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The Hound of Baskervilles opens at Bolton Octagon in July

2Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

The Hound of Baskervilles opens at Bolton Octagon in July

Bolton’s recently refurbed Octagon Theatre’s first inhouse production will be the Sherlock Holmes classic, The Hound of the Baskervilles. The comedy adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic adventure will be directed by the Octagon’s artistic director Lotte Wakeham and adapted for the stage by Steven Canny and John Nicholson. It’s the familiar story with a comic twist of world-renowned detective Sherlock Holmes and his colleague Dr Watson unravelling the mystery surrounding the untimely death of Sir Charles Baskerville. With rumours of a cursed giant hound on the loose, they must act fast to save the Baskerville family’s last remaining heir. Leading the case as the famous sleuth is Salford born actor and Octagon Youth Theatre alumnus Reuben Johnson joined...

More Artists Announced for Manchester International Festival

1Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

More Artists Announced for Manchester International Festival

More artists and further details have been announced for the 2021 edition of Manchester International Festival (MIF). The vibrant programme of original new work from artists across the spectrum of contemporary music, art and performance takes place in venues and spaces across the city and online from 1st – 18th July. Anz, AYA, Billy Nomates, Blanketman, Damon Albarn, Julie Adenuga, Julieta Szewach, Laurent Garnier, Lounge Society, Midas the Jagaban, Paul Saggers, Pip Millett, Rema and The Untold Orchestra will join the likes of the previously announced Angélique Kidjo, Akram Khan, Arlo Parks, Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Christine Sun Kim, Cillian Murphy, DJ Semtex, Forensic Architecture, Ibrahim Mahama, Marta Minujín, Lemn Sissay and Patti Smith at the Festival. ...

Another fixture for The Damned United at York Theatre Royal

1Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Another fixture for The Damned United at York Theatre Royal

With Leeds United riding high in the Premier League it’s the perfect time for another tour of The Damned United charting Brian Clough’s disastrous 44-day period as manager at Elland Road, which plays at York Theatre Royal on 16 June. It’s 1974 and Brian Clough, the enfant terrible of British football, wants to revive his managerial career by winning the European Cup with his new team Leeds United. It’s a team full of seasoned international he has openly despised for years who loved their old boss Don Revie, and they all loathe the brash newcomer. Anders Lustgarden’s adaptation of David Peace’s novel takes audiences inside the tortured mind of ‘Old Big ‘ed’ battling his own demons and a team he can’t tame. The Damned United is performed by Luke D...

1Jun

By Chris HughesNo Comments

South East

Giles – Brighton Fringe

The advertising material for Frédéric Blanchette’s comedy, ‘Giles’, showing as part of Brighton Fringe 2021, poses the question: How well do you know your friends? The online play seeks to explore that conundrum through the lens of a zoom date night. Directed by Marianne Badrichani, it features a cast of three: Chris Campbell as Richard, Edith Vernes as Sophie and Sam Alexander as Giles. Sophie, based in Paris, and her boyfriend Richard, located in London, meet regularly face to face via the internet. Richard has invited his best friend, Giles, to one such rendezvous much to his girlfriend’s dismay. Sophie repeatedly tells Richard that she loathes Giles which he finds incomprehensible. When Giles joins the meeting, detailing his Covid related good deeds, the reason for Sophie’s antipath...

We’ll Dance on the Ash of the Apocalypse – Brighton Fringe

1Jun

By Kiefer WilliamsNo Comments

South East

We’ll Dance on the Ash of the Apocalypse – Brighton Fringe

This one act play written and directed by Melissa-Kelly Franklin is a timely piece constructed around the environment and climate change. It tells the story of a young couple played by Maite Jauregui and Danny Horn who are living through a climate apocalypse and their discovery that the woman is pregnant. They wonder if it’s right to bring their baby into this damaged world. There is an awful lot of soul searching to be had. It’s not a bad play and it really does highlight important issues about our response to the environment but the play is also very earnest, sombre, miserable and at times quite self - conscious. There is no denying Franklin’s passion but it just didn’t work for me. Unfortunately the use of slow- no physical theatre to emphasis the change in the couple’s ...

Outstanding New Season Announced at Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

31May

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Outstanding New Season Announced at Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

After over a year in the dark, the new management team at The Altrincham Garrick Playhouse comprising of Artistic Director Joseph Meighan and Operations Director Sarah Louise Reilly have announced an outstanding new season as they bring live theatre back to the town. Highlights include a northern premiere of Disney’s The Little Mermaid and the return of their ever popular pantomime which this Christmas will see Peter Pan flying across the Garrick stage. The season opens with Curtain Up from Monday 20th - Saturday 25th September 2021 at 7.30pm. Curtain Up! Light The Lights! You’re invited to join a celebration of all things Musical Theatre as we kick start our Autumn/ Winter Season with a collection of your favourite songs from your favourite shows! A stylish and elegant evening...

31May

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

South East

Clean: The Musical – Brighton Fringe

Based on the winner of Brighton Fringe 2019’s Best New Play, Clean: The Musical from Different Theatre explores the lives of a group of women in Brighton’s historic Roundhill area (or Laundry Hill) from the 1880s to today. The story begins in the present with Tasha (Holly Ray) sitting in her old family home which was once a laundry house after many years away living abroad. Tasha looks back on what life may have been like for women in the area throughout history. Throughout the musical, the present-day stories are interwoven with tales from the past, allowing the audience some reflective yet insightful moments. The split-screen editing of the characters shows that these women are connected in their experiences. From mental health and sexuality to women’s rights and grief, Clean ex...

31May

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Sleeping Beauty – M&S Bank Arena

Live theatre is back after over. A year of wanting and hoping it was amazing to be in an auditorium waiting for the curtain to rise. Sleeping Beauty at the M&S Bank auditorium until the 6th of June. The show had Gareth Gates (Les Miserable and Pop Idol), Bippo who is the comedy relief in the show, and Emma Grace Arends as Beauty amongst a small chorus. The show is approx. 2 hours long with one interval. Watching the show I felt it was rather flat, it’s opening weekend energy is meant to be high but I just felt underwhelmed. The music over shadowed the microphones so some parts of the vocals were lost. Moving on some lines were muddled up and Gareth Gates entered too early for his scene. Bippo however, rescued it well. It came to a point where it was a live rehearsal not an opening w...

30May

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

NEWS

Ripples – A Play (A Work-in-Progress)

It was lovely to be back at The Vaults to take a look at ‘Ripples’, which is a work-in-progress play. The show is presented at the Fringe Futures Festival, an innovative collaboration between the Pleasance & VAULT Creative Arts, providing an opportunity for early and mid-career artists to try out work at various stages of development in front of a live audience. How many times have you watched something going on around you, and then when asked a question about what just happened, you cannot give a detailed answer? Our mind plays tricks on us and fills in the detail that we cannot remember, so we think we know what happened, but that may not be entirely the case. Inspired by her own experience of this when she was young, Xi Chen (Director), was convinced that ...

Ballet legend David Nixon steps down from leading Northern Ballet

30May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Ballet legend David Nixon steps down from leading Northern Ballet

Northern Ballet have announced their longest serving Artistic Director David Nixon will step down in December 2021 after twenty years leading the Leeds based company. Under the Canadian-born Nixon they have created 29 full-length ballets with 23 one-act works added to their repertoire, as well as 14 original full-length musical compositions. As an innovative choreographer and designer Nixon has created 13 original full-length ballets for Northern Ballet, including Wuthering Heights, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Great Gatsby and The Little Mermaid, and has restaged and adapted a further six productions. But more than that Nixon turned a company based in the North into a national and international force building a world class company that always nurtured and pushed new talent to e...