Jackie Clune Archives - North West End UK

25Feb

By Ben PearsonNo Comments

London

Otherland – Almeida Theatre

Otherland is a remarkable, poignant, and emotionally all-encompassing play that explores love, the beautiful and terrifying nature of change, and the ‘many myriads’ of womanhood. In her ‘Note from the Author’, Chris Bush states that she aimed to ‘write with a vulnerability’ she never had before, but nonetheless create a ‘theatrically expansive… rollercoaster’. Well, if that was the goal, she’s passed with flying colours. Jo and Harry, despite a picture-perfect wedding and 5 years or marriage, are breaking up. Harry, assigned male at birth, needs to become her true self and Jo, though entirely supportive of Harry’s decision, needs space to figure out what she wants. She wants to be ‘unplugged’, for a while at least. We’re offered a window into their lives and the journeys they go on, bot...

Rocky Horror Show – Hull New Theatre

When the Rocky Horror Show comes to town, you can guarantee fishnet stockings, suspenders, bustiers, saucy maids’ costumes et al will be much in evidence. And that’s just in the audience. So, it was on Monday night when theatregoers pulled out all the stops to show their support for this iconic production, which comes to Hull New Theatre as part of a world tour. It was great fun, pre curtain up, checking out the get-ups of the brave souls who had dared - often, to bare - with all shapes, sizes and genders joining in the fun. They are an essential part of proceedings. This legendary rock ’n’ roll musical has been wowing audiences for 50 years and doesn’t look like retiring any time soon. The well-known story tells of innocent college kids, Brad (Reece Budín) and his fiancée, ...

Rocky Horror Show – Bradford Alhambra

Look, after 50 years of camp genius this show is bomb proof from reviews so all you can do is judge how good the latest production is. The good news is that this is a really solid version of Richard O’Brien’s bonkers tribute to the schlocky 1950’s horror B-movies he watched as a kid in his native New Zealand, complete with some delicious pastiches of rock and roll songs from that period. Unless you have been living in a cave since the show premiered in 1973 - or have never been to a musical - then you don’t need a synopsis of what happens, and to be honest none of it makes sense anyway. What this show does need is two things – a great narrator and a crowd that is up for it as unlike others shows audience participation is not only encouraged but expected. Well, one out of two ai...