Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 3 of 43

The Secret of the Black Spider – Leeds Grand Theatre

29Sep

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Secret of the Black Spider – Leeds Grand Theatre

Opera North opened its 2025–26 season with something quietly radical: the UK premiere of the extended Hamburg version of Dame Judith Weir’s The Secret of the Black Spider, performed not by the mainstage company but by the Opera North Youth Company—soloists, chorus, and orchestra. It was the first time an opera by a female composer had featured on the company’s main stage, and the first time its young performers had opened the season both on stage and in the pit. With the composer in attendance and a warm response from a mixed-age audience, it was a landmark evening in every sense. The opera weaves together a 19th-century gothic novella with the real-life story of a supposed curse that followed the 1980s opening of a royal tomb in Wawel Cathedral, Kraków. Weir’s score and libretto blend ...

26Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Consumed – Sheffield Playhouse

The aptly named play Consumed, written by Karis Kelly won the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2022, is a dark, deliciously humorous yet disturbing drama, set around the kitchen table in Northern Ireland. It is Eileen’s 90th birthday party and her daughter Gilly, granddaughter Jenny and great granddaughter Muireann gather for the first time in three years to celebrate. However, the cracks; long since painfully covered; appear in this intentionally slow burning and powerful script. Expertly written, the intergenerational differences of Northern Irish women is laid bare - with all its historical ‘Troubles’, trauma and repressed family tension. With ‘food’, perception and more than one skeleton in the cupboard, this four performer play has first rate performances that are unnerving from the o...

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Alhambra, Bradford

24Sep

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Alhambra, Bradford

Picture this, utter silence, a dimly lit stage, bulbs of warm light scattered in each corner, a piano centre stage with a pianist lightly tickling the keys as a slow and steady rumble crowds the stage, like thunder across the theatre the music rises from a magnificent orchestra. Perfectly tense, just as you imagine the train from your family home to the other side of the country to be, in a devastating world war. Michael Fentiman really outdid himself with this show, by not only incorporating song dance and acting the three things we watch a play for, but by also having characters and the ensemble play instruments, creating an irresistible atmosphere across Alhambra theatre, where the arm hairs amongst spectators stayed pricked for the whole two hours. Not only that but the careful prec...

Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell – Sheffield Lyceum

24Sep

By Nathan DunnNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell – Sheffield Lyceum

Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell arrived in Sheffield with all the pomp of a bold dance show and all the sincerity of a gripping drama. This piece of theatre is aptly both - a dramatic, human tale of intimate connections won, lost, enjoyed and destroyed. This New Adventures production is an acerbic piece of liquid, visual storytelling. The narrative is compelling, pulling inspiration from author Patrick Hamilton’s (of ‘Rope’ and ‘Gaslight’ fame) 1929 novel ‘The Midnight Bell’. A patient meditation on love, lust and relationships set on the backdrop of the titular Midnight Bell late night drinking spot rooted somewhere betwixt the alleyways of early 20th century London. The work covers all corners of human desire in romantic and sexual relationships. We share the intimate moments...

24Sep

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Pride & Prejudice – Hull Truck Theatre

On Tuesday evening, make-up intact, I took my front row seat at the Hull Truck Theatre to watch a performance of Pride & Prejudice. Nearly three hours later, at the show’s end, I had acquired panda eyes and could have kicked myself for not wearing waterproof mascara. The person responsible for my facial demise? Ben Fensome. In this Jane Austin classic, made extra famous by the TV series starring Colin Firth (who could forget that wet shirt scene), Fensome has a dual role - that of dashing soldier Mr Wickham and ingratiating clergyman, Mr Collins. It’s his portrayal of the latter that caused my tears of mirth. Tall and slim, every move he made in his all-black apparel had the audience in stitches. But it was his rubbery facial expressions that did the damage to my face. Y...

19Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

To Kill a Mockingbird – Leeds Playhouse

Generations of school children have read To Kill a Mockingbird’s tale of racial injustice in 1930s Alabama as past history, but watching citizens in today’s America being arrested without any due process means it has once again become a warning. With his background as the creator of the unashamedly liberal The West Wing, it was obvious Oscar winning writer Aaron Sorkin would bring something new to the theatrical version of Harper Lee’s classic novel. Lee tells the story of a small town lawyer Atticus Finch, who agrees to defend a black man Tom Robinson accused of raping a white woman, much to the disgust of many in the fictional segregated town of Maycomb. The story is told by Finch’s feisty daughter Scout looking back at events that changed her family’s lives forever, and ther...

19Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dancing at Lughnasa – Crucible Theatre

Riveting and far reaching, a masterclass of storytelling. The Sheffield Theatres and Royal Exchange Theatre Production of Dancing at Lughnasa is inspired by its renown writer’s own life and Brian Friel’s powerful play is given an outstanding outing by the new Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Elizabeth Newman. Newman’s vision is crisp, captivating and concise, disregarding sentimentality and instead allowing the audience to witness the societal change on a generation with great intricacy and care. It is harvest time in 1936, rural Donegal, Ireland and we meet the five unmarried Mundy sisters. Their lives are marred with hardship yet laced with unfulfilled and often hidden dreams and in one season their mundane lives are changes irrevocably. Enter Uncle Jack, a clergyman of the...

Last Night of the Proms – Hull City Hall

19Sep

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Last Night of the Proms – Hull City Hall

An alien taking their seat at the Hull City Hall on Thursday evening might possibly have wondered what the tuneless racket was, emanating from the group of musicians on the stage. Of course, we Earthlings knew better; the noisy crew were extremely talented members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra warming up their instruments for the Last Night of the Proms. Yet, at the stroke of 7.30pm, when award-winning conductor Nicolò Umberto Foron raised his baton to bring the noisemakers to order, my goodness, the aforementioned racket turned into music so glorious, it gave me goose pimples on my goose pimples. As is the norm at any concert at this grand venue, the stage is set in the shadow of the magnificent organ - all 5,505 pipes of it. Built by the Hull firm of Forster and Andrew...

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...