King’s Arms Archives - North West End UK

26Aug

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Coming Home – King’s Arms, Salford

The link between a football fan and their team can often be like the relationship between a man and a woman. First, there is deep passion which means the supporter can love and hate his club simultaneously. Secondly, there is a lot of shouting involved, some kissing, a bit of singing and every now and then feelings of pure ecstasy. Regretfully, some people's passion for their football team surpasses their love for their significant other. If that team is the England football team you can introduce layers of hope, desire, frustration, and as we all know, ultimately disappointment. When similar emotions are applied to the romance between Jack (Christopher Wollaton) and Suzie (Lucy Farrar), you have a hilarious drama that is just as dramatic and emotional as any penalty shootout. Ja...

My Last Two Brain Cells – King’s Arms, Salford

27Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

My Last Two Brain Cells – King’s Arms, Salford

One of my favourite cartoons in The Beano was a strip called The Numskulls. They were a team of human-like technicians living in the brain of an unnamed man. This energetic, extremely fun, and diverting show takes that concept and introduces us to a couple of brain cells inside the mind of a man called Gary, who unfortunately is dying, and they have to save him. Brain cell 64,928,460,784, who is fortunately known simply as Clive (Joe Pike), is the nerdy, strait-laced brain cell while his counterpart, brain cell number 12 (Tom Hazelden), is the more out-going, ebullient, and entertaining one. This is a common comic setup, think the Odd Couple, Peep Show, and many others but the sheer energy of these two performers and their playfulness help to make this situation extremely entertaining. ...

Marigold Lately: Dirty Old Town – The King’s Arms, Salford

25Jul

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Marigold Lately: Dirty Old Town – The King’s Arms, Salford

In the upstairs studio of the King’s Arms, a small tornado named Marigold is being unleashed onstage. At first glance, Marigold (the brainchild of Mikayla Jane Durkan) looks somewhat unassuming, like a librarian who’s wandered into the wrong pub. Then the first F-bomb drops and we’re launched into a frenzy of Spitfire-like energy as Marigold tears chunks out of the woes of society, politics and misogyny - as if our ‘librarian’ has befriended the local biker gang, downed a bottle of sherry and wrestled the spotlight from an open-mic night folk guitarist that only exists in her head. Tonight is a surreal and slightly disorientating blend of story-telling, singing and stand-up, although Marigold stresses repeatedly that she is very much not funny. Non-sequiturs pile up alongsi...

Madame Chandelier Saves Opera – King’s Arms, Salford

22Jul

By Angela KellyNo Comments

North West

Madame Chandelier Saves Opera – King’s Arms, Salford

As part of Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2024, The Kings Arm in Salford welcomes the flamboyant, some would say ‘Diva’, Madame Chandelier, aka Delea Shand. With her one woman show, it’s safe to say this performance certainly does what it intends – Madame Chandelier, and her bright pink very high wig, single handedly throws her heart and soul into her mission to ‘save Opera’. Shand is a proud Canadian and full of charisma. She has many accolades to her name and previous sell out shows at The Edinburgh Fringe. She was also nominated for best newcomer in the 2019 Manchester Fringe and is clearly master of her craft which was instant as she performed as ‘Madame Chandelier’, immediately captivating the audience. Shand is open with the audience from the beginning in a most comedic wa...

My Chat with Harold Pinter – King’s Arms, Salford

19Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

My Chat with Harold Pinter – King’s Arms, Salford

All playwrights speak to each other in one way or another. Sometimes they will talk to the living but most of the time they talk to the dead. Every writer has stolen from another scribe, especially their heroes, and usually they are six-foot under and not in a position to complain. In this play, playwright Jen communes with Harold Pinter to help her to write her play. She wants him to assist her through her writer’s block so she can complete writing her magnum opus. Thus starts a post-modern foray into writing, feminism and theatre which will also teach you the fielding positions in cricket. People of a certain age will remember a TV show called Call My Bluff and there are lots of words in this play which could have been included in that programme. On that show celebrities had to def...

12Jun

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Long Story Short – King’s Arms, Salford

The issue of crime and punishment has been discussed by writers and thinkers for thousands of years. There is, of course, Dostoevsky’s famous novel but it is a subject whose very nature makes it ideal for drama. Where there is a crime, there is a victim, a perpetrator and the associated emotions of for each of guilt, remorse, sadness and heartbreak. These five short plays by Ward J Harries were all linked by this theme, and each had a differing perspective on the issue. They all came across as work-in-progress pieces, that do need some fine tuning, but the basic ideas behind each play were engaging. There were times when some of the writing veered too much towards melodrama and theatrical artifice. Yet there were some genuinely powerful moments of theatre when a true emotion or conflict...

The Rug of Identity – King’s Arms, Salford

9Apr

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

The Rug of Identity – King’s Arms, Salford

The origins of tonight’s play, a revival of a 40year old tale, by Jill Fleming, came from her time with the women’s theatre troupe, Hard Corps, whose aim at the time was described by website Unfinished Histories as ‘to perform lesbian soap operas at the London Palladium, overthrow the patriarchy and put tampons on the NHS’. In a time when moral panic around AIDS was at its peak, Fleming and other member’s works didn’t follow any expectations of handwringing apologies for queer characters being the way they were, instead creating anarchic, in-your-face plays where the delivery of familiar theatrical tropes came from characters who just happened to inhabit every colour of the LGBTQ+ rainbow and took tremendous pride in doing so. Best efforts aside though, works soon faded into obscurit...

29Jan

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Enough – King’s Arms, Salford

When Enough was first performed at the Greater Manchester Fringe last summer it was depressingly prescient. A play about misogyny, corruption and racism in the police less than six months after a review into the culture and standards of behaviour at the Met was published. As part of a Best of Fringe season, Enough is one of a handful of last year’s highlights being revived at the King’s Arms in Salford. The play won a Best Drama award in the summer, and it is not hard to see why. The subject matter may be, marginally, less topical but is no less important. In fact, the ‘enough is enough’ message is, arguably, even more powerful now. The attention of the headlines circus may have moved on but the issues this play raises have not been resolved. As is often the case, it is down to po...

What Happened to Connie Converse? – King’s Arms, Salford

25Jul

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

What Happened to Connie Converse? – King’s Arms, Salford

In the 50s and 60s Greenwich Village, New York, was at the centre of the American Folk Music revival which gave the world performers such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and, of course, Bob Dylan. There were also female singers and writers performing there such as Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins and also, on the periphery of this scene, there was an unknown singer-songwriter called Connie Converse. Even though these days she is largely a forgotten figure, her only public performance was on one TV show, there is an intriguing mystery about her as one day she just disappeared and was never seen again. Elizabeth Converse, Connie was a nickname she picked up when she lived in New York, was brought up by an extremely conventional religious family. She decided to rebel against them by...

22Jul

By Scot CunninghamNo Comments

North West

The Crisp Review: LIVE – King’s Arms

Having tickled audiences’ palates at last year’s Fringe, Adam Evans takes to the stage once more with a presentation packed to the rafters with all things crisp-related. If the title doesn’t give his game away, Adam unapologetically spells it out: he reviews every variety of the potato snack imaginable with the aim of encouraging suppliers to send him free bags. A high-and low-light reel of his videos offers a hilarious insight into the review process. Adam gives honest verdicts on crisps’ names, texture, flavour, and value, regaling everyone in the room with observant critiques. In person, his nonchalance and cynicism allow him to deliver one satirical quip after another, but put-downs (almost entirely aimed at himself) tagged onto the end of them regularly get the biggest laughs...