REVIEWS Archives - Page 91 of 549

Jungle of Emotions: Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre

29Apr

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

North West

Jungle of Emotions: Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre

Day three of the festival opens with a child friendly episode presented by Peng! Impro, where this improv company aims to help young people to be able to express emotions through laughter. There are opportunities for interaction, so the children feel as though they are collaborating in the telling of the story. In the jungle, this German improv company attempt to re-create the sounds and feel of the jungle by asking the audience for ideas of an animal, and something that the animal can do in its spare time. The suggestions were a monkey, and the monkey’s interest was to philosophize! Mary Gerald (the monkey now has a name), is starting a new life a university in a few weeks’ time, but she doesn’t know what to study, her short list consists of philosophy, and engi...

Soundhouse: A New International – Traverse Theatre

29Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Soundhouse: A New International – Traverse Theatre

What a joy this was! Returning to the Traverse for the first time since 2019, 8-piece Glasgow New Romantic band A New International kick up a storm in front of an appreciative packed house performing hits from their first three albums, a generous few from the soon to be released fourth (later this year) and a couple from the mythical fifth. As a newcomer to their music, it was certainly an eye opener! I enjoyed hearing their early back catalogue particularly History Will Be Ours, the wonderfully toe-tapping, Necrapolitan and the hilarious Trump love song New American, but it was their latest songs, particularly The Girls Sing Country Blue, (dedicated to Auntie Rita) and Flicker, Flicker Firelight, which hit me the hardest and show that this band is still very much on an upward trajector...

Stupid Sexy Poem Show – Traverse Theatre

29Apr

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Stupid Sexy Poem Show – Traverse Theatre

Scottish poet Rosie Jo Hunter took the Traverse theatre by storm with her unabashed, sold out, comedic slam-poetry cabaret. Having previously performed the show at the Edinburgh Fringe as well as in London, this sexy, stupid poem show still holds its freshness, ferocity and impulsivity thanks to the vigour and brazenness of Hunter’s performance. The show is almost crass in its delivery, what with the vulgarity of language and strong sexual content discussed throughout. However, that vulgarity is exactly why Hunter’s show is a success. We as the audience build an idea of Hunter’s character and of the show - it being presented as a cheeky, camp, sometimes touching comedy. Just when we think we have this show figured out, Hunter subverts our expectations throu...

26Apr

By Kevin EcclestonNo Comments

North West

R.A.W.D / Loo Prov – Unity Theatre

As a part of the Liverpool Imrov Festival this double bill was opened by RAWD, a company of performers of different ages, genders, backgrounds and abilities. They soon had the audience in raptures of delight with some instant and visual sketches. The show starts with the performers asking for suggestions about a possible title for the show and jobs and places as inspiration for the sketches. Suggestions such as a Police Station, the surface of the moon, a dog walker (which brought spontaneous laughter) and bizarrely an ink squeezer in a squid factory. Interpretations were energetic and spontaneous, and much appreciated by this smallish audience in an intimate small theatre. Lasting for about 30 minutes the show consisted of a number of energetic and highly entertaining sketc...

26Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Ben and Imo – Orange Tree Theatre

This is a superb production in all respects. It tells the story of the collaboration between two dominant characters in the world of music in the early 1950s. Benjamin Britten (Ben) at that time the foremost living British composer and Imogen Holst (Imo), the daughter of the renowned composer Gustav Holst. The play started life as a radio play in 2013 and then was adapted by Mark Ravenhill for the RSC premiering at the Swan Theatre in March 2024. It has now transferred to the small, intimate theatre in the round at the Orange Tree in Richmond. Britten has been given the task of composing, in only 9 months, a new opera to be performed at the Coronation Gala of Queen Elizabeth the Second in 1952. He has chosen for his subject the rather unpromising tale of th...

Living With the Dead – Augustine United Church, Edinburgh

26Apr

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Living With the Dead – Augustine United Church, Edinburgh

Writer, Cossette Bolt, creates a homage to humanity with this script. The sensitive subject (set in a funeral home where the dead are finally prepared for their send-off) is a tribute to the lives each body recently encompassed. Bolt says: This story exists because tragedy exists. [A] staggering number of lives [are] lost as a result of natural disasters, human disasters, and the pandemic. I recognized the normalcy with which people tossed around numbers of dead in the hundreds and thousands but seemed scandalized by smaller-scale tragedies. A young American, who has completed her post-graduate MFA Acting for Stage and Screen at Napier University, Bolt relishes the Edinburgh vibe and creative flow. Paired with the youthful, Not so Nice! theatre company (headed up by Matthew Attwood) Bol...

26Apr

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

The Dice House – St Hilda’s Church Hall

What with cast members in their undies, an unorthodox mix of gore-y horror and Carry-On slapstick, and random acts of murder, the good Lord may have wished to avert his heavenly eyes from the on-stage shenanigans arising in the innocent church hall of St Hilda’s. The Dice House, by Paul Lucas, is a very black comedy in which under the conceit of research, psychiatrist Dr Ratner, pursues ‘Dice Therapy’ – where every decision, from the clothes you eat to the people you choose to be intimate with, is based on the roll of the dice. When a rival psychiatrist, Dr Drabble, attempts to infiltrate the centre to rescue (or kidnap, depending on your point of view) his wife, with the aid of the slightly witless Matthew, all hell quickly breaks loose. What is an intriguing premise, inviting a...

A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here – Traverse Theatre

26Apr

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here – Traverse Theatre

A pink bodybag wriggles and squirms its way across the stage, an opening that will live long in the memory. Dramatic and comedic, it encouraged curiosity at the same time. Eventually our protagonist emerges from the shabby cocoon to take her place at what resembles a teacher’s desk festooned with microphones. This is none other than Josie Dale-Jones, who, frustrated at the poor, nay, terrifying quality and tone of sex education tried to put together a production that might major on the positive aspects of relationships and sex, aimed at families. It was evident this might attract some criticism but what followed from the trolls and keyboard warriors far exceeded her worst nightmares. A petition was launched, garnering 41,000 signatures, leading to the production being cancelled… before any...

Looking For Me Friend: The Music Of Victoria Wood – Traverse Theatre

26Apr

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Looking For Me Friend: The Music Of Victoria Wood – Traverse Theatre

Such is the national treasure status accorded the late great Victoria Wood it’s easy to forget quite how barbed and satirical she was. It’s a great credit to Paulus The Cabaret Geek (with piano accompaniment from the esteemed Michael Roulston) for delivering a hefty reminder that the ‘gentle genius’ smuggled smut and ferreted filth by the barrow load past light entertainment audiences on a regular basis. Concealed behind the cheeky grin and homely asides was a rapier-like wit and a perception regarding peculiarly British sensibilities, but above all, it was FUN. In capitals. Paulus set about the canon with relish, employing his trademark flamboyance and exuberance, interspersing the songs with anecdotes illustrating how his own life was affected and influenced, revisiting many of th...

The Clockmaker’s Daughter – The Renaker Theatre, Z-Arts

25Apr

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

The Clockmaker’s Daughter – The Renaker Theatre, Z-Arts

During the 11th season of MMY Kimberly and Dave Holden are premiering the youth production of Webborn and Finn’s ‘The Clockmaker’s Daughter’, this highly successful musical has had sell out runs and has been nominated for eleven awards to date. Kimberly fell in love with this musical several years ago after hearing her singing students sing ‘A Story of My Own’, her curiosity led her to explore the musical it belonged to, leading to a dream to bring this magnificent new musical to life on stage. After being granted the performing rights by Webborn and Finn through Keddie Scott North, Kimberly’s dream has become a reality and has enabled Manchester audiences to fall in love with this remarkable musical too. Opening night was made spectacular by having Michael Webborn himself in the...