Gareth Crawshaw Archives - North West End UK

Flint Street Nativity – The Little Theatre, Birkenhead

7Nov

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

Flint Street Nativity – The Little Theatre, Birkenhead

As the first play of their series, The Carlton Players bring Tim Firth’s Flint Street Nativity to the Little Theatre in Birkenhead. As I enter the Little Theatre this evening, I instantly feel warm and welcome. My first visit to this lovey theatre and it certainly won’t be the last. With a lovely bar/waiting area downstairs and the auditorium upstairs, the ushers couldn’t do enough to make our visit a great one. One thing that stands out is the accessibility of the building, for such an old building, there is a lift down to the bar and a lift up to the auditorium, something that makes a return visit cemented in my eyes. Directed by Marc Smith, we are transported to Miss Horricks’ class where the juniors are putting on their nativity. But will everything go smoothly? We are about to f...

Lettice & Lovage – Little Theatre Birkenhead

Director Mike Sanders has Peter Shaffer’s super witty script to work with but whether a mix of first night nerves and learning curves, this production from the Carlton Players doesn’t really take full advantage of its snappy pacing and eye rolling bon mots. Lettice Duffet (Katy Downes), an expert on Elizabethan cuisine and medieval weaponry, is an indefatigable but daffy enthusiast of history and the theatre which she combines in her role as a tour guide at Fustian House, one of the least stately of London’s stately homes. As she theatrically embellishes its historical past, much to a mix of surprise, consternation, and pleasure from visiting tourists (Phyllis Brighouse; Lynda Critchley; Richard Isles; Rebcca Williams; Lucy Ashdown; Sallyanne Nelson; Gareth Crawshaw), she ultimately com...

The Ghost Train – The Little Theatre, Birkenhead

To many people Arnold Ridley will always be the impeccably polite Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army, but before he made the catchphrase, ‘May I be excused sir?’ famous, he wrote more than 30 plays of which only The Ghost Train, penned in 1923, achieved notable success, running for 665 performances at St Martin’s Theatre and being adapted for cinema three times. Almost a hundred years on, The Carlton Players under the direction of Jen Henry resurrect this delightful comedy thriller, importantly set in 1925, where a group of passengers are stranded in a Cornish railway station waiting room on a dark and stormy night. They have missed their connection because the ‘daft as a brush’ Teddie Deakin (Mark Prescott) pulled the communication cord on their train after losing his hat out of the window....