Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 2 of 53

The Silence of the Lambs – Bradford Alhambra

13Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Silence of the Lambs – Bradford Alhambra

The Silence of the Lambs is one of only three movies to ever win the ‘big five’ Oscars, including golden statuettes for both lead actors, so creating a stage version of such an iconic film was always going to be a risk. It proved to be a gamble that totally paid off as the producers only had the rights to the book by Thomas Harris, so writer Gina Gionfriddo eschewed some of the camper elements of the movie and focused more on back stories to the twisted psychological battles between the main characters. Rookie FBI trainee Clarise Starling was dispatched to an insane system to interview seemingly urbane serial killer Dr Hannibal Lecter as the bureau attempted to track down Buffalo Bill who was on his own killing spree. Gionfriddo cleverly explored the way Starling and Lector dev...

Back in the USSR: Opera North’s Eugene Onegin – Leeds Grand Theatre

13Oct

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Back in the USSR: Opera North’s Eugene Onegin – Leeds Grand Theatre

Tchaikovsky’s life had a habit of imitating his art. In the spring of 1877, while he was sketching an opera based on Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin – starting, so the story goes, with Tatyana’s letter scene – he received a passionate letter from a former student, Antonina Milyukova, declaring her love. Determined not to turn her away as coldly as Onegin does, he married her that summer. It was a disaster, and within weeks he had fled. The story itself is simple enough. Tatyana, a bookish country girl, falls for the aloof Onegin, friend of the poet Lensky, who is engaged to her sister Olga. She pours her heart out in a letter; he hands it back with a lecture. At her name-day party a bored Onegin flirts with Olga, Lensky challenges him to a duel, and Onegin kills his friend. Years la...

It Walks Around the House at Night – Hull Truck Theatre

7Oct

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

It Walks Around the House at Night – Hull Truck Theatre

As if I hadn’t jumped out of my skin enough on Tuesday evening, while watching the ghostly It Walks Around the House at Night, at Hull Truck Theatre, my worst nightmare came true. You see, there was nothing between me, on Row A, and a black, floor-length curtain through which anyone - or anything - could jump out and, shudder, get me. My imagination was running riot. Sure enough, halfway through the scary performance (a ThickSkin production), I heard a rustle nearby and my no-longer-imaginary figure emerged in the pitch dark. I managed to stifle an embarrassing scream - it was a fellow theatregoer popping out, I assume, to spend a penny. Her reappearance a few minutes later confirmed my assumption. Phew! Taking my seat a few minutes before the start, gave me time to peruse the sta...

6Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Mean Girls – Bradford Alhambra

Gangs of teenagers were eagerly posing with the publicity posters outside this historic venue keen to check out the theatrical version of Tina Fey's cult classic movie. It was refreshing to see so many young faces in the audience as some of them might be experiencing the same sort of high school pressures and teen angst that Fey’s witty book full of smart one liners so accurately captured, which was no doubt based on her own experiences. Home schooled Cady had returned from the wilds of Kenya to be plunged into a hormone driven jungle where different packs wander the corridors of an Illinois High School preying on each other. Top of the food chain were the Plastics led by Regina and her two sycophantic sidekicks Gretchen and Karen. Egged on by arty outsiders Damian and Janis, the sch...

Paranormal Activity – Grand Opera House York

30Sep

By Adam CraddockNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Paranormal Activity – Grand Opera House York

Last night I had the pleasure to be invited along to the press night for the UK tour of “Paranormal Activity”, the new play by Levi Holloway inspired by the Paramount Pictures movies. I love a horror play, I think the dim lighting and cold air of a historic theatre is perfectly suited to an unnerving horror experience and Paranormal Activity more than delivers on these expectations. We follow an American expat couple James and Lou, recently moved to London for James’ work, as they deal with some mysterious happenings from an unwelcome spirit in their house. I won’t spoil any major plot points but more generally I have to say the way the supernatural elements were delivered in this production were quite frankly masterful. For me this is the gold standard of horror theatre that I have seen.&...

29Sep

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Jersey Boys – Hull New Theatre

Having seen the musical Jersey Boys several times now, both as a reviewer as well as a paying theatregoer, this recent production at the Hull New Theatre shows just why the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons is still filling theatres, 20 years after it was first staged. The group’s music needs no introduction - hit followed hit with the likes of Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, My Eyes Adored You, Beggin’, Rag Doll and many more. And on Monday night in Hull, we in the full-ish theatre were treated to all these songs with plenty of their other hits thrown in. Classed as a “musical biography”, we were not only treated to the most wonderful music and singing, but also to the story of where it all began - in Noo Joisey, oh sorry, got carried away there, I mean Ne...

A Brief Case of Crazy – Hull Truck Theatre

18Sep

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Brief Case of Crazy – Hull Truck Theatre

On Thursday evening, I sat for an hour at the Hull Truck Theatre, watching three performers who never uttered one word - and I laughed from start to finish. The three - writer, director and producer Rowan Armitt-Brewster as Thomas, Samuel Cunningham as Simon and Lennie Longworth as Daisy - mimed all the way through a production of A Brief Case of Crazy; I never knew miming could be so energetic. Their shenanigans took place in the theatre’s small Godber Studio amidst a stage setting featuring a large orange filing cabinet, orange seating on wheels, a static painting of colourful buildings on the right, plus a huge round light centre stage which I took to be a railway tunnel, as a lot of the action takes place in and around what could be the Tube (that’s how I saw it, anyway). Not for...

18Sep

By Natalia PrucnalNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Mamma Mia! – Sheffield Lyceum Theatre

Take a chance on the fantastic touring production of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ ‘Mamma Mia!’, which features, what I would argue to be, the most phenomenal vocal talent I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live this year. Under Phyllida Lloyd’s watchful direction, this is certainly a show you shouldn’t let slip through your fingers! Mamma Mia! is set on a Greek island and follows Sophie Sheridan and her mother Donna as they prepare for Sophie’s wedding to Sky, with a soundtrack based on ABBA. What Donna doesn’t yet know is that, in Sophie’s desire to find out her father’s identity, she invites 3 of Donna’s lovers from years ago to her special day. Will this end in a long-lost love being reignited, or a shipwreck, when all is said and done? Jenn Griffin as Donna Sheridan was certai...

17Sep

By Adam CraddockNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Fences – Leeds Playhouse

Last night I had the delight of being invited along to the wonderful Leeds Playhouse to review the press night performance of “Fences”, a play by August Wilson directed by the brilliant Daniel Bailey. Fences is a brilliantly real story. Set in 1957 we follow the character of Troy Marxson and his family in a changing world. We see the ups and downs for the family, from Troy receiving a promotion to his infidelity getting discovered and all the emotional twists and turns in between. Photo: Tyler Fayose Ray Fearon leads the cast as Troy Marxson. Fearon is phenomenal in this role. He is wonderfully real, with real emotions manifesting themselves in real ways. He had just a touch of menace to his portrayal but completely appropriate for a father in this period. The monologues Fearon...

The Ballad of Johnny & June – Leeds Grand Theatre

16Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Ballad of Johnny & June – Leeds Grand Theatre

The Man in Black. Very few artists are instantly identified by a simple description, but country legend Johnny Cash was one of that select group. Given the quality of his back catalogue The Man in Black was probably long overdue for a jukebox musical, so it came as no surprise that Jersey Boys director Des McAnuff was behind this show. Like that smash hit, this was a warts and all tale of Johnny’s rock and roll lifestyle where his substance abuse masks the pain of losing his beloved brother, and his tempestuous marriage to country royalty June Carter. It’s all narrated onstage by their son John Carter Cash who noted that like all fairytales there was both light and plenty of darkness as Johnny and June battled their own demons. Whilst we didn’t really learn anything new abou...