Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 19 of 33

16Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Henry V – Leeds Playhouse

This is not a production for the purists as the traditional opening chorus is ditched in favour of a dying Henry IV handing over the crown to Prince Hal. It is typically challenging rethinking of the traditional text by dramaturg Cordelia Lynn who offers a smartly edited dark version that is a million miles away from the jingoish of Olivier’s technicolour movie version. That propaganda piece focused on Henry as a selfless warrior for a nation and empire in its greatest peril, but Lynn’s king is a conflicted man who reluctantly embraces the relentless brutality displayed by monarchs of that period, and familiar to Shakespeare’s audiences who had often fought in bloody campaigns. This is co-production with Headlong whose artistic director Holly Race Roughan places the uniformly excelle...

15Feb

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Mother Goose – Sheffield Lyceum

“A panto? In February!” was my first reaction to being invited to Mother Goose. But yes, a panto. And what’s more, it was exactly the kind of entertainment we could all use in the current climate. Loosely based on an old children’s story, this production is firmly set in the present day. A high street department store has closed down, and Mother Goose has moved in with her husband and son and the animal menagerie she has taken in. However, they are facing rising energy costs which could leave them homeless… possibly a little on the nose for some, I suspect! What follows is the story of their rescue by Cilla Quack – a goose that lays golden eggs – and their subsequent rise and fall as the good fairy and the evil witch exert their influence on the family. The writing is excellent: Jona...

10Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Blow Down – Leeds Playhouse

It's certainly a first time experience watching a play billed as being about the demolition of massive cooling towers at a Yorkshire Power Station. Garry Lyons, who lived near the massive cooling towers at Ferrybridge Power Station that dominated the landscape around the M62 for 50 years, recorded over 25 hours of interviews with people who worked there - or made a life in their giant shadows. The result is a moving, and often very funny, verbatim play musing on what really happens when a community loses its industrial heartbeat. Act one focuses on the power station's heyday as Matthew Booth's almost stereotypical bluff Yorkshireman recalls the dangers and vast financial rewards of working in a close knit team at the plant. It is a dry and often poignant testimony of what happe...

1Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Peaky Blinders – Hull New Theatre

Period crime drama, Peaky Blinders, wowed TV audiences from 2013 to 2022. And now a Rambert Dance production of the same name, is wowing theatre audiences nationwide. On Tuesday evening, Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby came to Hull New Theatre, and from "curtain up" it was action all the way. The Peaky refers to a popular style of flat cap, and the Blinders is common slang for someone well-dressed and dapper. I spotted quite a few theatregoers sporting a Peaky and very dapper they all looked, too. The unbelievably atmospheric opening stage setting took us straight to the trenches of Flanders, during the First World War, with dramatic scenes from which emerged five young men - alive, but dead inside from the horrors they had witnessed and taken part in. Fast-forw...

<strong>Richard O’Briens Rocky Horror Show – Sheffield Lyceum</strong>

24Jan

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Richard O’Briens Rocky Horror Show – Sheffield Lyceum

It was with growing anti……….. pation I waited for the show to start. With an audience full of sparkly tailcoats and top hats, green surgical gowns, heavy rocker leather jackets and more basques, corsets and suspenders than you can find in Ann Summers, it seemed that this was predominately, no virgin audience, on the opening night of Richard O’Briens Rocky Horror Show at the Sheffield Lyceum, let the shouts outs begin! Having seen the show many, many times before I was wondering if this production would fill me with the amazement my first encounter did, as an innocent 14 year old schoolgirl some 42 years previous! The music teacher; who took our school trip; certainly didn’t do his homework first and was horrified he may lose his job when parents heard about the show. And as for me? I was i...

<strong>Girl from the North Country – Sheffield Lyceum</strong>

18Jan

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Girl from the North Country – Sheffield Lyceum

For Bob Dylan fans this production is a delight. Boldly written and directed by Conor McPherson this powerful production uses Dylan’s back catalogue ranging from 1965 to the present day. With songs such as ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and ‘Make You Feel My Love’ (recently covered my Adele) sitting alongside less obvious choices, Dylan’s music is used not to progress the storyline as in most musical theatre but to give the story an ambience, a mood, a feel. The lyrics are not used to tentatively tie the plot together but instead almost transcend it and have an almost supernatural feel to them. The cast do much to aid this by singing directly to the audience into a microphone, breaking down the 4th wall and giving the audience a real insight into the characters private and internal thoughts and st...

<strong>The Varna International Ballet & Orchestra: Coppélia – Hull New Theatre</strong>

18Jan

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Varna International Ballet & Orchestra: Coppélia – Hull New Theatre

Thank you Hull New Theatre for starting your 2023 theatre programme with one of my favourite genres - ballet. Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Varna International Ballet Company brought Coppélia to the stage, to delight and cheer us on a cold, icy night. Performing in the UK for the first time, Coppélia heralds the start of a week of ballet by this Bulgarian company, who will also perform Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Giselle. The theatre was far from full - maybe ballet fans had opted to buy tickets for the more well-known productions there later in the week. At curtain-up, the stage backdrop looked very muted colour-wise, but it soon became obvious the hues were purposefully chosen so as not to clash with the gloriously colourful costumes worn by all and sundry on stage....

DeathDrop: Back in the Habit – Sheffield Lyceum

11Jan

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

DeathDrop: Back in the Habit – Sheffield Lyceum

Directed by Jesse Jones, created by Christopher D Clegg, written by Bob Evans and brought to the stage by Tuckshop; who have become engrained in the West End, bringing true Drag to the mainstream; and Trafalgar Theatre Productions, DeathDrop – Back in the Habit is the second instalment from Death Drop Cinema Universe (DDCU) proving there is an audience for this madcap drag escapism. Described by its creator as a ‘horror-murder-slasher-religious-comedy’ this production is by no means the usual second-rate sister to its 2020 predecessor. This second instalment may be charmingly and intentionally basic, but it doesn’t DRAG-its-heels and goes to show things improve as they grow! The production is a homage to drag gone by, of panto dames, the roster of Drag legends, queer bars and performanc...

<strong>Standing at the Sky’s Edge – Crucible Theatre</strong>

29Dec

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Standing at the Sky’s Edge – Crucible Theatre

Some books you only ever want to read once, some films do not stand up to the scrutiny of a second watch, and some plays you will try to forget before you even leave the theatre foyer. I reviewed 'Standing at the Sky's Edge' in its original incarnation at the Crucible Theatre back in March 2019, when I had no hesitation in naming it amongst my top five shows of that year. I'm delighted to say that this revival matches the original production in every way, my love affair with this superb production was rekindled and London audiences are in for an invigorating blast from the north when it transfers to the National Theatre early in 2023. Retaining eight of the original cast of nineteen, including the core of the lead performers, allows these actors to revisit and more fully explore their c...

<strong>The Nutcracker – Leeds Grand Theatre</strong>

21Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Nutcracker – Leeds Grand Theatre

Northern Ballet’s festive spectacular is their annual thank you to the city which they call home and has supported them to become a world class company. It’s also had the feel of an onstage office Xmas do where the dancers, creatives, musicians and technical teams really let rip in a production that is always epic in scale, and often gloriously over the top. The Nutcracker with its surreal, dreamy narrative, and Tchaikovsky’s familiar score, is the perfect vehicle as naïve young rich girl Clara is given an introduction into another world by a mysterious magician Drosselmeyer, who gives her a toy nutcracker that in classic fairy tale fashion turns into a handsome prince. Charles Cusick Smith’s massive sets from an opulent country house to a wonderfully realised winter fantasy...