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Pilot Theatre’s Esther Richardson talks their new production The Bone Sparrow

1Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Pilot Theatre’s Esther Richardson talks their new production The Bone Sparrow

Pilot Theatre has adapted Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow for a timely national tour telling the tale of a Rohingya refugee boy Subhi who has spent his entire life living in a detention centre in Australia. Pilot Theatre’s Artistic Director Esther Richardson will direct an adaption by Shakthi Shakthidharan, who is an award-winning Australian writer, producer, composer and director for screen and stage of Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. In a world dominated by Zoom calls this cross continental production has also been developed in association with Australian Theatre for Young People. Closer to home it has had support of Bradford’s SBC Theatre, a group of creative professionals and artists who are committed to making work with, about and for those seeking sanctuary in the UK a...

1Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Waitress – Hull New Theatre

It’s a good job I didn’t watch Waitress on an empty stomach; I would have been tempted to storm the stage to eat the props - the props being delicious-looking pies. Real or imitation, I don’t know, but by the yummy looks of them I wouldn’t have cared. The dreamy confections took centre stage at the Hull New Theatre on Monday evening, as the pie-themed musical disarmed the tastebuds of everyone in the packed auditorium. Most of the action takes place in Joe’s Pie Diner, a popular eatery in small-town Indiana, America. A staff of four - three waitresses, Jenna (Chelsea Halfpenny), Dawn (Evelyn Hoskins) and Becky (Sandra Marvin), and chef and manager Cal (Christopher D Hunt) - keep the diner ticking over nicely. Jenna is the expert pie-maker. Married to the controlling and self...

1Feb

By Max EdenNo Comments

North West

The Play What I Wrote – The Lowry

Morecombe & Wise are without doubt a British institution, with their Christmas specials drawing in over 20 million viewers in their day; delivering shows packed with laughter and jokes a plenty. To write a stage production on them must be a daunting task, but one which writers; Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben have excelled at in this new play; The Play What I Wrote. With a cast of just three (well actually four but we’ll get to that), this isn’t a biographical piece about the famous duo, far from it. This is original, but yet still just as dynamic and very very funny! The story follows two performers; Dennis played by Dennis Herdman & Thom played by Thom Tuck. Dennis wants to do a play about the famous duo for the potential money, whilst Thom aspires to write serio...

Casting announced for new version of Kes at Bolton Octagon and Theatre by the Lake

31Jan

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Casting announced for new version of Kes at Bolton Octagon and Theatre by the Lake

Casting has been announced for a new version of Barry Hines’ northern classic Kes co-produced by Bolton’s Octagon Theatre and Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. It’s set in a 1960s working-class Yorkshire mining town depicting the struggles of 15-year-old Billy Casper. Bullied and neglected, life isn’t easy for Billy, but when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk who he cares for and trains, it gives Billy a passion and freedom that has been missing in his life. This stage version is adapted by Robert Alan Evans, and will be directed by award-winning theatre director and one of The Stage’s 25 Theatremakers to watch in 2022, Atri Banerjee. A trio of performers will star in this poignant coming of age story with Jake Dunn will make his professional stage debut playing the role of troubl...

Round The Horne – Kings’ Theatre, Edinburgh

31Jan

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Round The Horne – Kings’ Theatre, Edinburgh

Shut your eyes and you could’ve been at home next to the wireless any time between 1965 and 1968. Along with the 14.5 million other listeners of the day. Which makes it difficult to write about this show; it was so faithful to the original that instead of judging the set or evaluating the performance(s), one spent most of the time simply wondering - nay marvelling – at the unabashed nature of Round The Horne, its refusal to dodge a risk (spelled r-i-s-q-u-é) and, ultimately, the BBC’s willingness to defend it from its many (historically, theatrically ignorant) detractors. It’s sobering to remind oneself that some of the boundaries of taste and sexuality over which it gaily skipped were, at the time, enshrined in law. Listening to a couple of the shows either side of this production (you...

Manipulate: Eat Me – The Studio, Edinburgh

31Jan

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Manipulate: Eat Me – The Studio, Edinburgh

It’s difficult to describe ‘Eat Me’, as one may assume it is a play centralizing around cannibalism but not in a way in which one may expect. Eat Me follows the tale of three nameless characters described as ‘The Man’ (Ian Cameron), ‘Prey’ (Claire Eliza Willoughby) and ‘Predator’ (Isy Sharman), who come together in a very strange turn of events. Upon getting assistance from her creepy, stalker-ish neighbour, after falling over on the way home, Prey encloses that she wishes to be eaten. With not a single hint of surprise or hesitation The Man gets to work in making her dream come true. Together they explore the dark web until they come across Predator and set up a date in which Prey can become indeed food. The production is very sound heavy with a good chunk of the dialogue being pre...

30Jan

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

The Glow – Royal Court

“You go far back enough, and everything turns to myth” Alistair Mcdowall’s “The Glow” is written with a plethora of colours and flavours, bursting at the seams with ideas about time and the ephemerality of the past. Its central focus is on myth, with a defining character whose presence transcends the stage. Found in an asylum in 1863, a woman is assumed to be a perfect host for an ambitious necromancer but soon things turn awry as the woman’s magical powers come into their own. With an eclectic mix of characters and shifting timelines, it is a joy to watch the complete changes in mood from scene to scene. The plot is anchored by the pivotal character, the woman played by Ria Zmitrowicz, as her character slowly unfurls like she is learning how to exist. Zmitrowicz imbues the character...

30Jan

By Blathine MaguireNo Comments

North West

Jersey Boys – Empire Theatre

‘Jersey Boys’ is touring the UK at the moment and tonight it’s the opportunity of the Empire, Liverpool to host the famous four as we watch the story of Frankie Valli & the four seasons unfold live on stage! This jukebox musical, which was written in 2004, celebrates the group that took the world and the music industry by storm in the 1960s and the 1970s. The story is quite basic compared to other musicals but perhaps this is because it’s much closer to the truth than most musicals. It starts at the beginning where a young Tommy DeVito (Dalton Wood) is in and out of trouble and trying to make a break in the music industry. He takes a young Frankie Valli (Luke Suri) under his wing and alongside Nick Massi (Norton James), they make a band. They are on the lookout for a fourth member a...

Leopoldstadt – Wyndham’s Theatre (NT Live Transmission)

28Jan

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London, REVIEWS

Leopoldstadt – Wyndham’s Theatre (NT Live Transmission)

The NT Live transmission, in conjunction with Sonia Friedman Productions, from Wyndham’s Theatre of Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, was somewhat timely coming as it did on International Holocaust Memorial Day, and more so when its depiction of the travails of a Jewish family resonates so strongly with the unveiling of portraits of the last survivors of the Holocaust. Centred around the extended Merz family in Vienna, we travel through four generations from the turn of the twentieth century to the creation of an independent Austrian republic in 1955, where amidst the all too familiar humdrum domestic scenes we explore what it means to learn and love; to live and die; to discover what identity really means within a family, society, race, and religion, and the extent to which any of us can ev...

28Jan

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

Animal Farm – Birmingham Rep

This well-known story based on the book by George Orwell, studied by generations at school has taken to the stage in Birmingham. From the moment you walk into the auditorium you can tell this isn’t a happy go lucky play. The stage has a dark industrial feel too it, the pre-show action on stage reinforces the tone even further. Animal Farm tells the tale of animals on a farm who dream of days of freedom from their human oppressors. Following a stirring speech from an old pig, they plan a revolution. We follow their journey as all their best laid plans and intentions start to fade. Anyone who studied this at school will probably remember the story revolves round political ideals, leadership and control of the masses. This production manages to bring the story to life in a very visua...