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12Sep

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Every Brilliant Thing – SohoPlace

Every Brilliant Thing is a one-person play that features different actors across its 14-week run. I had the chance to watch Ambika Mod take on this ambitious challenge, guiding us through the life of her character, beginning at the age of seven, when she is first confronted with her mother’s attempted suicide. This is a profoundly moving story that highlights the small joys around us and the little things that can make life worth living. From Club Penguin to the joy of sharing a book with someone and seeing them love it too, the play reminds us of the beauty in seemingly ordinary moments. Although technically a one-woman show, this production cleverly incorporates a great deal of planned audience participation. Each performance sees audience members randomly chosen to read out lines,...

12Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Consumed – Leeds Playhouse

Anyone who grew up in a large Irish family like I did knows only too well that every family gathering has the potential to kick off, but thankfully I’ve never experienced anything as grim as this birthday party from hell. Four generations of a Northern Irish family have come together for potty mouthed matriarch Julia’s 90th birthday lunch, presided over by her daughter Gilly who constantly seems on the edge of a mental meltdown. Gilly’s daughter Jenny has flown over from London with her woke daughter Murieannn who was born in England, but all four women have intergenerational trauma that comes out as they really take the gloves off. And there’s another ghost hanging over this feast that offers a delicious twist as the women batter each other emotionally as all their skeletons come...

The Great British Bake Off Musical – Carriageworks Theatre

12Sep

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Great British Bake Off Musical – Carriageworks Theatre

This musical has a slice of action, romance, comedy, tragedy, heartbreak and social diversity, Dean Patrick certainly thought of a story line that would hit close to home for any member of the audience. A show masked as a performance filled with puns and buns, certainly unveiled many more layers as the narrative ran through. The show brought a continued sense of modernity with a touch of tradition, complimenting audiences of all ages, but also giving the Victoria sponge the credit she deserves. With vibrant lighting and warm tones of pastel across the stage lit up delightfully, presenting a sense of togetherness just as the Channel 4 show does, although things got tangled in between the strudel, as a group of regulars the contestants came together as a bunch with many differences joined...

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

11Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

With everything you would expect from a show bearing this iconic name, the Sheffield Lyceum welcomed this touring production of the West End hit with aplomb. With the one and only original Tina Turner herself, at the core of this musicals creation from the first day to its initial opening on Broadway. The audience are riveted to their seats from the get-go with its biographical depiction of Tina Turner’s journey from the challenges from Nutbush to stratospheric super stardom - with its trials and tribulations. It is a story of racism, domestic abuse and abandonment laced with determination, strength, survival and an overriding, soul bearing undeniable talent. Tina Turner herself described the show as turning her poison to medicine – an outpouring. The Book written by Katori Hall with Fr...

11Sep

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Wallace – Traverse Theatre

Hero. Butcher. Myth. Will the real William Wallace please stand up? This new hip-hop musical examines a giant of Scottish history through three different lenses. Who was he really, and what does that mean for Scotland now? As “Scotsman", Dave Hook recounts the familiar tale, which has inspired generations of Scots as well as a Hollywood blockbuster. His Wallace is simultaneously "just a man standing up for what’s right “, and a heroic colossus, crushing the enemies of freedom with his humongous fists. Manasa Tagika portrays Longshanks as the gangster lord he surely was, oozing status in his blood red fur coat and indoor sunglasses. "I don't think of you much”, he tells us Scots - but he really, really needs us to know that. This was my favourite part of the show but, tellingly, I cou...

Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler – Upstairs at the Gatehouse

11Sep

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler – Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler is a dark comedy play by prestigious writing duo Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. The story takes place in an alternate history, exploring what might have happened had a young Adolf Hitler met trailblazing psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. With her child suffering from bedwetting and nightmares, Klara Hitler (Nesba Crenshaw, who also plays Martha Freud) takes him to Vienna for a consultation with Dr Freud (Jonathan Tafler). Years later, in the early 1900s, Adolf Hitler (Sam Mac) is still plagued by nightmares and once again seeks out Dr Freud in Vienna. The two men develop a strange relationship, acting at once as patient/doctor, artist/patron, employee/employer, and – in typical Freudian fashion – son/father-figure. Owing to the lack of clearly de...

Every Brilliant Thing (with Sue Perkins) – Sohoplace

11Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Every Brilliant Thing (with Sue Perkins) – Sohoplace

‘Every Brilliant Thing’ is a play that makes you feel alive in the deepest sense. Staged in the round at the stunning @sohoplace Theatre, it invites the audience to sit close enough to feel part of the story, the circular setting removing any distance between performer and spectator, turning the theatre into a shared living room where every glance and every laugh travels instantly across the space. This intimacy is more than a design choice, it allows the production to draw everyone into its gentle exploration of joy, grief, and the tiny moments that give life meaning. From the very first words, you sense that what unfolds will not be a typical night at the theatre but a collective experience of listening, feeling, and remembering together. With Sue Perkins at the centre, the evening be...

11Sep

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

The Spongebob Musical – The Brindley

This evening, I find myself visiting the underwater town of Bikini bottom and joining Spongebob and friends on a quest to save the town from a volcano that is threatening to wipe it and them all out. CODYS productions ‘Stars of the future!’ brings the musical that is based on the Nickelodeon series to the Brindley theatre, and we had a great time being transported to another world for a few hours. Directed by Dan Grimes, with musical direction from Emily Woodward and Choreography by Laura Cupit, we are treated to some fabulous songs delivered to a high standard by a super talented cast of young performers, with fun, inventive dance routines and a great storyline that is well directed, full of fun while keeping the suspense running throughout. Spongebob is double cast with Team Kru...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Montgomery Theatre

10Sep

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Montgomery Theatre

Splinters Theatre Group took The Montgomery Theatre by storm with their raucous production of iconic local tale Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which has taken the West End and theatre world by storm since its debut at The Crucible in 2017. The earnest, extravagant story tells the tale of 16-year-old Sheffield lad Jamie New, who resists pressures to conform and, despite being out as gay, seeks a new challenge in fulfilling their passion of being seen and heard as a drag queen. The tale has since been turned into a big budget Amazon film, and this production lives up to the hype of such an illustrious modern great. This large talented cast are incredibly well led by their creative leadership team. James and Kate Parkin’s direction is excellent. Transitions are slick, scenes are m...

Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People – Soho Theatre

10Sep

By Eleanor HallNo Comments

London

Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People – Soho Theatre

Fresh from a run at Edinburgh Fringe at Pleasance, Lorna Rose Treen is an agile one-woman show, consistently humorous and wonderfully well-rounded. Belly laughs are a guarantee at this Diner! Opening with an original song, akin to a Studio Ghibli tune, Treen takes us on a masterclass in audience interaction, perfectly integrated within the show and the narrative. Even where playing with the audience was at its riskiest (with one audience member being asked to read lines for several scenes) Treen did not drop the ball once. The spirit of madness is infused into this show, from a poem underscored by ratatouille soundtrack, to the ridiculously long-limbed trucker, to the pre-show mock menu offering a taste of what’s to come. Each character inhabiting the diner is joined up to the ne...