If you’ve ever wondered how those red shoes came to be sticking out from under Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of Oz this prequel to that classic movie will give you the answer. It goes back to before Dorothy crash landed in the land of Oz ruled by a mysterious wizard to reveal the backstory […]
Between 2017 and 2021 Glasgow University’s Professor of Criminology & Social Work Fergus McNeill and researcher/artist/linguist and musician Lucy Cathcart Frodén engaged with people involved in the Scottish Criminal Justice system, creating the Distant Voices Community. They wanted to explore crime, punishment and issues associated with re-integrating with ‘normal’ society upon release, going beyond the […]
A classic from 1997, The Full Monty is ranked as one of the best British films of the 20th century by The British Film Institute. It tells the tale of six recently unemployed men from Sheffield, all with different stories to tell, desperate to make ends meet in a post-Thatcher Britain. For various reasons, the […]
Greater Manchester Fringe is well and truly in the swing of things, and I was honoured to review Rachel Creeger’s latest masterpiece ‘Ultimate Jewish Mother 2023’ at the intimate Garrick Theatre in Whitefield. Creeger is no stranger to the stage as she is a multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, writer, and director, and I believe the only […]
Lost in Music a production? not quite, a night at the disco? yes, full of fun singing and dancing to the classic tunes of the seventies; Musical director Tony Wood on the keyboards has created a trio of musicians to recreate the ‘funk’ of disco and a band to drive the sound forward for the […]
For the final production in their season of LGBTQ+ plays in the Lauriston studio, Altrincham Garrick have produced a masterful retelling of a play that is little known on this side of the Atlantic. Not only is it extremely funny and touching, it should also be seen as an important milestone in the development of […]
Mozart’s retelling of the Don Juan myth dates from 1787 and its tale of a serial, sexual predator sadly remains far too relevant some 235 years later. Don Giovanni (Peter Mattei) has seduced some 1,800 women, all catalogued by servant Leporello (Adam Plachetka), and he is looking to add another name with his attempted rape […]
Directed and Choreographed by Donna Dale, Assistant Director Charlotte Allmand, Assistant Choreographer John Sprung-Murphy and Musical Director Craig Price have produced the latest D&S Production of ‘Rent’. Set in the East Village of New York City, ‘Rent’ is about falling in love, finding your voice, and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award for […]
It was drama from curtain up, on Thursday evening at the Hull New Theatre, when Opera North’s Tosca came to town, thrilling us with the sight of escaped political prisoner, Cesare Angelotti (a very brave Callum Thorpe), dropping from on high via a rope, on to the stage and, with split-second timing, the rope falling […]
Theatres are alive. They have a soul. And they all have supernatural stories to tell…. Every theatre has ghosts and sightings, spectral visions reported backstage by terrified actors, mysterious apparitions that walk the stage at night, corridors and stairwells that are avoided by staff who have experienced a sudden drop in temperature… Do YOU believe […]