Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 11 of 50

18Sep

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Far Gone – The Crucible Playhouse

Roots Mbili Theatre brought their epic, devastating show ‘Far Gone’ to the Crucible Playhouse this week, and demonstrated the excellence that has awarded them multiple 5* reviews and a world tour which they are currently embarked on. The tale is an acute dissection of a young boy’s corrupted innocence, documenting their traumatic and violent journey from young village boy into child soldier as he is kidnapped and groomed by the Lord’s Resistance Army. A harrowing narrative that meditates on morality, war and masculinity, John Rwothomach’s solo play is visceral and potent. His script is unflinching and bold. Equally is his performance. Rwothomach writhes and contorts faces and figures of the human experience, specifically those occupying Uganda during the late 20th century. The co...

17Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Last Laugh – Alhambra Bradford

Sad clown paradox is actually a syndrome where comedians with early life feelings of deprivation and isolation use an audience as a release so they can remove feelings of suppressed physical rage through getting laughs. Paul Hendy’s ingenious idea to explore this paradox by imagining a meeting of seventies comedy titans Bob Monkhouse, Eric Morecombe and Tommy Cooper in a rundown dressing room as the lights flicker spookily. Trapped together, these troubled and driven funny men engage in a game of comedy one-upmanship as they slowly reveal the demons eating away at all three of them. Along the way Hendy subtly analyses the eternal question of what is funny, and who better to do than three men who dominated primetime TV in very different ways. Cooper was a physical comic who just had t...

12Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Consumed – Leeds Playhouse

Anyone who grew up in a large Irish family like I did knows only too well that every family gathering has the potential to kick off, but thankfully I’ve never experienced anything as grim as this birthday party from hell. Four generations of a Northern Irish family have come together for potty mouthed matriarch Julia’s 90th birthday lunch, presided over by her daughter Gilly who constantly seems on the edge of a mental meltdown. Gilly’s daughter Jenny has flown over from London with her woke daughter Murieannn who was born in England, but all four women have intergenerational trauma that comes out as they really take the gloves off. And there’s another ghost hanging over this feast that offers a delicious twist as the women batter each other emotionally as all their skeletons come...

The Great British Bake Off Musical – Carriageworks Theatre

12Sep

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Great British Bake Off Musical – Carriageworks Theatre

This musical has a slice of action, romance, comedy, tragedy, heartbreak and social diversity, Dean Patrick certainly thought of a story line that would hit close to home for any member of the audience. A show masked as a performance filled with puns and buns, certainly unveiled many more layers as the narrative ran through. The show brought a continued sense of modernity with a touch of tradition, complimenting audiences of all ages, but also giving the Victoria sponge the credit she deserves. With vibrant lighting and warm tones of pastel across the stage lit up delightfully, presenting a sense of togetherness just as the Channel 4 show does, although things got tangled in between the strudel, as a group of regulars the contestants came together as a bunch with many differences joined...

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

11Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

With everything you would expect from a show bearing this iconic name, the Sheffield Lyceum welcomed this touring production of the West End hit with aplomb. With the one and only original Tina Turner herself, at the core of this musicals creation from the first day to its initial opening on Broadway. The audience are riveted to their seats from the get-go with its biographical depiction of Tina Turner’s journey from the challenges from Nutbush to stratospheric super stardom - with its trials and tribulations. It is a story of racism, domestic abuse and abandonment laced with determination, strength, survival and an overriding, soul bearing undeniable talent. Tina Turner herself described the show as turning her poison to medicine – an outpouring. The Book written by Katori Hall with Fr...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Montgomery Theatre

10Sep

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Montgomery Theatre

Splinters Theatre Group took The Montgomery Theatre by storm with their raucous production of iconic local tale Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which has taken the West End and theatre world by storm since its debut at The Crucible in 2017. The earnest, extravagant story tells the tale of 16-year-old Sheffield lad Jamie New, who resists pressures to conform and, despite being out as gay, seeks a new challenge in fulfilling their passion of being seen and heard as a drag queen. The tale has since been turned into a big budget Amazon film, and this production lives up to the hype of such an illustrious modern great. This large talented cast are incredibly well led by their creative leadership team. James and Kate Parkin’s direction is excellent. Transitions are slick, scenes are m...

7Sep

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Void – Hull Truck Theatre

My out-of-this-world experience on Saturday night came courtesy of the fertile imagination of writer Ryan Simons, creator and director of The Void sci fi horror story set in the year 2160. As we theatregoers took our seats, we were faced with a darkened stage setting that bore no resemblance to planet Earth - all bare metal, wood, leather with a central huge “porthole” giving us a tantalising glimpse of outer space, eight million miles from our blue planet. One man sat by this window to other worlds, answering and asking questions of Nova (voiced by Olwen May), an all-seeing AI. Dressed in loose-fitting beige coloured overalls, the one-eyed man, Flint, a disillusioned space ranger, sounded bored with his lot, until a distress call comes through regarding ageing space research ...

3Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Calamity Jane – Alhambra Bradford

When the town drunk picks out the notes of the Deadwood Stage on a banjo in front of the curtain, and the audience without thinking starts singing along, you can see why Calamity Jane has been such a successful old school musical revival Most of the people here when they think of Calamity Jane would be immediately thinking of Doris Day’s rollocking performance in the classic 1953 movie. This warm hearted and often very funny show offers a more folky version as a team of actor/musicians stroll and dance around Matthew Wright’s Golden Garter saloon set playing all the show’s familiar numbers. Rootin’ tootin’ tomboy Calamity Jane lives up to her name causing mayhem everywhere she goes in gold rush town Deadwood shooting her mouth off and telling tall stories much to the disgust of Wild ...

Reception: The Wedding Present Musical – Slung Low Warehouse, Leeds

27Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Reception: The Wedding Present Musical – Slung Low Warehouse, Leeds

If we could travel back to 1985 and tell David Gedge -the inspirational lead singer and songwriter of indie musical darlings The Wedding Present - that forty years later his songs would be used in a musical theatre production, he would have laughed in your face and maybe kicked you in the balls for good measure. Back then the worlds of musical theatre and guitar-based indie rock were so far apart musically as to be on different planets. Gedge freely admits to not even knowing whether he even liked the format when initially approached by Writer/Director Matt Aston. Thankfully his trademark curiosity won out and he engaged with the project, resulting in the World Premiere of ‘Reception - The Wedding Present musical’ at Slung Low Warehouse in the suitably gritty streets of Holbeck, Leeds, the...

20Aug

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

War Horse – Leeds Grand Theatre

For most of us in this country our first exposure to puppets are Mr and Mrs Punch going at it hammer and tongs on a seafront, but War Horse is a reminder that puppetry is an art form that challenges both the practitioners and the audience. There is something incredibly special watching a team of puppeteers moving in perfect synchronicity asking us to believe we are watching a thoroughbred horse in full flow. All theatre is to an extent a suspension of disbelief, but puppetry makes special demands of any audience’s imagination as we are constantly asked to make the inanimate real in our minds. Michael Morpurgo who wrote the novel said the producers ‘must be mad’ to try and stage a story about a horse who is transported from the idyllic Devon countryside to the horrors of the Great War...