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Still Loud. Now Leading. Introducing RAWD: A Charity for a New Era of Disability Pride

30Jun

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Still Loud. Now Leading. Introducing RAWD: A Charity for a New Era of Disability Pride

This July, RAWD launches as a registered charity – a bold new step in a decade-long journey of championing disabled creativity. RAWD launches with a programme of trailblazing events throughout Disability Pride Month. At a time when disabled people are facing mounting challenges through renewed cuts to welfare and essential services it’s more important than ever that disabled voices are turned up. In a climate where rights are being rolled back, RAWD is doubling down on protest, pride and power. We're not just celebrating, we are leading the change. At the heart of RAWD’s Charity Launch is “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You”, a radical new performance created in collaboration with award-winning Ugly Bucket Theatre. This urgent and electrifying show explores the history and future of...

A Moon for the Misbegotten – Almedia Theatre

29Jun

By Sadie PearsonNo Comments

London

A Moon for the Misbegotten – Almedia Theatre

Tonight, at the Almeida, A Moon for the Misbegotten lands like a blow wrapped in poetry—a raw, heartfelt collision of booze‑scarred souls, human flinches, and a moonlight that enthrals as much as it devastates. Leading the charge is Ruth Wilson as Josie Hogan, delivering a performance that’s fiercely grounded, physically charged, and impossible to ignore. Set on a rundown Connecticut farm in 1923, A Moon for the Misbegotten follows tenant farmer Phil Hogan and his strong-willed daughter Josie as they face the looming threat of eviction. In a calculated gambit, Phil hatches a plan to use Josie to manipulate their landlord, James Tyrone Jr. But as night falls and moonlight casts its harsh glow, the façade of strategy gives way to something deeper—unspoken grief, buried longing, and a frag...

The House, The Boys and The Trial – Parr Hall, Warrington

29Jun

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

The House, The Boys and The Trial – Parr Hall, Warrington

Soup Productions presented The House, The Boys and The Trial at the stunning Parr Hall in Warrington. Written by the talented Michael Pirks the play depicts the true story from 1806 where twenty-four men In Warrington and surrounding areas were arrested for homosexual offences. Where five men were convicted of buggery who regularly assembled at the home of Isaac Hitchin (Andy McQuoid), where they engaged in sex and called each other ‘Brother’, and kept assignations at the shop of Holland, a well-off pawnbroker. The ‘Hitchin’s House’ allowed men to be free from judgement and engage in sexual activity and companionship from the eyes of the law where sodomy was deemed as illegal and punished by death! It is clear that Pirks has done extensive research on the trial and displayed this exquis...

Through It All Together – Leeds Playhouse

29Jun

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Through It All Together – Leeds Playhouse

In theatrical circles stories from the world of football seem to be very much in vogue at present, already in 2025, I have reviewed “Red or Dead’ at Liverpool Royal Court and the smash UK touring production of ‘Dear England’ in Salford. Completing my personal hat trick is ‘Through It All Together’ a poignant and funny new play from local Leeds writer Chris O’Connor, which explores the subject of dementia through the lens of a family's passion for Leeds United and their manager Marcelo Bielsa. We join the action in the Summer of 2018 with Howard (Reece Dinsdale), Sue (Shobna Gulati) and their daughter Hazel (Natalie Davies) struggling to cope following Howard’s recent diagnosis with Dementia. Howard forgets little things, like where the milk is in the kitchen; he also constantly repeats ...

27Jun

By Karen Morley-ChesworthNo Comments

North West

Noises Off – Theatre by the Lake

The summer season is underway in the Lake District, and Theatre by the Lake is attracting many tourists to see a farce about a farce that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an end-of-pier theatre. Noises Off, in some ways, is the mother of the hugely successful ‘Play that went wrong’ productions that are taking the West End and TV by storm. Written in 1982 by Michael Frayn, it breaks the fourth wall and literally turns the theatre 180 degrees to present the behind-the-curtain tale of a touring theatre company. Though written in the 1980s, this farce has a much earlier feel to it, and some of the references may be lost on a younger audience. A telephone plugged into the wall is a key part of the production, as is the stereotype of the alcoholic old actor and the Benny Hill-style you...

The Highwayman – Shakespeare North Playhouse

27Jun

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

The Highwayman – Shakespeare North Playhouse

With more swagger than Ronaldo, Mick Jagger, and the cast of Made in Chelsea combined, this lively John Godber production gallops onto stage to introduce us to the most infamous scoundrel you’ve never actually heard of. Meet John Swift, a young man who decides to combine his skills as a butcher and infantryman in the French army to attempt to take Dick Turpin’s crown, robbing a living from the rich who pass through his town. But as he starts to waver in his choice of a life of crime, can he find a way of making an honest wage and afford his darling wife, Molly May the lifestyle she desires? Under Godber’s nimble direction, the show manages to keep one foot in the 18th century and the other firmly in his trademark Yorkshire grit and humour. It’s part restoration love story, part farci...

Fishnets and Fame: Adam Strong Embraces His Dream Role

26Jun

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Interviews

Fishnets and Fame: Adam Strong Embraces His Dream Role

Bright lights, corsets, and glorious transgression: this July, the iconic Hull New Theatre will be taken over by one of stage musical’s most outrageous characters—Dr Frank ’n’ Furter. Standing centre stage is Adam Strong, the Sunderland-born performer embarking on his debut in this legendary role as part of the blockbuster UK tour running from 14th to 19th July. Where are you from? I grew up in Sunderland and am based just outside of Durham, although I'm never there due to work. When did you first realise you had some talent and who encouraged you? My sister was a dancer for many years, and I used to love watching her, especially in the panto at the Sunderland Empire, which she did for many years. She was the one who encouraged me to get started in musical theatre and hel...

26Jun

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Kinky Boots – Sheffield Lyceum

The Sheffield Lyceum gets Kinky this week with the iconic Red Boots, and sass galore graces its stage. Inspired by true events, Kinky Boots takes you from the anything but glamorous 'Price and Son' shoe factory in Northampton to the dazzling catwalks of Milan in this sassy, vivacious and heart warming tale of true British grit with catchy songs by Tony and Grammy Award winning eighties pop princess, Cyndi Lauper and a Book by Harvey Fierstein. With exceptional choreography on this tour by Leah Hill and pacey precise direction by Nikolai Foster adding to strong and full score under the Musical supervision of George Dyer, Kinky Boots both technically and in production is a touring tapestry of tease and tenderness. Set and costume Design by Robert Jones is in situ and avoids unnecessary...

26Jun

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

The Croft – Festival Theatre

Returning to the stage after Covid-19 prematurely ended its original run, The Croft, directed by Alastair Whatley and written by Ali Milles provided many a fright when it opened in Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre. Set in a former crofters hut in a remote area of the Scottish Highlands, this production sees Laura (Gracie Follows) and Suzanne (Caroline Harker) arrive for what is meant to be a relaxed weekend trip. It isn’t long before the place’s centuries of history weaves itself into the women’s present. With no phone signal available and only the mysterious David (Gray O’Brien) for company, this thrilling piece of theatre connects past and present as the real truth of The Croft slowly unravels. The whole pace of the show is fantastic. Running at 2 hours, including the interval, audienc...

26Jun

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

Orpheus Descending – The Cockpit

Orpheus Descending is a difficult and unwieldy play in which the creative team and especially the cast of this production do an excellent job of infusing with serious energy and inventiveness. Orpheus Descending is another of Tennessee Williams plays set in small town USA examining the knotty and repressed relationships of its residents. Mostly we follow the story of Val Xavier (Johnathan Aarons), an outsider with a sordid past who is trying to make a new life for himself. He is quickly drawn into the maelstrom of the town. He is pursued by Carol Cutrere (Daisy Hargreaves), the town’s own scandal, who both wants him romantically and is trying to warn him of the potential danger he is in. Soon, however, Val is falling in love with Lady Torrance (Madison Coppola), the daughter of an I...