Thursday, March 28

Tag: Charlotte Peters

Barnes’ People: Billy & Me – Perfectly Normal Productions
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Barnes’ People: Billy & Me – Perfectly Normal Productions

This is a piece written by Peter Barnes, one in a series of monologues going under the title of Barnes People. The lead character of Michael Jennings in this is taken by probably the best impressionist in the country at the moment, Jon Culshaw, and relies less on his impressionist skills and more on his taking on the role of a ventriloquist. Set on the stage of an empty theatre, the “cast” consists of Culshaw and four of his puppets; the Billy of the title, the Major, Aunt Agnes and Uncle O’Pat, all voiced by Culshaw making use of his myriad voices. The characters of the different puppets are well developed as the narrative proceeds, as is the complex relationship between the puppeteer and his dummies, in fact you begin to wonder who is manipulating who? Are they really 2 sides of the sam...
Birdsong – Original Theatre Company Online
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Birdsong – Original Theatre Company Online

Written by Sebastian Faulks and adapted by Rachel Wagstaff, Birdsong was first staged by Original Theatre and toured between 2013 and 2018.  It was hugely successful with 4- and 5-star reviews and was seen by more than 250,000 people in 75 theatres across the UK and Ireland. As we pass the 104th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, this play is a timely reminder of the severe loss of life between 1st July and 18th November 1916.  On the first day of battle a man was killed every 4.4 seconds, the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army.  The battle was described by war poet Siegfried Sassoon as a “sunlit picture of hell”. The play begins in France 1916. The Sappers (a team of ex-miners) were conscripted as tunnellers, setting mines a...