Helen Horridge Archives - North West End UK

The Worst Witch – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

5Apr

By Louise KershawNo Comments

North West

The Worst Witch – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Before JK Rowling launched Harry Potter on the world there was Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch. A series of books which delighted young readers who fell in love with the goings on in Miss Cackles Academy for young witches. Initially adapted from the books for television and then for theatre this musical production offers everything a young audience might enjoy with its pantomime style and magical narrative. The drama presents as a play within a play. A group of trainee witches perform their story as a school production, and it is to their credit that this young cast grab the material with energy and spirit. Characters that have been well written are very well performed and the rapport amongst the cast shone through. Megan Sorrel as Mildred Hubble, the hapless new girl who doesn’t fit in, ...

Di, Viv and Rose – Altrincham Garrick Studio

Opening tonight at Altrincham’s Garrick Studio, the final play of their all-female season, Amelia Bullmore’s Di Viv and Rose explores the theme of female friendship; those relationships found in the formative years of a woman’s life when she meets those women who become her sisters in life, the family that she choses and with whom she grows and develops. Di, Viv and Rose meet in their first term at university, thrown together in a hall of residence and then bonding into housemates as they experience their first taste of independence, follow dreams, have crushes, share secrets and desires and study for their degrees. It follows them through many highs and lows and into womanhood, motherhood, careers and explores their loves and their losses. Eleanor Herdson (Di), Georgina Brame ...

Treasure Island – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

As an Easter Holiday child friendly show, the Garrick has produced a version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island. This version adapted by the well-respected Bryony Lavery was first produced in 2014. The basic plot remains the same, but Lavery has taken liberties with both characters and sections of the story. Jim Hawkins is now female, Jim has a grandmother not parents, characters are missing, new characters are inserted, and the fate of several characters is altered. The problem with doing this is that while the play bears some resemblance to the original it should be referred to as the Alternative Treasure Island. Jim and her grandmother run the Admiral Benbow Inn in Black Cove. One night a man arrives with his sea chest and takes a ...