REVIEWS Archives - Page 53 of 407

12Jun

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

Chicken – Pyramid Arts Centre

Soup Productions proudly presented an intimate and original piece of Warrington Theatre at the versatile Pyramid Arts Centre. Writer and Director Mike Pirks recently caught my attention with his phenomenal script of ‘Smiler’ in February this year. So, I was thrilled to be asked to return and review his latest creation of ‘Chicken’ alongside ‘The Pride Monologues’. Pirks stated that’s his latest works were the most important stories he had ever told and that he was honoured to have been given the chance to put these pieces together. The show runs during Warrington Pride month and has been chosen as a part of the Culture Warrington’s Pride Programme running for two nights only. Jake Liken is the creative producer for communities at Culture Warrington who felt that this creative piece w...

Being Mr Wickham – Jermyn Street Theatre

11Jun

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

North West

Being Mr Wickham – Jermyn Street Theatre

What makes a seductive storyteller? Is it the charm that derives from easy confidence or perhaps the anxious titillation induced by performed vulnerability? Being Mr Wickham, one ought to learn one way or another. A character as easy to hate on second reading of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as he is tempting to root for in one’s first exposure to the novel, if any version of George Wickham knows one thing, it’s how to arouse a reaction in an audience. This play, itself by Adrian Lukis, who played Wickham in the BBC’s iconic Pride and Prejudice at 38 and now reprises the role in a script of his own genius at 67, works hard to flesh out the irredeemable rake and cast him in new light. Neither dastardly villain nor tragic hero, Lukis’ vision of Wickham on the night of his 60th ...

Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist – Etcetera Theatre

11Jun

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist – Etcetera Theatre

Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist - Etcetera Theatre Mesmeric, painfully expressive, and disturbingly comforting, Jonathan Sidgwick brings Kafka’s final work to life. Caged, centre stage, we find a man who revives himself to tell the tragic tale of the Hunger Artist, a man who devoted his life to his craft, to fasting. We see the hunger artist’s plight at the hands of a disinterested audience, (but also due to his own fixation), as he is forced to downgrade from a solo-travelling act that brought in masses to a sad, sideshow act that viewers see as a hindrance. With outstretched fingers and ever-widening eyes, blooming with the peculiar expression of the tormented hunger artist, you could feel his hunger for express and his appetite for reward, and release. He performed and flaunted th...

Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England – The Lowry

9Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

North West

Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England – The Lowry

There is something faintly absurd about spending loads of money to watch 22 players kick a football round a pitch, and I speak from experience going all the way to Istanbul to watch my team do exactly that. So, I know what footballing passion is all about, but like all fans I was bemused by the bizarre photo of an England fan who stuck a lighted red flare up his backside before the last Euros final at Wembley. Alex Hill was also inspired by the lengths some thick fans will go to try and give the national team a boost, so he created his own totally fictional character Bum-flare Man to look at what happens when football becomes the only thing you have in your life In reality Bum-flare is actually called Billy, and like so many of the tiresome morons who follow England home and away he ...

Suite in Three Keys – Orange Tree Theatre

9Jun

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Suite in Three Keys – Orange Tree Theatre

Comprised of the individual plays, A Song at Twilight, Shadows of the Evening, and Come into the Garden, Maud, the latter two offered as a double bill, this is a hefty theatrical event for both performer and audience. Directed by Tom Littler, the Orange Tree Theatre’s Artistic Director, this production makes thorough use of the theatre’s performance facilities, and even positions one of its actors in the bar during pre-show and interval to serenade audiences in dulcet Italian tones with songs of the plays’ era. Referred to in each script simply as “Felix, a waiter” this Mediterranean songbird, played with charming humility and buoyant grace by Steffan Rizzi, provides the melodic throughline linking each piece to the other. The set, designed by Louie Whitemore is also remarkably consiste...

Scottish Opera: La traviata – Festival Theatre

8Jun

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Scottish Opera: La traviata – Festival Theatre

It is an under-reported fact that the 2001 Baz Luhrman jukebox musical Moulin Rouge is an adaptation of 1853 Verdi opera La Traviata, itself an adaptation of the 1848 novel La Dame aux Camelias, the most famous (and autobiographical) work of Alexandre Dumas Fils (son of the more well-known creator of the Three Musketeers). All three works take place in Paris and, in all three, a famous courtesan (here Hye-Youn Lee as Violetta Valery) with consumption falls in love with an idealistic young man (here Ji-Min Park as Alfredo Germont) with a disapproving father (Giorgio Germont as Phillip Rhodes). She then forsakes all others until convinced to leave him by a father figure, which she does reluctantly with a lie, for an aristocrat (either a Count, a duke, or here Baron Douphol, played by Nichola...

8Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

My Fair Lady – Leeds Playhouse

For many My Fair Lady is the ultimate big screen version of a musical, but famously the vocals of one of the leading actors was overdubbed and the other talked his way through the whole thing. This Leeds Playhouse co-production with Opera North offers a return to the original hit musical that featured a young Julie Andrews, and here both leads are great singers who do full justice to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s classic score packed with showstoppers. My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion that took its inspiration from a Greek myth where a sculptor fell in love with one of his creations. Lerner’s book turns it into a fable where an arrogant phonetician Henry Higgins takes on a bet he can turn any woman into a lady, so he plucks Cockney flower seller Eliza ...

8Jun

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Marie Curie – Charing Cross Theatre

A woman scientist!? The woman scientist. Marie Curie, a new musical written by Seeun Choun and Jongyoon Choi fleshes out the story of a scientific pioneer who put her own body on the line in order to secure both a scientific and feminist legacy. Whether or not this was her intention or merely a by-product of her inexhaustible efforts to unearth more information about radioactivity is not a question this play entirely answers over the course of its approximately hour and forty minute run time. Narrated by Marie (Alisa Davidson) but seen from the hazy imagined perspective of her daughter Irène Curie (Lucy Young) this play is very much concerned with the legacies passed between mothers and daughters and the value of role models. With English lyrics, new musical arrangements and musical dir...

Diva! Live from Hell! – King’s Head Theatre

8Jun

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Diva! Live from Hell! – King’s Head Theatre

Diva: Live from Hell! is a one-man musical performed by the sensational Luke Bayer. If you're anything like me, you might be sceptical about how one person can pull off a musical solo. Well, brace yourself to be engulfed by the flames of hell as you dive into a story that's unbelievably hot and laugh-out-loud funny. Bayer is an absolute menace on stage, seamlessly shifting between characters and embracing the role of an extravagant diva with exceptional ease, all while belting out great and catchy songs. This show is incredibly camp and nothing short of enjoyable from start to finish. The story starts off with a high school musical vibe, complete with catchy songs and energetic dances. It touches on themes of self-discovery and sexuality before spiralling down a devilish path, where the...

7Jun

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Give Us A Sign – Bilton Theatre

Talk about life imitating art! On Thursday evening, as my sister and I tried to follow directions to Bilton Theatre (in between house numbers 17 and 19, Main Road), to watch its amateur dramatic production of Give Us A Sign, I mentally prayed for a sign. Lo and behold, a gentleman appeared carrying a huge sign with the theatre’s details on. Phew! Surely a good omen? Turns out it was. Members of Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society (BADS) tread the boards in the village of Bilton, a short distance, east, from the city of Hull. Taking our seats in this cosy little venue, reached via a narrow lane off the Main Road, we perused the printed programme thoughtfully left on our chairs and waited for curtain up. At 7.30pm sharp the heavy stage curtains parted to reveal a suburban sitting ...