Thursday, December 26

REVIEWS

Decades: Stories From The City 1990s/2010s/2020s – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

Decades: Stories From The City 1990s/2010s/2020s – Leeds Playhouse

There is always a hum in any theatre before the lights go down, but tonight as creatives and an audience make that unique communion after months apart it feels like the air of expectation is off the scale as we uncomfortably sit in our masks. Typically, the Playhouse have not made it easy for themselves by offering returning theatre lovers six monologues that attempt to meld events from the seventies right through to lockdown with a potted social history of Leeds For me monologues are biggest of all challenge for the writers, performers and this audience who are just relived to be sat in a dark space at last.  It is like stand up with a script as there is no place to go if goes wrong, no-one to bounce off and if the writing is even marginally off it can be torture for all concer...
Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets – Two Line Productions
REVIEWS

Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets – Two Line Productions

Written in 1935, during the depression, this play was inspired by a real life strike of cab drivers in New York in 1934. On its first performance one critic said it caused, “joyous fervour” amongst the audience. The drivers in the play are overworked and underpaid by their bosses. Their wives and kids are suffering and they are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. They are stuck in a metaphorical traffic jam unable to move forward with their lives. The characters are trapped and looking for a way out. One of the characters says, “The cards is stacked for all of us.” The game they feel is fixed against them and unless they try and change the rules of the game they will be stuck there forever. A ruthless capitalist emphasises the conflict by saying, “If big business went sentime...
Romeo and Juliet – Creation Theatre
REVIEWS

Romeo and Juliet – Creation Theatre

I’ve written previously about the way theatre is having to adapt to the new socially-distanced normal and the creative ways that we’re seeing this being explored across the arts. Romeo and Juliet, presented by Creation Theatre in partnership with Watford Palace Theatre is the third online production I’ve reviewed for North West End UK, and the second of the Bard’s offerings in this format. Here, the virtual audience is able to engage with a unique presentation of this classic tale – first selecting whether they want to be a Capulet or a Montague and then to some extent choosing their own experience. With a mixture of pre-filmed scenes you as an audience member have choices to make throughout the show to see if you can help the star crossed lovers escape their tragic fate. It’s a novel t...
The Secret Garden – Guilford School of Acting
REVIEWS

The Secret Garden – Guilford School of Acting

The Secret Garden is a musical based on the 1911 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This enchanting classic of children's literature is reimagined in brilliant musical style by composer Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. The story follows 11 year old Mary Lennox in the early years of the 20th Century, who, orphaned in India is returned to Yorkshire to live with her embittered, reclusive Uncle Archibald and his invalid son Colin. The estate, Misselthwaite Manor House’s many wonders include a magic garden which beckons the children with haunting melodies and the "Dreamers," spirits from Mary's past who guide her through her new life, dramatizing The Secret Garden's compelling tale of healing, rebirth and reawakening, forgiveness and renewal. ...
The Alternative Eurovision Song Contest – The Showstoppers
REVIEWS

The Alternative Eurovision Song Contest – The Showstoppers

I am a self-confessed Eurovision geek! The annual contest is almost like a religious ceremony to me. So, I jumped at the chance to watch the Alternative Eurovision Song Contest by The Showstoppers. Given that social distancing is still part of our daily lives, the entire production was filmed according to the guidelines. With some of the contests taking part from their bedrooms. Clearly it is a challenge to produce any kind of show when the cast are not all physically in the same location, but The Showstoppers did a wonderful job. The show had a mixture of live and pre-recorded segments, which slotted together brilliantly. A few things here and there would have made it even better - but nothing that would distract from the enjoyment of the show as a whole. I think it’s fair to say...
There Will Be Light – Online Fundraiser
REVIEWS

There Will Be Light – Online Fundraiser

An online concert in support of Acting for Others. Created, produced and hosted by Sarah Drake. During the last traumatic year or so when live theatre has been taken from us there have been many online musical concerts put together by various artists to show us what we have been missing. This one stands up there with the best of them. This show is an international fundraiser in aid of the charity “Acting for others” and gives us a veritable feast of excellent singing from a number of performers from Broadway and the West End. Sarah Drake has put together a great show which is in memory of her father who died in October 2020. She has gathered together a number of her musical theatre colleagues who have contributed towards making this a wonderful evening’s entertainment. Opening the sh...
Short But Sweet: Zoom Edition Liverpool Network Theatre Group
REVIEWS

Short But Sweet: Zoom Edition Liverpool Network Theatre Group

Liverpool Network Theatre, a company of non-professional local creatives, share five short plays in their first Zoom live-stream. In Private Number, written by Steve Bird, William (PJ Murray) and Judy (Liana Jane Bourne) have an awkward first date, but events conspire against them. Although the ending was weak and the premise a little unconvincing, the plot twist was interesting and there could be room for expansion of this piece to find out what happened next. First-time director Gillian Paterson Fox does a respectable job. The Interview, by John Jones, has moments of comic mania as it progresses. You can tell it was written for a couple of male characters, but Katarina Dobrovodska gives a lot of expression to her keen candidate with tall tales, and Karolina Gorska’s reactions are a...
Ross and Rachel – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse Online
REVIEWS

Ross and Rachel – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse Online

What happened after friends ended? When there was no one to tell us that life was gonna be this way? After the will-they-won’t-they became they will? Ross and Rachel was written by James Fritz and isn’t actually about the couple we spent ten years screaming at the television to get together. An unnamed couple, in their 40s who are perceived to be ‘meant-to-be’. However, whilst he is still madly and deeply in love with her, she has doubts and feels that the relationship has been over for years. Then, like in all 90s/early 2000s sitcoms that we know and love, throw in a curveball… a brain tumour. With references to not only the fan-favourite sitcom, but other pop-culture films and shows too, the play is definitely a reflection on modern relationships, with a dark twist that touches on ser...
Deep Blue – Paperwork Theatre
REVIEWS

Deep Blue – Paperwork Theatre

Riley is a woman of a certain age, caught in-between two worlds, above and below the water. Deep Blue is a show about what it means to belong and the importance of human connection when you live alone. Its Twitter tag is #StopLoneliness and the original music is by the Mono LPs. The four-person cast (Danielle McLauren, Tom Wilson, Edalia Day and Holly Phelps) play all the characters and the indie-rock soundtrack in this honest, heartfelt and humorous show from a company who explore theatre, community and workshops across the North West of England. Fully aware of both the changes in climate and the need for humans to have friendships, families, or a transient chat with a stranger on the street, Deep Blue presents Riley as an ordinary woman who creates her own little worlds while she s...
The Sorrows of Satan – Online
REVIEWS

The Sorrows of Satan – Online

The Sorrows of Satan is a musical melodrama filmed in the ballroom in the sumptuous surroundings of a quintessential stately home in the South of England, which, follows a successful run at the Tristan Bates Theatre some time back, now returns digitally, directed by Adam Lenson. The team also behind The Fabulist Fox Sister at Southwark Play House, Luke Bateman and Michael Conley have reimagined the story of Faust in 1920’s London. Geoffrey Tempest played by Luke Bateman is a struggling penniless writer who chances upon a mysterious benefactor in the form of Prince Lucio Rimanez. A tense and provocative mix of comedy, thought provoking and humorous slapstick unravels. This performance is intriguing, sometimes dark and claustrophobic. The set and lighting gave it an authentic at...