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24May

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Come Laugh With Us – 53two

The audience tonight were treated to six eclectic short plays as part of an evening advertised as “a brand-new comedy night, written by women, for women” but ultimately all the plays touched on universal themes that transcend gender. All the plays were entertaining, some were educational, and introduced female issues that some, including me, were shamefully unaware. It was Päi Productions, a female-led Northern production company, first theatre production and it was a triumph. Comedian Soph Galustian got the audience warmed up with some good jokes and as a fellow Stopfordian (i.e. someone from Stockport) I definitely recognised her comments about the town. The first play Oh God by Chloe Mclaughlin, was a monologue told with entertaining verve by Kelsea Knox. There was a touch of F...

24May

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

Absent Friends – OSO Arts Centre

When you think of an Alan Ayckbourn play, a tragi-comedy set at a tea party, at a fringe venue overlooking a pond, you set yourself up for a lovely evening of theatre. And the theatre was indeed lovely, a beautiful exterior with an intimate performance space, but the venue is about the only thing that the show got right. Diana (Polly Smith) invites friends over for a tea party, after their long-lost friend, Colin Thomas Willshire), is supposedly grieving the death of his fiance. Tension is evident between and within the couples; Evelyn (Liv Koplick) has been sleeping with Diana’s husband, Paul (Eoin Lynch). Evelyn’s husband, John (Kieran Seabrook-France) is aware of this but doesn’t say anything; he is in business with Paul. Marge (Bridget Lambert) unsuccessfully attempts to maintain th...

24May

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

North West

Private Lives – Cheadle Players

Amanda and Elyot have been divorced for five years. Now recently remarried… to other people… the play opens on the first night of their honeymoons as they discover that they have by chance booked adjacent rooms at the same hotel in the north of France. What follows is an excellent study into human nature, love and relationships, with a healthy dose of gender politics that still resonates now, despite having been written in 1930. It is very funny, which you would expect from writer Noel Coward. However, director David Burns has also managed to tease out moments of introspection, and almost vulnerability, which gave the exuberant characters a much greater depth of personality than I expected. The action was beautifully framed by the simple but elegant set, also designed by Burns, which...

24May

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Wish You Were Dead – The Lowry

The line between amateur and professional theatre is a lot finer than many people realise. Sometimes it is the best am dram performances that remind one of this fact. Other times it is pro productions that feel second best. Wish You Were Dead is, sadly, an example of the latter. This isn't the first of Peter James' bestselling Roy Grace stories to be adapted for the stage but, if the formula has worked well previously, it doesn't quite deliver here. The show is very heavy on exposition, very light on character development. There are a fair few plot points and devices which would have probably been given ample time to develop in a novel but which feel thrown away, redundant or downright confusing in a two hour stage production. These problems are then compounded by some lower grade...

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – The Alexandra, Birmingham

24May

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – The Alexandra, Birmingham

Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, this stunning National Theatre production of The Ocean at the End of the Lane arrives in Birmingham this week. Returning to visit a place from his childhood, the unnamed man finds a familiar face. As he talks to Old Mrs Hempstock, he starts to remember long forgotten and buried memories. Along with him, you are transported into his world as a 12-year-old, a world that is as familiar as it is fantastical. There are strong performances throughout from the main characters and the ensemble. The ensemble is a large part of this production, they take the incidental roles, bring creatures to life, create the atmosphere with their movement and interaction with the lead characters and even move the pieces of set. Keith Ogikvy portrayed the confusion and d...

24May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Peaky Blinders – Birmingham Hippodrome

Ballet Rambert play a Peaky Blinder Full Disclosure: I’ve never seen the TV show “Peaky Blinders” Fuller Disclosure: After this stunning, definitive version I don’t want to. With all the visceral violence of its leading characters, this ballet stomps into town, kicks open the door and makes itself at home before you can even say, “Come in.” It throws us against the wall, blows smoke in our face and threatens to rob us blind - and we love. As any Brummie worth their pork scratchings will tell you, Stephen Knight’s TV show was wrought in the Midlands and forged in the land which once produced half the world’s consumption of iron products. The ballet starts with anvils and chains and literal sparks flying as our anti-heroes emerge battered, bruised and bewildered from the fetid tr...

Best of Enemies – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

24May

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Best of Enemies – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

The latest National Theatre Live production arrives at the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse on Sunday 28th May and it’s a real political powerhouse, with stunning central performances from two superb actors at the top of their game. ‘Best of Enemies’ comes from the pen of James Graham, the prolific talent behind This House, Ink and Labour of Love, productions which manage to dramatise recent political British history in an entertaining and illuminating manner. Mining a similar seam to Peter Morgan in the Netflix smash ‘The Crown’, Graham takes real political events (Lib/Lab pact, Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of The Sun newspaper) and turns tinder dry history into unmissable drama. For his most recent success, filmed at the Noel Coward Theatre early in 2023, Graham has crossed the Atlantic and ...

23May

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

We need YOU at Edinburgh Fringe

It is that time of year again and Edinburgh Fringe is fast approaching playing across the Scottish capital from the 4th to the 28th August with the promise of 1000’s of shows to see at the most famous celebration of theatre anywhere in the world. Last year our team of reviewers who are based in the city or travelled up from parts of the UK to see shows for us managed to cover an impressive number of shows, but that was a fraction of the 3,334 shows performed. North West End UK are looking to make substantial additions to our team for the 2023 Fringe and it could be you! We are looking for people who love theatre based either in Edinburgh or who are travelling to Fringe this year. Whilst there is no minimum number of fringe shows we ask you to review, we have a minimum of 4 shows we a...

Witness for the Prosecution – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

23May

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

Witness for the Prosecution – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Director Mike Shaw has delighted us with his production of ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ a play that has been adapted from Agatha Christie’s 1925 short story "Traitor's Hands". Shaw is no stranger to directing some of Agatha Christie’s having directed at least three others previously as well as other whodunnit and murder mysteries. I have not seen any of Agatha Christie’s greats, so I was entering the theatre as a novice and had no expectations of the play itself. The creative team have done a magnificent job on the staging as the set is that of an authentic court room creating the atmosphere of being in the chambers itself. It’s the atmosphere that they have created that makes this a very unique experience; the echoes of footsteps outside the chamber and the grandeur of the Old Bail...

23May

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

The Way Old Friends Do – The Lowry

"The Way Old Friends Do," written by Ian Hallard, is an engaging, light-hearted comedy that playfully straddles the line between homage to iconic pop band ABBA and an exploration of significant societal themes. Balancing the frivolity of a tribute band with weightier undertones of male friendship, homophobia, and familial relationships, the play invites audiences to a narrative filled with laughter and introspection. The story pivots around Peter (played by the writer; Ian Hallard), a middle-aged former librarian and ABBA superfan who reunites with his old school friend, Edward (James Bradshaw). Their coincidental reunion leads them to form half of a gender-reversed ABBA tribute show, alongside the prim Mrs. Campbell (Triyé Peterside) and the endearingly anxious Jodie (Rose Shalloo). Th...