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

The Importance of Being Earnest – The Rose Theatre

The hilariously classic Oscar Wilde tale, The Importance of Being Earnest, is reimagined in a fresh and contemporary new production at The Rose Theatre in Kingston. The vision for this modernised version of the play is to draw attention to the lives of the often-forgotten black Victorians who were an integral part of society in the 19th century. Oscar Wilde believed that rules are made to be broken and boundaries are designed to be pushed, this current production encapsulating all kinds of exploration including a gender fluid approach to some characters and drag queen Vinegar Strokes playing Lady Bracknell. The story is one of two friends in high society, John ‘Jack’ Worthing, and Algernon ‘Algie’ Moncrieff who each create alter-egos coincidentally named Ernest to escape their tiresome ...