REVIEWS Archives - Page 385 of 458

Jack and the Beanstalk – St Helens Theatre Royal

24Oct

By Anne PritchardNo Comments

North West

Jack and the Beanstalk – St Helens Theatre Royal

Christmas pantomimes at St Helens Theatre Royal are a traditional treat and now half-term pantos are a firm favourite as they coincide with local school holidays; children and families can attend a show and enjoy retro slapstick and sing along to musical chart hits whilst enjoying the dancing and singing on stage. As you walk into St Helens Theatre Royal, it’s rather like stepping back in time. The small, old- fashioned theatre entices theatregoers to buy sweets and ice cream from the kiosk and the corner counter is twinkling with fairy lights from the colourful swords and fairy wands it sells which all the children clamour to buy. The theatre was full, and all eyes were on the stage as youngsters with their parents and grandparents waited for the curtain to rise. When it did, ...

24Oct

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Birdwatching – London Horror Festival

I was pretty excited about the London Horror Festival, because I am a self-confessed horror fanatic. There are various fascinating psychological theories around why people like to feel fear which I’m not qualified to cite here or expand on, but for me it boils down to excitement. Books, plays, films, rollercoasters; it’s all about getting the adrenaline pumping around your body but also knowing that you are, at all times, perfectly safe. Perfectly safe is not how Amy (Karen Barredo), one of the three characters in Birdwatching, would describe her position. An actress of small notoriety having appeared in a few slasher B movies, Amy arrives at a shelter deep in the woods to take on the role of Kate, accompanied by Pete (Arno van Zelst) - cameraman by trade, actor to help a friend – and H...

24Oct

By Donna M DayNo Comments

North West

The Chair – Theatre at the Casa

The Chair, presented by the Bridewell Production Company, is a new play written by Vinny Ferguson and Tony Kelly, based on the aftermath of the Cameo Murders which happened in Liverpool in 1949. Focusing on the experience of Tommy (Ted Grant), a petty criminal and prison barber, the play depicts DCI Balmer (Mike Lockley), a crooked and manipulative senior police officer, using his power to pressure Tommy into breaking the confidentiality that exists in the seat of the prison barber’s chair in order to ensure his preferred suspects, George Kelly and Charlie Connolly (Tony Jefferies) are found guilty of the murders. The play opens with Tommy arguing with his partner, Maggie (Andrea Neary) after being out all night “working”. Exhausted and cagey, it quickly becomes clear that Tommy is hidi...

The Body Remembers – Battersea Arts Centre

24Oct

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

The Body Remembers – Battersea Arts Centre

‘The Body Remembers’ created and performed by Heather Agyepong in collaboration with Fuel, creates a space to view ‘The Mover’ realising and releasing from their trauma. This piece opens a conversation in how the body has memory of trauma where the mind may forget, how the body will create physical responses which may not have any explanation other than the trauma of its experience. Focusing particularly on the experience of Black British women in trauma recovery we watch The Mover express through ‘Authentic Movement’ whilst her shadow follows her lead through a large projector, bold beautiful colours combined with simplistic images and quotes from women playing overhead, which seem planted at just the right moments. Knowing that the Mover is reacting through improvisation seems all the...

24Oct

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

North West

First Time – Unity Theatre

Raw. Funny. Honest. Tonight, we met Nathaniel J Hall in all his glory and left the theatre better for it. Known for his role in Russell T Davies ‘It’s A Sin’ Hall has already established himself as an actor to watch. With First Time he is also establishing himself as a writer to watch. First Time manages to fit jokes, a re-enacted prom, silly string, and a quiz into the running time without it becoming farcical or cheesy; much of it is delivered with the light-hearted naivety of youth, providing a contrast to the sudden crash into the adult world Hall found himself confronted with. Opening up a topic that doesn’t often reach the mainstream warrants recognition. Doing it in a way that connects and engages a wide audience is to be even more commended. When did you last see a mainstr...

24Oct

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

REVIEWS

Blind – London Horror Festival

What is evil? Can it infect a place and its people? And how would you react if you found yourself trapped in that place, in the dark, alone? Blind is a 30-minute immersive experience from Ryots Productions, currently part of the London Horror Festival, that takes us on a ‘found footage’ type story (in this case purely audio rather than visual) of what happens to historian Alice Levine - in town to share the slightly gruesome history of the newly re-opened Butcher Library - when a sudden power cut plunges her into darkness. When a young girl, that Alice presumes is the caretaker’s daughter, comes to keep her company, she shares a chilling ghost story of the library’s original inhabitants and a doll whose blindfold must never be removed. It’s a classic ‘bumps in the night’ tale by E...

One Man Poe Livestream – The Space Online

23Oct

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

One Man Poe Livestream – The Space Online

Written in the 1840’s by Edgar Allan Poe, this quartet of short stories and a poem show off to best effect Poe’s interest in the dark side of human nature. Many writers have been inspired by the works of Poe, who pioneered the genre of ‘horror’, and his work is still as popular today. Artistic Director of Threedumb Theatre, Stephen Smith has taken his passion for gothic horror and the original works of Poe and created a one-person show using an unknown narrator to deliver these authentic Poe tales. Smith is directing and performing all the roles himself. First off is ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, a disturbing look inside the mind of an unnamed narrator who is believed to be insane, but he will try to convince the audience that he is sane, by describing the events that led up to a brutal murder...

The Shark is Broken – Ambassadors Theatre

22Oct

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

The Shark is Broken – Ambassadors Theatre

There are few movies as instantly identifiable by the first few bars of their theme tune. The "Jaws" theme - and the movie - became an iconic hit after the film's release in 1975. The film itself may have been thrilling and horrifying, but the drama that went on behind the scenes was also amazing. Bruce, the titular mechanical star of the film, broke down after salt water corroded his insides. This left the three human stars, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, with nothing to do until the production team could get the shark back up and chomping on the people of Amity Island. This slice of real life has been turned into this wonderfully original production that wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. It's not hard to see why it was such a hit. A...

22Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Flushed – Park Theatre

For many of us, our closest confidantes have been our siblings. From secrets and admissions, including the ones within shared knowledge and the ones deliberately kept hidden from each other, this relationship is equally unique in its love-hate characteristics. In Catherine Cranfield’s play Flushed, we see this contradiction at play through the story of sisters Marnie and Jen. From boy problems and adulthood woes to annoying habits and profound decisions, they rely on each other for better and for worse. Unfolding as a series of unfiltered conversations shared between cubicle walls of public bathrooms, we meet the older sister Marnie (Elizabeth Hammerton) who tries to play by the rules and is working hard to become a self-functioning adult. Her hopes for a fulfilling romantic relationshi...

22Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Sold – Park Theatre

Mary Prince lived an extraordinary life. Born into enslavement in Bermuda in 1788, her life was filled with struggle and pain, but she refused to let it define who she was. Her book ‘The History of Mary Prince’ published in 1831 offers a first-hand account of the brutalities of the slavery regime in the British Caribbean colonies of the time, and forms the source material for Kuumba Nia Arts’ show ‘Sold’. Through theatre, song, music, drumming and dance, we witness Mary’s momentous journey, from childhood to her late 40s, which had an electrifying effect on the abolitionist movement. Directed by Euton Daley and written (and performed) by Amantha Edmead, the show intends to offer a chronological retelling of Mary’s life, tracing her experiences as a young woman of colour trying to come t...