Latest Articles - Page 4 of 435

9May

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Spirited Away – London Coliseum

Faithfully based on the 2001 legendary animated film “Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away”, this Ghibli-backed stage production is a big bet that sometimes falls a bit short but will still delight most Miyazaki fans. Young Chihiro and her parents stumble upon a mysterious, deserted theme park. After her parents devour a seemingly abandoned food stall, they turn into pigs. Spirits appear and a young boy named Haku reveals to Chihiro that the park is actually a spa resort for supernatural beings tired from their experiences in the earthly realm. To save her parents from slaughter, she must now join the spirit world and get a job at the bathhouse. Fresh off its 2022 Tokyo opening and extended run throughout Japan, this adaptation by RSC’s honorary associate director, John Caird, is the fi...

9May

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

Nell Gwynn – Neston Civic Hall

A strong cast and brilliant costumes make this a funny, colourful and very watchable show. The historical character of Nell Gwynn is famous for being an orange-seller, an actress and of course mistress of Charles II and in Jessica Swale’s comedy-drama we certainly see her as a witty, outspoken and independent woman. Swale brings together a mix of bawdy, carry-on comedy, some good storytelling and the injection of songs, to make an entertaining piece of theatre, which beyond the titillation and double-entendre, is actually saying something about theatre generally and women’s place in the theatre and society. Neston players, probably more used to presenting drama than comedy, have taken on the play under the leadership of new director Shannon McMullan. As a vibrant group t...

9May

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

JB Shorts 24 – 53two, Manchester

A bare stage in a formerly disused railway viaduct would seem an unprepossessing setting, but when hosted by Simon Naylor and the superb team at 53two, JB Shorts has firmly established itself as a ‘must see’ on the Manchester Theatre scene over the previous twenty-three seasons of its existence. Tonight is no exception, the six plays- each lasting just fifteen minutes - address both the political and personal in modern society and make for an eclectic and enthralling theatrical evening. Isobel Openshaw Saves the Day Writer Joyce Branagh takes the lead as the eponymous Isobel, an Aldi shop assistant who decides to stand for election to parliament against the Conservative forces of darkness embodied by Rory Cheese Bogg (Callum Sim). Elements of Victoria Woodesque writing pepper the sc...

8May

By Katy GilroyNo Comments

North West

Kinky Boots – Storyhouse, Chester

Ready for a two-week stint, Kinky Boots has arrived at Storyhouse in Chester – and boy has it done so in style. Directed by Amber Sinclair-Case, the magnificent cast have taken a show full of heart and made it into a magical display of theatre that will leave you in tears of both gut-wrenching sadness and pure, unadulterated joy. The story, for those unfamiliar, follows Charlie Price (Danny Becker): heir to his father’s failing shoe factory in Northampton, a role he doesn’t want but a reality he has been thrust into. In a bid to save the factory and its team of hardworking, loyal staff – people Charlie has known since childhood – he teams up with larger-than-life drag queen Lola (Duane-Lamonte O’Garro) to make shoes for an ‘underserved niche market’. This show, however, is more than...

8May

By Jan MellorNo Comments

North West

The Kite Runner – The Lowry

I was not aware of the sport that is part of everyday life for young Afghan people – the joy and obsession of kite flying across the city of Kabul. This hobby is our equivalent to conker fights in the playground but enjoyed with far more passion and pleasure. This hobby can be enjoyed by the rich and poor alike and has been a tradition in Afghanistan for hundreds of years. Kite flying originated in China 3,000 years ago and although a sport of young boys is a hobby that continues throughout adulthood with equal determination, competitiveness and joy. The play “The Kite Runner” is the story of two young boys- Amir (played superbly by Stuart Vincent) a Pashtun who in the 1970’s lived in a large house with his strict father (played wonderfully by Dean Rehman) and their servant...

8May

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

RENT – North West Theatre Arts Company

Sick! Festival presents RENT as a part of their shows and events for 2024, they’re noted to face up the complexities of mental health and physical health. They state that they present an outstanding international arts programme, whilst exploring themes through many art forms and commission powerful, innovative and engaging work by artists across Manchester. Sick! Festival has grown and evolved since 2013 and is guided by communities and lived experiences of others whilst tackling sensitive and emotive issues. Directed by Prab Singh and Choreographed by Katie Gough, Assistant Choreographer Tempany Windsor, Musical Director Beth Singh and Associate Musical Director Ross Johnson have produced the latest Sick! Festival’s rendition of ‘Rent’. Set in the East Village of New York City, ‘Re...

Bonnie & Clyde – Palace Theatre, Manchester

8May

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Bonnie & Clyde – Palace Theatre, Manchester

In just 2 weeks Disney’s Aladdin flies into the Palace Theatre, one of the most anticipated shows of the year. But stop right there! This week Bonnie and Clyde drives onto the Place stage to raise a little hell in what so far, for me is the theatrical highlight of the year. I am lucky enough to be able to see some of the best theatre this country has to offer visiting Manchester and this show leave me after two and a half hours struggling to find fault with it in any way whatsoever. The staging, lighting, sound, orchestra and cast are faultless from the first gunshot to the last. In a story that is never going to have a happy ending Katie Tonkinson (Bonnie) and Alex James-Hatton (Clyde) display a fiery emotional chemistry from the first moment they meet to the final fade of the l...

Un ballo in maschera – Oper Köln at StaatenHaus

7May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Un ballo in maschera – Oper Köln at StaatenHaus

Director Jan Philipp Gloger presents one of Verdi’s lesser performed works which contains the usual emotional and dramatic power, creating tragic and comic situations in equal measure but often permeated by a cruel irony as characters ae subject to the conflict between the outer façade imposed by society and their inner highly emotional feelings. Count Riccardo (Gaston Rivero) is in love with Amelia (Astrik Khanamiryan), the wife of his secretary and best friend Renato (Simone del Savio). Amelia reciprocates this love but tries with all her might to suppress her feelings and seeks counsel from fortune teller Ulrica (Agostino Smimmero). Riccardo attends in disguise and discovers from her prophecy that Renato of all people will kill him, which the Count himself can only laugh at first. H...

God of Carnage – Schauspiel Köln at Depot

7May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

God of Carnage – Schauspiel Köln at Depot

Director Tristan Linder’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s original French play, translated and performed in German with English surtitles, skewers modern bourgeois society which is torn between enlightened goodness and all-too-human egoistic competition. Two eleven-year-old boys have fought on the school playground with one hitting the other with a stick which results in the loss of a couple of teeth. As civilised people, the parents decide to talk things through together. So Véronique (Lola Klamroth) and Michel (Alexander Angeletta), parents of the victim, Bruno, invite Annette (Sabine Waibel) and Alain (Jörg Ratjen), parents of the perpetrator, Ferdinand, to discuss over coffee and biscuits, a more consensual and politically correct way to influence the behaviour of Ferdinand in line wi...

7May

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Draft 23 – Old Red Lion Theatre

Somewhere between Waiting for Godot and waiting in a mile long bathroom line behind the two most annoying people at your college while they slowly figure out they don’t actually even like each other, Draft 23 is set in a shifting landscape of tottering piles of laundry, watches, belts, and ashtrays. This play follows the slow and inevitable demise of a fictionalized relationship that cannot maintain itself without the structure of a functional script. The stakes are low and the characters themselves are lower, alternating between various tableaus of languidity as they mope about the playing space without any vestige of playfulness in them. Self-important but unable to self-articulate, the text is under-rehearsed and both actors’ performances are pervaded by a self-consciousness that under...