Monday, December 2

Tag: Katie Rudd

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Regent Theatre, Stoke on Trent
North West

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Regent Theatre, Stoke on Trent

The award-winning fantasy novel, ‘The Ocean at the end of the Lane’ written by Neil Gaiman has now been adapted by Joel Horwood for stage and is performed at The Regent Theatre in Stoke on Trent this week. With its sold-out debut at the National Theatre and having received several Olivier Award nominations, it was intriguing to see the translation from book to stage. Directed by Katie Rudd the story centres around a man who is transported back to the time of his 12th birthday. Gaiman himself wrote it as a short story for his wife to share aspects of his childhood with her and stated that he was keen for it to contain ‘emotion’ as this is what she loved. It certainly delivers on what Gaiman intended, as from the opening scene it was clear that the story was taking us in a magical and myt...
When Winston Went to War with the Wireless – Donmar Warehouse
London

When Winston Went to War with the Wireless – Donmar Warehouse

Just like the BBC, which is the subject of this new play by Jack Thorne, both inform and entertain. It is set in the early days of the general strike in 1926 when the British Broadcasting Company, as it was then known, was in its formative days under the leadership of the redoubtable John Reith. Since the strike led to the temporary closure of all the print media, this provided a golden opportunity for the new broadcaster to become a premier news channel. This brought it into conflict with the government's own alternative press media, the British Gazette, overseen by Winston Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. Reith, played by Stephen Campbell Moore, is the central character of the play. He struggles both with trying to position the new company as an impartial media o...