Wednesday, June 24

Latest Articles

Outside – Orange Tree Theatre
REVIEWS

Outside – Orange Tree Theatre

This is the companion piece to Orange Tree Theatre’s Inside which featured three new short plays from emerging and established writers and Outside follows the same format with three more short plays livestreamed from the Orange Tree Theatre auditorium. The three plays have a distinct link in so much that they look at personal connection during difficult times  and how healing can sometimes take place  through mutual understanding and the ability to forgive Two Billion Beats by Sonali Bhattacharyya features two schoolgirl sisters one of whom is in detention. It’s a slim story but the dialogue between the two sisters (Asha played by Zainab Hasan & Bettina played by Ashna Rabheru) crackled along at a fair pace. It was unfortunate that the performance suffered from some sou...
Cruise – Aria Entertainment and Lambert Jackson
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Cruise – Aria Entertainment and Lambert Jackson

Oscar Wilde suggested that the theatre is the “greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being” and this sentiment is beautifully represented in Jack Holden’s latest play CRUISE.  A lyrical celebration of queer culture, CRUISE is a musical and spoken word tribute to the veterans of the AIDS crisis. A perfectly crafted piece of queer theatre. Poetic. Artistic. Honest. It is a brutal depiction of a horrific period in the gay culture of ‘80s London. Of course, there is no message more powerful or indeed primal than that which shows the need of a human to protect their tribe and this story, told through the eyes of a 30-year-old Jack (jack Holden) in 2021, is the perfect example of survival, of ...
A Splinter of Ice – Original Theatre
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A Splinter of Ice – Original Theatre

This is story of two friends, Kim Philby and Graham Greene, two ex-spies, one turned traitor and one turned author. If you're interested in the story of these two men and their friendship but don't know many details, don't worry: this three-hander tells pretty much the entire story of Kim Philby's part in one of the biggest spy scandals of the 20th Century through one conversation between them. Written by Ben Brown and directed by Alastair Whatley with Alan Strachan, the team behind the play which inspired the Oscar-winning film Darkest Hour, the play imagines the final reunion between them just a year before Philby's death, their only meeting since the latter was revealed as a member of the Cambridge Spy Ring and fled to the USSR. I say “imagines” because, though the circumstances behi...
Obscenities – Theatrical Niche Ltd
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Obscenities – Theatrical Niche Ltd

Critically-acclaimed theatre company Theatrical Niche Ltd, builds on its successful tours of Uncle Vanya, A Doll's House and Lady Windermere's Fan on a streamed virtual tour of regional theatres with their new comic mini-series “Obscenities”. Directed by Will Nash and written by Venetia Twigg & Will Nash, it’s suitable for Ages 15+ and is streaming regionally from the 2nd April through to 1st May. Supported by Arts Council England, this marks Theatrical Niche’s first collaboration with Director Will Nash, creating a collaboration of film content for virtual audiences in lieu of live theatre during the pandemic. Without a doubt the film brings theatre content to what would normally be touring audiences and makes theatre more accessible; will this continue to be a necessity for ...
Leicester’s Curve theatre is gearing up to reopen with a special socially distanced season from the 20th May
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Leicester’s Curve theatre is gearing up to reopen with a special socially distanced season from the 20th May

After over a year without audiences in its building, Leicester’s Curve theatre is gearing up to reopen with a special socially distanced season from the 20th May. Including two nights of work curated by Curve Resident Creatives and local artists, a new comedy musical, acclaimed dance and a Made at Curve concert inspired by the life and career of Andrew Lloyd Webber, these reopening plans have been made possible by a second grant from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Culture Recovery Fund. As recently seen in streamed productions of Sunset Boulevard and The Color Purple, by raising the walls between its theatre spaces, Curve will reopen as a 533-seat socially distanced auditorium, with audiences enjoying live performances from all four sides of the stage. To e...
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Maxine Peake pen monologues for new season at Leeds Playhouse
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Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Maxine Peake pen monologues for new season at Leeds Playhouse

Yorkshire’s Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Maxine Peake have written brand new monologues as part of Leeds Playhouse’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The Playhouse will be welcoming audiences back next month for the first time since November with monologues written by six writers offering their own perspectives on Leeds and the north playing in the Courtyard Theatre as Decades: Stories from the city. Leanna Benjamin, Kamal Kaan, Alice Nutter, Stan Owens, Peake and Armitage have each taken a particular decade from across the Playhouse’s lifespan covering the 1970s to today offering a diverse collection of stories firmly rooted in the North. Leeds Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining, Associate Director Amy Leach and RTYDS Resident Assistant Director Sameena Hussain will be...
Hugs, Tears & Replacement Bus Services – Nod At The Fox
REVIEWS

Hugs, Tears & Replacement Bus Services – Nod At The Fox

Hugs, Tears and Replacement Bus Services is an 18-minute long binaural listening experience that invites you to sit back and immerse yourself in a fantastical bus ride to an unknown destination. Created by Nod At The Fox, which is an emerging theatre company whose artistic practice brings together puppetry and audio storytelling, the show is being staged at the Living Roots Micro Festival, which is a showcase of seven seed digital arts commissions including binaural poetry, soundscapes, narrative shorts and a digital art gallery. In this experience, you find yourself following the voice of a man who is returning back home after a late night out with friends. However he seems to have missed the last train of the night, and instead, has to take a replacement bus service back home. Here he...
Royal Opera House announces FREE stream
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Royal Opera House announces FREE stream

The Royal Opera House is delighted to continue its #OurHouseToYourHouse programme, featuring online broadcasts that can be accessed by audiences around the world. Join us them Friday 16th April at 7pm GMT for a FREE stream of a very special Insight from 2016 celebrating The Sleeping Beauty.  Former Director of The Royal Ballet Monica Mason and Christopher Newton join Director Kevin O’Hare in discussion about their restaging of the production that reopened the Royal Opera house in 1946 after World War II and this year celebrates its 75th anniversary. The Insight also offers a glimpse into rehearsals taken by Monica Mason and Samantha Raine with Olivia Cowley, Kristen McNally, Tierney Heap and Anna Rose O’Sullivan. The stream culminates in an additional treat with an excerpt from the...
Multi Award-winning ‘Best Musical’ Come From Away returns to London’s West End from 22nd July
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Multi Award-winning ‘Best Musical’ Come From Away returns to London’s West End from 22nd July

The shutters of the Phoenix Theatre in London will lift on 22nd July and welcome in audiences to the highly anticipated re-opening of international hit musical Come From Away. Winner of every major Best Musical award when it opened in the West End in March 2019, Come From Away tells the remarkable and inspiring true story of 7,000 stranded air passengers during the wake of 9/11, and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but as uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night and gratitude grew into enduring friendships. Twenty years ago on 11th September 2001, the world stopped. On 12th September and in the years following, their stories of kindness, generosity and love have moved us all. The international hit musical has...
Paperwork Theatre are back with Deep Blue
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Paperwork Theatre are back with Deep Blue

She is caught between two worlds, Above and Below the water. Riley's at that in-between age where you can still carry off a crop top yet a whole bottle of wine has serious consequences the next morning. The parks are full of families, the pubs are full of mates but it’s only in Tesco that Riley can be whoever she wants to be. Back home, David Attenborough floods her flat with the story of the world’s loneliness whale. She understands its low, mournful sound - it too is lost at sea. Deep Blue is a heartfelt, sometimes humorous and raw exploration of what it means to belong, punctuated by an original indie-rock soundtrack. There are over 7.7million people living alone in the UK, Deep Blue shines a light on the importance of human connection. “Lights flicker and glow, it might be ...