Leeds Playhouse Archives - North West End UK

10Apr

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Shirley Valentine – Leeds Playhouse

If King Lear remains the biggest challenge for actors of a certain vintage, then the 15000 word solo monologue that is Shirley Valentine represents a similar mountain to climb for an actress. Unlike playing the mad king this is one woman setting off on a two hour monologue, whilst also being asked to cook eggs and chips from scratch in front of a live audience. Playing frustrated housewife Shirley who finally breaks free of her shackles requires strong technique and iron nerve as there is nobody to pull you out of the mire if it goes wrong, and thankfully Mina Anwar has both. Willy Russell’s greatest creation is a lonely eighties and frustrated Liverpool housewife who is reduced to having a running conversation with her kitchen wall before she bins her dim sexist husband. She heads o...

17Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Animal Farm – Leeds Playhouse

People can be beasts so what better way to explore the mysteries of the human psyche than through a bunch of animals who rise up to take over a farm. George Orwell’s Animal Farm was on one level an allegory as anthropomorphic animals banish their brutal human masters to create their own society, but underneath the metaphors it remains a pin sharp examination of human nature. The novella was inspired by Orwell’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War when Stalinist zealots undermined the leftist Popular Front letting Franco’s Fascists take power and serves as a salient reminder that it takes only one monster to smash democracy. Animal Farm is celebrating its 8oth anniversary just as populism rears its ugly head across the world, so there has rarely been a more important time for it to b...

9Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Intrusion – Leeds Playhouse

Famously it’s said that cockroaches will be the only living things to survive a nuclear holocaust. So, it makes sense for theatre makers Bric a Brac and Told by an Idiot to use our six legged insect friends acting as a metaphor for how the seemingly more advanced human race are determined to destroy our planet. The Intrusion is set below a devastated earth’s surface as the cockroach’s scheme to take control until they discover the sole female survivor of our species, throwing the world domination plans of Queen of the Insects Cecille into disarray. The really clever conceit of this often amusing, if slightly depressing, piece is that the cockroaches seem as obsessed with pointless hierarchies and destructive power dynamics as are our own billionaires and oligarchs. Along th...

Leeds Playhouse’s Animal Farm nominated for an Olivier Award

7Mar

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Leeds Playhouse’s Animal Farm nominated for an Olivier Award

Leeds Playhouse’s co-production with Stratford East of Animal Farm has been nominated for an Olivier Award in the Best New Production in Affiliate Theatre category. As George Orwell’s classic novel celebrates its 80th anniversary it’s been adapted by Tatty Hennessy, who explores his core themes of loss of identity, the seductive allure of greed and the corrupting nature of political power. Designed by Hayley Grindle, this version was built in Leeds by the Playhouse’s skilled Costume and Workshop teams. All performances include live creative audio description performed in-character by a member of the cast as Orwell’s timeless warning to future generations is coming to the Playhouse from March 12th. Photo: Kirsten McTernan “I am beyond excited by this incredible honour,” says Ani...

2Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The House Party – Leeds Playhouse

Miss Julie is one of the great totems of naturalistic writing and that gives Laura Lomas full licence to update August Stringberg’s text from a Swedish mansion to an upscale London apartment as a raucous house party goes off the rails Lomas also makes the main protagonists mismatched eighteen-year-olds as hidden passions and enmities between the trio are slowly exposed over an intense 90 minutes told straight through. Despite the update Lomas does keep to the key principles of naturalism by making the whole scenarios realistic, the characters are most definitely flesh and blood with all the flaws that brings, and they are informed by their heredity and environment. Our Julie is an entitled, but damaged, posh kid who is throwing a boozy eighteen birthday party to spite her absent rich...

The Merchant of Venice 1936 – Leeds Playhouse

21Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Merchant of Venice 1936 – Leeds Playhouse

There’s always a feeling of trepidation when creatives shift The Bard’s words into a more contemporary setting, but this production of an always controversial play completely resonates with the troubled times we live in This adaptation by former Eastender Tracy-Ann Oberman and director Brigid Larmour is set in 1936 around the Battle of Cable Street in London’s East End as working class Jews and their allies stood together to kick Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists off their streets. Here the characters are on both sides of this bitter political battle. Sound familiar? Oberman is the first female Shylock becoming an East End money lender living off Cable Street who strikes a deal with Fascist noble Antonio, which has disastrous consequences for the single mum. This is a l...

19Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

All Blood Runs Red – Leeds Playhouse

An intimating the dog show is always a meta challenge, so you knew there was a need to pay attention as they rigorously stress tested Jean Luc Godard’s idea that ‘a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order’. This company has always played with form and narrative structure as Mancunian actor Morgan Bailey tells the mainly forgotten story of adventurer Eugene Bullard, as he interweaves his own experiences in France playing a black GI in his first feature film. To add another layer he tells the story of wanting to pitch a movie of Bullard’s life after he fled the attempted lynching of his father in the deep south in the early twentieth century. Bailey also wrote this piece with the company’s Co-Artistic Director Andrew Quick, who was also fas...

Scrooge comes to Leeds Playhouse for the festive season

16Feb

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Scrooge comes to Leeds Playhouse for the festive season

Leeds Playhouse’s tradition of spectacular festive shows continues this winter with a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Yorkshire writer Deborah McAndrew. This version of the Charles Dickens classic written over 180 years ago is directed by Leeds Playhouse Deputy Artistic Director Amy Leach. For the few unfamiliar with the story, it begins on Christmas Eve in Victorian England as miserly Ebenezer Scrooge grumbles his way through a typical "bah humbug!" day. But as the frosty night unfolds, four ghostly spirits whisk him on a whirlwind journey through his past, present, and future, revealing to Scrooge the true meaning of Christmas. Scrooge’s journey to redemption remains a beloved ghost story that still captivates audiences of all ages, blending festive cheer, live...

8Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Shellshocked – Leeds Playhouse

When a shellshocked army veteran walks into an artist’s studio it starts a dark game of cat and mouse that ends with a really neat twist. Wesley has survived the horrors of World War II and desperate for work as he recovers from his PTSD he seeks a job with local artist Mr Lupine, who seems determined to humiliate his wannabe apprentice at every turn. But just much abuse can damaged hero Wesley take? Philip Stokes directs his own words, setting his compelling two hander that has echoes of Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth in his native Leeds. Over a tense 70 minutes he offers a mediation on the nature of war, loss, honour and what it takes to be a great artist rather than a mediocrity like Lupine. Lee Bainbridge takes a break from his day job as the Playhouse’s Building Manager to pl...

Cast announced for Animal Farm at Leeds Playhouse

6Feb

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Cast announced for Animal Farm at Leeds Playhouse

Animal Farm might have been written 80 years ago, but our troubled times make it perfect for a revival as Tatty Hennessy’s innovative adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic comes to Leeds Playhouse in March. Orwell’s timeless fable of how power corrupts revolves around a group of exploited animals who rebel against their human farmer-tyrant and take control of the land that they live on. They hope to create a world where they can be equal, happier and free but as power shifts and a new leader emerges things start to go badly wrong. Amy Leach directs Tianah Hodding (Clover), Shakeel Kimotho (Mollie), Robin Morrissey (Snowball), David Nellist (Benjamin), Tachia Newall (Napoleon), Gabriel Paul (Boxer), Em Prendergast (Milo), Everal A Walsh (Old Major), Farshid Rokey (Minty), Br...