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La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

11Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

It has been some thirty years since there was a new production of this opera at the Met and twenty years since that’s last production with a more recent attempt in 2017 faltering due to financial reasons. Well, the financial challenges remain, as they do for all of us, so it was a treat to take in Director Mariusz Treliński’s dark contemporary re-telling which coming in at almost four and a half hours, including two intervals, is a big production in every sense. Leonora (Lise Davidsen) plans to elope with Alvaro (Brian Jagde) but when her father, the Marquis of Calatrava (Soloman Howard), storms in, Alvaro’s attempts to make peace accidentally results in her father’s death. Leonora flees from her revengeful brother, Carlo (Igor Golovatenko), and whilst Preziosilla (Judit Kutasi) sings a...

Designer Hayley Grindle is determined to make The Bard accessible

10Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Designer Hayley Grindle is determined to make The Bard accessible

Hayley Grindle is one of our brightest and busiest designers but her two current projects couldn’t be more different. She’s been working with tech wizards imitating the dog on their bold reimagining of the Frankenstein legend and is back at Leeds Playhouse conjuring up the madness of Macbeth directed by her long-time collaborator Amy Leach. Hayley and Amy have already created acclaimed reworkings of Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet. This time the duo reunite for a second go at one of Shakespeare’s darkest political dramas. Our Features Editor Paul Clarke caught up with Hayley to talk about the challenges of designing for two very different companies, and how design can draw audiences into even the densest texts. So, what was your inspiration for Frankenstein given it’s a story tha...

La Nina Barro (The Clay Girl) – Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh

10Mar

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

La Nina Barro (The Clay Girl) – Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh

Writer Marta Masse joined the audience at the Roxy tonight, to see her life-affirming poetry brought to life for the first time in almost ten years. It must have been an emotional reconnection with her prose and with the original all female cast on what was International Woman’s Day. Ten years on from its first performance during the Edinburgh Free Fringe in 2014, Elizabeth Sogord, returns as La Nina (the clay girl) and Alexandra Rodes as Woman / mbira player. Relying on very minimal set and costume, or in Sogord’s case no costume at all. From a winding sheet of clay-spattered plastic we see the clay girl squirming and wrestling and moaning, and eventually releasing herself into existence to the weirdly haunting (think ancient music box) sound of the mbira, a mini piano from Zimb...

10Mar

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

The Duchess of Malfi – Globe Theatre

For the Sam Wanamaker’s 10th anniversary season, we are treated to John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi. This beautifully clear and impactful performance modernised the themes to highlight the sexism and misogyny of men in power, lit only by candlelight and at one point plunged into darkness completely. We follow this tale with huge anticipation and energy: Francesca Mills as Duchess lights the stage with incredible generosity and spirit as she takes on this ‘young Widow’ to discover her new love in life. Passionate to find romance herself and not on her brother’s command. Her twin Ferdinand (Oliver Johnstone) shares the deepest connection with her and yet betrays her so suddenly when discovering her pregnancy. His rage from losing control of her sends him mindless and he loses his sanity. The ...

A Giant On The Bridge – Traverse Theatre

10Mar

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

A Giant On The Bridge – Traverse Theatre

Between 2017 and 2021 Glasgow University’s Professor of Criminology & Social Work Fergus McNeill and researcher/artist/linguist and musician Lucy Cathcart Frodén engaged with people involved in the Scottish Criminal Justice system, creating the Distant Voices Community. They wanted to explore crime, punishment and issues associated with re-integrating with ‘normal’ society upon release, going beyond the obvious candidates, interacting with prison officers, governors, probation and social workers and family members of those incarcerated. To quote the Traverse programme notes; ‘Every year in Scotland 10,000 people return home from prison to an uncertain future’. Their findings can be found as ‘learning resources’ on the web (go to Vox Liminus) and six podcasts entitled Currents, Stepping...

10Mar

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Blue – Seven Dials Playhouse

Following its world premiere in Los Angeles in 2023, June Carryl's Blue won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It's not hard to see why. It's March 2021, the world is emerging from the lockdowns of the pandemic and America is reeling from the tumultuous events that followed the 2020 Presidential election and the storming of the Capitol. When a young black motorist is shot dead by Police Officer Boyd Sully during what should have been a routine traffic stop, Detective LaRhonda Parker is called in to investigate. Parker and Sully are old friends, and Sully was also the partner of her now-retired police officer husband. As they banter about old times and start to delve into the events around the killing, shocking truths are gradually revealed that cause a conflicted Parker...

9Mar

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Macbeth – Leeds Playhouse

Mesmerising! This show had my full attention from start to finish, the sinister atmosphere took full control over the full theatre and it’s fair to say the performance was a triumph to the Shakespeare play. Director Amy Leach has taken this traditional tale and put a modern twist on it, the set design was extremely fascinating and a creative tactic for refreshing a well-known story. With real mud and puddles spread across the floor of the stage, beams in positions like trees and the wooden floor that raised to create different dimensions, the audience had no choice but to be immersed within the action. For a small cast the energy was at a high, the first battle was extremely upbeat and the decision to endure the war with a modern tune in the background was really enticing and fresh. ...

8Mar

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

GOOD-BYE – Coronet Theatre

A sizzling, poetic piece from Japanese theatre company, Chiten Theatre, weaves snapshots of Osamu Dazai’s life and literature together. The rhythmically acute cast form characters sat at a bar in Tokyo. As they swig their drinks, they build the tension as Dazai nears his impending suicide. A beautifully choreographed sequence sees the characters popping and pulsing, drawing out “Good bye”, a syllable per person. Slowly, this morphs into the main body of the show, which externalises Dazai’s emotional journey, exploring the notions of living and dying, through the particular nihilistic post-war lens. The cast embody characters from Dazai’s life, his stories, and also his own voice. The narrative, elegant in its simplicity, conveyed an intense longing and desire to understand life a...

Birmingham Royal Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty – The Lowry

8Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Birmingham Royal Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty – The Lowry

As the curtain rises on the opulent set of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s revival of Sir Peter Wright’s classic production in its 40th anniversary year, you wouldn’t suspect that this is a company that has seen swingeing funding cuts following the all-but-bankrupt city council’s arts budget wipeout. Putting their potential money troubles to one side, tonight the team bring a show with the panache that makes little children dream of being ballet dancers – beautiful costumes, grandeur and, of course, superb dancing. Running just shy of three hours including two intervals, The Sleeping Beauty is a demanding ballet of both its dancers and its audience. Many points feel more like vignettes showcasing the technical skill of the company, rather than moving along the narrative. But the troupe ...

8Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Wicked – Birmingham Hippodrome

“There’s No Place Like Brum!” There’s certainly no place Brum for the next few weeks as the international green-faced, broomstick-wielding, hit-stuffed mega-musical drops its house on the stage of the Birmingham Hippodrome which it will be calling no place like home until the 7th April. “Wicked” erupted on Broadway in a flume of green smoke 21 years ago and has been dazzling us with a rainbow of pizzazz ever since. Stemming from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 revisionist exploration of the characters from L.Frank Baum’s 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” itself adapted into the cloyingly sentimental and techo-surrealist 1939 movie starring Judy “Slippers” Garland, “Wicked” has become the mainstay of both West End and Broadway with many an actress donning the Shrek-hued make-up and defyi...