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Relive your Twenties at @thespaceUK in January

4Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Relive your Twenties at @thespaceUK in January

Follow 21 year-old Hope, as she moves out of her childhood home in Cheshire to the bright lights of London. Relive your Twenties with a show that promises laughs as well as a refreshingly honest depiction of what it means to be 21 in 2021. Join us as we visit a dinosaur themed bar, a nightclub and some very grubby toilets. Charlotte Anne-Tilley’s apt comedy will leave you feeling nostalgic for those mixed up years when you were still working things out. From the team that brought you Adolescent in 2018, comes another female-centred comedy that gets to the heart of what it means to be a young northern woman. After a memorable debut at Manchester’s Up The North Festival, this multi-person version of Twenties is returning for Online@theSpaceUK before visiting Edinburgh Fringe this summe...

Sleepwalking, by Kenneth Wilson at theSpaceUK

4Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Sleepwalking, by Kenneth Wilson at theSpaceUK

Kenneth Wilson’s new show for @theSpaceUK 2021 races from James Bond to weepy Irish lament (and Bach again). The music of his cello provokes a poetical commentary, sometimes a lashing-out, to make you wake up and take notice. Spoiler: contains a few rude words. Kenneth’s cello soars and sings, and then swaggers and shouts. In between it cascades, and laments. It seems there’s nothing that can’t be said on the cello. And then there’s his poetry – from his Lonely Heart (“psychosomatic, paranoic, hyperventilatic”) to the man “In the room of women”, and the shot birds that land “thudly in the grass”. You won’t sleep through this one. Kenneth Wilson has performed in the UK, in Europe and in South America. As well as his own show at the E...

Bard Overboard presents: A Global Pandemic Holiday Special

4Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Bard Overboard presents: A Global Pandemic Holiday Special

"Wonder World Cruises has a heart-warming corporate message for you in these trying times. Now they just have to convince the actors and crew members trapped aboard their quarantined vessel to film it. Watch the mayhem unfold in their final Zoom rehearsal before going on air." This is a special online performance from the cast of Bard Overboard, an ensemble farce debuting this August at Fringe 2021. Bard Overboard follows a group of minimally talented actors working on a themed family cruise ship who learn that a powerful Hollywood agent is onboard and embark on a doomed journey to impress him with a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Bard Overboard is a collaboration between the Extra Credit Ensemble, a group founded by actors and directors at Columbia Univers...

2Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

South West

Dick Whittington – Bristol Hippodrome

What better way to say goodbye to a torrid 2020 and begin 2021, than being able to watch a spectacular theatrical treat, (albeit virtually), and that is just what Dick Whittington is! ‘The Shows Must Go On’ YouTube channel has been a real godsend during 2020, keeping audiences entertained from the comfort of their own living rooms, whilst raising much needed funds for important theatre charities. Dick Whittington, which was performed December 2014 to January 2015 is streamed by ‘The Shows Must Go On’ and presented by First Family Entertainment and is raising much need funds for the Inner-city arts charity. You can go to https://inner-cityarts.org to find out more about this charity and you can also donate to this charity on the website. This Glitzy, Glamourous, festive family treat w...

31Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Woyzeck – Hope Street Theatre

‘A rollercoaster journey from the heights of black comedy to the depths of Freudian despair.’ With the challenge of picking only one show, I shall stick with the first one I saw as a full preview performance on 2nd January and which, rarely for me, I returned to see again when it played at Hope Street Theatre in Liverpool in the last week of January. Step forward Old Fruit Jar Productions and their debut production, a take on Jack Thorne’s 2017 adaptation of Georg Büchner’s classic play, Woyzeck, with this its first performance since its inaugural West End run by kind permission of the writer himself. It was a delight to see this new young company grabbing the opportunity to do something different and tackle real issues – class divide; poverty; exploitation; mental health – that ...

31Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Uncle Vanya – BBC iPlayer

An evocative play about family resentments and tensions in a changing world. Adapted by Conor McPherson, Directed by Ian Rickson The theatre production for this Chekhov play was halted in March this year due to COVID-19 but the production was filmed in London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, released in cinemas and is now available on the BBC. What we see is an accomplished filming of a theatre production rather than a film/TV adaptation, as all the action takes place in one room and there is a distinct lack of intrusive camera work. The play is adapted by Conor McPherson and directed by Ian Rickson and with a strong cast they have managed to create an event very similar to visiting a theatre for a classic play. The set is wonderfully dark and rustic in its faded grandeur. There is a good...

29Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Pirates of Penzance – Palace Theatre

Of all Gilbert and Sullivan's works, Pirates of Penzance is probably the best known and one of their most popular, having been a hit since it first opened in New York in December 1879. Since then, it has been interpreted and re-interpreted - and Sasha Regan 's award-winning production is one of the very best. The "men playing women" trope has, of course, been around for many centuries, in Shakespeare and in panto. It depends on the talent of the actors to make the conceit work. And work it does, the all-male cast adding an additional layer of whimsy to what is already a marvellously funny operetta. The story hinges on its subtitle "The Slave Of Duty". After a miscommunication leads young Frederic to be indentured to the dastardly Pirates of Penzance, he delights in his freed...

25Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS, NWE UK Live

A Christmas Message

To say 2020 has been a tough year for the arts is an understatement. Here at North West End UK we have been resolute in our desire to maintain our support for this amazing industry. We have continued to review throughout the pandemic covering online productions before returning, briefly to theatres when the relevant tier restrictions allowed. We also launched North West End UK LIVE in the Summer to promote the talent we have within our own team. Producing monologues written and performed by our reviewers. The most popular has been the Home Schooling series featuring our very own Yazmin Walker. To celebrate this very different Christmas period Mark Davoren has written an alternative Christmas message and we were thrilled that the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse allowed us to film on t...

24Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Dick Whittington – National Theatre

It’s always a courageous move to update a traditional piece of theatre but it’s especially courageous to update a pantomime when generally the audience have an ‘inkling’ of what to expect. However, this is what Jude Christian and Cariad Lloyd had in mind for their production of The National Theatres 2020 version of Dick Whittington. Having first premiered at The Lyric Hammersmith in 2018, the production had been updated for 2020. Filmed following only its fourth preview performance on 15th December this year due to Government lockdown restrictions, the National Theatre pulled off an incredible feat in filming the pantomime. With some work still in progress, their wish to share the panto for free was based on acknowledging that all components of theatres have been massively affected by t...

Prince Charming’s Christmas Cracker – Hull Truck Theatre

24Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Prince Charming’s Christmas Cracker – Hull Truck Theatre

On Tuesday evening, when I hit the YouTube button at 7pm to watch the premiere of Prince Charming’s Christmas Cracker, coming from Hull Truck’s stage, I settled back, coffee in one hand, mince pie in the other, to watch live theatre - something I’d experienced little of since the dreaded coronavirus resulted in the closure of theatres nationwide. The fun began after 10 minutes of festive faves played by DJ Ratty (cast member Joanna Holden), against a video backdrop of Christmas lights in and around the city of Hull.. Ratty introduced the Prince Charming of the title, with the words “he’s handsome, he’s rich and he’s a bachelor” - as the Prince (Laurie Jamieson) took to the stage, which was bedecked by a huge Christmas tree, presents and a “Groove Machine”. A bag of nerves - this w...