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Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show – Leeds Playhouse

12Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show – Leeds Playhouse

imitating the dog are a company who make things difficult as part of their creative DNA so it’s not much of a surprise they are the first company to try a national tour in the midst of a pandemic. The audience are placed on socially distanced cones outside Leeds Playhouse, sans cover, as are the three strong cast also exposed to the elements playing a gang of ghoulish vigilantes who travel the country righting wrongs. This time they are on the trail of a crooked mayor, a bent chief constable and a dodgy headteacher who are conspiring to build the biggest casino in the UK before pocketing in the profits. Some critics who like to over intellectualise work will no doubt bemoan the slight narrative, and the chance to rub their chin reflectively. The rest of us are just grateful it’s o...

Connecting Voices – Leeds Playhouse

There’s no doubt that after seven months away most theatre lovers were so desperate for any live experience they’d watch pretty much anything – good, bad or indifferent. But that low benchmark was never going to be good enough for Leeds Playhouse and Opera North who have teamed up to create Connecting Voices as their comeback socially distanced mini-season of four very different short pieces. These two powerhouses have carefully crafted stripped down pieces almost devoid of any staging focusing instead on both the safety of the creatives, and the small audiences safely dotted around the Playhouse’s different spaces. It is a smorrebrod of styles that can be enjoyed in one sitting over a few hours that begins with Francis Poulenc’s short opera La Voix Humaine based on Cocteau’s play...

The Hired Man – Hull Truck Theatre Online

Rereading my June 2019 review of The Hired Man, my heart sank when I saw that I’d written: “For reasons I can’t explain, I found my mind wandering in the first half.” That was in the confines of the Hull Truck Theatre, so what chance did I have of stopping my mind from wandering at home, with the kettle and fridge within easy reach (my two favourite things during the coronavirus lockdown)? Well, as 7.30pm strikes, I hit the play button on YouTube. I’m going in …. As the first scene of The Hired Man comes up on my screen, the first thing I become aware of are the subtitles. Usually a pet hate of mine - I find them distracting - I found them very helpful in this case. They clarified much of what was happening and helped me remember more clearly the events as they happ...