REVIEWS Archives - Page 40 of 406

Blackstock Market & Hot Water Comedy Club, Liverpool

27Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Blackstock Market & Hot Water Comedy Club, Liverpool

There’s a new destination for entertainment, culture, and connection in the heart of Liverpool: welcome to Blackstock Market. Many people will be familiar with the story of Hot Water Comedy Club which, following its creation in a nightclub almost fourteen years ago, grew into one of the most followed comedy clubs in the world, and it is from the seeds of that success story that Blackstock Market has evolved as a community-built venture bringing together entertainment, culture, and culinary excellence in one dynamic space. With an emphasis on community and a commitment to local employment, the goal is to nurture and showcase local talent and business through partnership and serve up culinary delights and comedic brilliance whilst celebrating the city’s strong musical heritage in paral...

27Jul

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Afrique en Cirque – Southbank Centre

"Afrique en Cirque," hailing from Guinea and making its debut in London, is a jaw-dropping riot of flexibility, tradition, and fun. With Guinean culture as a vibrant tapestry, the evening is a lively mix of thrilling circus acts, music, dance, and scenes from rural life. If you've ever thought your yoga class was tough, think again. For 90 minutes straight, the performers' flexibility and athleticism are on full display, making even the most dedicated yogis in the audience flinch at their spine-bending, gravity-defying feats. The acts flow one after another—high-flying gymnastics, balancing, juggling, and mind-boggling contortion—peppered with clowning bits and audience participation that are quickly to melt any hardened London little heart. The whole crew deserves a mention—from the...

27Jul

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

Macbeth – Shakespeare North Playhouse

The Scottish play is Shakespeare’s shortest and most performed play. A GCSE text, it’s popular with schools and this one hour edited version is just right for those discovering it for the first time. It has all the ‘bloody’ plot and supernatural intrigue but of course less dialogue. Because it’s such a dramatic piece with murders, witchcraft and treachery, it works best if presented in a stylized way and certainly A Place for Us gives us plenty of style and movement. We open with a pounding dramatic soundscape which continues to enhance the production throughout. Chris Bastock's atmospheric and riveting design is perhaps the star of the show enriching the piece with intensity and power. Kate Allerston’s direction is physical, energetic and slick with a mixed company of ad...

My Last Two Brain Cells – King’s Arms, Salford

27Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

My Last Two Brain Cells – King’s Arms, Salford

One of my favourite cartoons in The Beano was a strip called The Numskulls. They were a team of human-like technicians living in the brain of an unnamed man. This energetic, extremely fun, and diverting show takes that concept and introduces us to a couple of brain cells inside the mind of a man called Gary, who unfortunately is dying, and they have to save him. Brain cell 64,928,460,784, who is fortunately known simply as Clive (Joe Pike), is the nerdy, strait-laced brain cell while his counterpart, brain cell number 12 (Tom Hazelden), is the more out-going, ebullient, and entertaining one. This is a common comic setup, think the Odd Couple, Peep Show, and many others but the sheer energy of these two performers and their playfulness help to make this situation extremely entertaining. ...

Marigold Lately: Dirty Old Town – The King’s Arms, Salford

25Jul

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Marigold Lately: Dirty Old Town – The King’s Arms, Salford

In the upstairs studio of the King’s Arms, a small tornado named Marigold is being unleashed onstage. At first glance, Marigold (the brainchild of Mikayla Jane Durkan) looks somewhat unassuming, like a librarian who’s wandered into the wrong pub. Then the first F-bomb drops and we’re launched into a frenzy of Spitfire-like energy as Marigold tears chunks out of the woes of society, politics and misogyny - as if our ‘librarian’ has befriended the local biker gang, downed a bottle of sherry and wrestled the spotlight from an open-mic night folk guitarist that only exists in her head. Tonight is a surreal and slightly disorientating blend of story-telling, singing and stand-up, although Marigold stresses repeatedly that she is very much not funny. Non-sequiturs pile up alongsi...

The Wedding Singer – The Bridewell Theatre

25Jul

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

The Wedding Singer – The Bridewell Theatre

The Wedding Singer is from the book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy revived for the musical stage by Stuart James. Its 1985 in New Jersey, it is retro and audiences will be familiar with the film version. It features the story of Robbie Joe McWilliam a wedding singer, and with his band he forms part of the ‘experience’ many couples look forward to, the happiest day of their life, their wedding. However, his own relationship is not that straight forward, his true love Linda Heather Daniel leaves him jilted at the altar. Robbie meets Julia Abbie Minnock a waitress who consoles him and supports him to get through his rejection and encourages him to overcome his struggles with love. Julia on the other hand is set to be married to Glen, Toby Chapman a hard talking Wall Street sales shark wh...

The Importance of Being Earnest – Speke Hall

25Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Importance of Being Earnest – Speke Hall

The challenge of Oscar Wilde is not in the words but ensuring the performance does them justice. There were no such fears with director and founding member Mark Hayward’s laugh-out loud production which delights from the off. As butler Lane (Hannah Pryal) prepares tea at the London home of dandy Algernon Moncrief (James Alston) there is a hint of the fun and frolics to follow when his friend John Worthing (Harry Drummond) arrives, explaining that when he tires of life in the country looking after his teenage ward, he escapes to enjoy the high life of the city under the guise of seeing his wayward brother, ‘Ernest’. Algernon, in turn, regales him with his exploits of escaping the city in reverse fashion. Algernon’s aunt, Lady Bracknell (Madeline Hatt), arrives with her daughter, Gwendole...

The Things We Think About & All Cops are ________, The Fitzgerald

25Jul

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

The Things We Think About & All Cops are ________, The Fitzgerald

Deciding the order of your performance by a random spinning wheel or creating part of your costume by mid-show balloon modelling are certainly novel ways of spicing up a theatre show. And in tonight’s double bill that’s exactly what we get, as Break Up Theatre present two intriguing shows. The first is a double act performed and written by Amber Hainge-Cox and Michael Deacon with the premise of exploring everyday thoughts. Each take it in turn to perform the 40 mini-monologues that are selected as the wheel spins and it is at the very least an impressive feat of memory, with the actors delivering each thought with confidence. The monologues are cleverly genderless to work for whichever actor has to deliver them. Some are absurd, some are single lines that trigger laughter at their ab...

25Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Bangers – Arcola Theatre

“A lyrical love letter to UK garage,” Bangers is a mixed bag mix tape of bright futures and crushed dreams. Under the neon glow of Laura Howard’s chilled/chilly lighting design, the Arcola Theatre is transformed into a concert venue. DJ Tanya-Loretta Dee cues up tracks under an industrial scaffold as audiences file into the space, meander across the stage’s set of club speakers, and make their way to their assigned seats. There’s a strange uneasiness to the arrangement of the space which places a playing stage not above its audience but in the arena pit of the small Hackney theatre. Very much a North London storytelling theatre, and despite its ushering staff’s best efforts the atmosphere cultivated in the room is not that of bouncer patrolled nightclub where the music is booming and th...

25Jul

By Amelia PhillpottsNo Comments

North West

NeuroChatter – The Fitzgerald

Three personalities, one body, one actress, one act. One great performance. Written and performed by Sara Harvey is a one woman show following three personalities all inhabiting one body, all battling for control. Along with the unnamed Host of the body, broken by an undisclosed previous trauma, alters Mike and Elliott constantly bicker. Mike acts as the egotistical intellectual, attempting to use psychological academia to understand the three’s collective situation. Elliott is the complete opposite, as the foul-mouthed artist, who leads with their heart and prioritises emotional freedom. As the show develops, the individual relationships between the three personalities grow, revealing each character’s main motivation to help Host in the best way they know how. Despite the deeply tragic st...