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21Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Dive Into Swan Song at The Dukes

Jonathan Harvey’s bittersweet comedy Swan Song travels to The Dukes in Lancaster this July, on a short northern tour. This revised version of Harvey’s play stars TV and stage actor Andrew Lancel (Coronation Street, Cilla: The Musical), is directed by BAFTA award-winning director Noreen Kershaw (Coronation Street, Our Girl) and is produced by Bill Elms, Liverpool Theatre Festival’s Artistic Director. Set in Liverpool in 1997, the show follows Dave Titswell, a gay, middle-aged English teacher. He has a crush, but life, love and work are never straight forward for Dave. Will a school trip to The Lakes change things for the better, or make things decidedly worse? Swan Song will make audiences laugh, but equally pull at the heartstrings. Everyone knows someone like Dave – or could even...

Manchester theatre company grows from audience of dozens to potentially thousands thanks to live stream performance

21Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Manchester theatre company grows from audience of dozens to potentially thousands thanks to live stream performance

A theatre company’s latest live stream production will see it broadcast to potentially thousands of people worldwide – including the play’s writer 8,500 miles away. Only four years ago Elysium Theatre Company, which has bases in Manchester and Durham, was putting on its first play in front of just dozens of people at the Assembly Rooms, Durham. But its latest offering – Hello and Goodbye, by South Africa’s leading playwright Athol Fugard – will be filmed and streamed across the internet for the world to see, when it is performed at Northern School of Art, Hartlepool, at 7.30pm on Wednesday 23rd June. It will star Manchester-based actor Hannah Ellis Ryan, and fellow Elysium co-founder Danny Solomon. Hannah also runs Hope Mill Theatre in the city and found fame in Coronation Stre...

Socially Distance with Shakespeare at The Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

20Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Socially Distance with Shakespeare at The Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

The Altrincham Garrick Playhouse continue their new socially distanced season with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) opening on Monday 21st June for 6 nights only. Following on from the hugely successful The Last 5 Years the Garrick once again opens its doors to socially distanced audiences to provide a bit of theatrical relief to the residents of Altrincham and beyond. Tickets are still available for all performances, however booking in advance is strongly recommended. Every Shakespeare play in approximately 75 minutes! Yes, that’s right! All 37 plays in just 1 act! Photo: Barry Purves An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard’s plays, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” was London’s longest-running comedy having clocked a very palpa...

Gilbert and Sullivan’s Improbable new musical:…. and Helen – Brighton Fringe

20Jun

By Angela KellyNo Comments

South East

Gilbert and Sullivan’s Improbable new musical:…. and Helen – Brighton Fringe

‘Gilbert and Sullivan’s Improbable new musical:…. and Helen’, was performed as part of 2021’s Brighton Fringe. Performed by the Coily Dart Theatre Company, written by Susan Ellerby and co-directed by both Ellerby and Norman Hockley, this was presented as an audio- show. The story centres on Helen Carte (Catherine Tuckey) and her role that is largely undocumented within the Gilbert and Sullivan Company. With references to several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, it relays the story of Helens life with the company (with assistance from the internet and equally the imagination) and begins from the time she left school in 1867. Rather unusually for a woman in the Victorian period she was well educated and appeared to be the backbone of the Gilbert and Sullivan success. It is an extremely enj...

20Jun

By Kiefer WilliamsNo Comments

South East

Threesome – Brighton Fringe

Devised and performed by Claudia Saavedra, Eric Silver and Philip Greenoak of Almost Professional, this is a quirky filmed play with its tongue firmly in its cheek. Threesome tells the cautionary tale of two flat mates Alex (Silver) and Eve (Saavedra) who are seeking another flat mate to share their running costs. They soon have a suitable candidate for the spare room so they set about interviewing Evan (Greenoak) with unexpected results. It’s obvious that the three actors are enjoying themselves all the way through and the dialogue in parts is quite witty and sharp, but it does suffer from a pretty slow start and it isn’t really until the third character Evan comes into the frame that things stay to fly. It’s safe to ask that why anyone would want to share a flat with any o...

20Jun

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everything I Own – Hull Truck Theatre

Shall I tell you the first thing that came to mind when I laid eyes on actor Gabriel Paul, on the Hull Truck Theatre stage this week? Mmm … very attractive man, muscly in all the right places, glint in his eye - obviously good fun to be around (but the vest has to go). Oh, and he is black - this last piece of info, as an afterthought. However, as this second in a trilogy of monologues at the theatre - a world premiere, no less - wore on, I realised my reaction was far from the norm experienced by Errol (Paul), in his lifetime. The central character never appears - but his presence is felt throughout. He is Errol’s dad, who has died of Covid, leaving Errol, one of his seven children, to sort out his belongings. The action takes place in Errol’s dad’s sitting room - a cosy aff...

Full Cast and Creative Team Announced For the 60th Anniversary Production of Happy Days at Riverside Studios

20Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Full Cast and Creative Team Announced For the 60th Anniversary Production of Happy Days at Riverside Studios

Anthology Theatre, in association with Riverside Studios, announces full cast and creatives for the 60th anniversary production of Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Happy Days, directed by Trevor Nunn. Simon Wolfe plays Willie, joining the previously announced Lisa Dwan as Winnie. Completing the creative team are designer Robert Jones (Fiddler on the Roof, Quiz), lighting designer Tim Mitchell (Upstart Crow, Kinky Boots), sound designer Johnny Edwards (Moorcroft), production manager Matt Towell (Waitress, Come From Away), and costume supervisor Kate Hemstock (The Full Monty, We Will Rock You). The production opens on 20th June at Riverside Studios, where the playwright rehearsed Endgame in 1980 and Waiting for Godot in 1984, with previews from 11th June, and running until 25th July 2021. ...

19Jun

By Kiefer WilliamsNo Comments

South East

Labyrinth – Brighton Fringe

This fierce and vibrant feminist monologue written by Mancho Rodriguez and performed by Marta Carvalho is an interesting and quite ambiguous piece of work. The narrator says at the very outset says that she “has killed a man – killed love” but as this unremitting and intense monologue develops we begin to realise that the woman has found herself in a labyrinth of reality and illusion brought on by her own vulnerability and emotional state. Carvalho gives a passionately physical and overpowering performance throughout and she is well served by Mark C Hewitt’s English translation of the original script by Rodriguez. The monologue itself is set in the theatre of expressionism and may not suit everyone’s taste with its intensity and bleakness; also at a running time of nearly an hour,...

18Jun

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Electric Dreams – Norton Priory Museum

Imagine this setting, your sat on a garden chair eating a picnic and you pop open the champagne. As you relax the sun sets in front of you and the odd plane flies past above your head. You can’t help but fall in love with the relaxing setting. It was a perfect evening to watch the opening night of Electric Dreams a musical adaption of Midsummer Nights Dream (by William Shakespeare) at Norton Priory Museum and Gardens. In a creative partnership with A Place for us. A short synopsis in case you don’t know, Its Midsummer Night in 1980s Athens, four young lovers and a group of workmen 'wannabe' actors find themselves entranced and entrapped in an enchanted forest where Rock Diva Fairies rule and a mischievous sprite is hell bent on causing havoc…what could possibly go wrong? The show...

18Jun

By Johanna RobertsNo Comments

North West

Y’MAM – Everyman Theatre

Different languages express it in different ways – the straw that breaks the camel’s back, the final drop that makes the glass overflow - but all refer to the same moment of when the ‘red mist descends’ and anger takes over. We’ve all seen it – either in real life or on the screen, when ‘it all kicks off’ and a fight breaks out over nothing. Or over what seems like nothing, but as Y’MAM so eloquently explains, for the problem to exist, there must have been ‘an intro to the problem’. Y’MAM – written by and performed by Majid Mehdizadeh (aka Luke Jerdy) – is based on Majid’s own life. Both the writing and the performance are stunning, though there were some moments when the need to convey the energy means individual words were lost, which is a shame, as the use of language is remarkable. ...