Suzette Llewellyn Archives - North West End UK

Electric Rosary – Royal Exchange Theatre

29Apr

By Angela KellyNo Comments

North West

Electric Rosary – Royal Exchange Theatre

This week the Royal Exchange welcome the exhausted nuns from St Graces Convent to the stage in Tim Foleys award winning production ‘Electric Rosary’. Winner of the 2017 Bruntwood Judges Prize, this innovative production depicts the scenario when two very different worlds collide and ‘technology’, in its finest form, is introduced to a struggling Convent. Writer Tim Foley must be applauded for creating a very thought-provoking concept. Originality in abundance and a fascinating mix of a sense of ‘old school’ religion, a sense of sci-fi, and the issue of what faith means in the future, it is certainly like no other play around. In addition, it is also full of laugh out loud moments. Director Jazz Woodcock-Stewart ensured the cast carried out an exceptional role in combining the fairly se...

Running With Lions – Lyric Hammersmith

Running With Lions is a colourful, vibrant and life-affirming celebration of family, which also addresses the dark shadows lurking in the corners, where things have been swept away and repressed. Gloria returns to her parents’ home where her daughter has been staying whilst she has been away at a mental health clinic. She struggles to get through to her parents, who feel too ashamed to acknowledge her condition. Problems ensue as desires clash and as the family grapple with the past and the underlying tensions between them. The play begins with Gloria’s perspective but then widens into others showing the inescapable intermingling of worlds. Carter’s writing is very true to life, reflecting conversations which I feel like I have witnessed or had with my own family. She doesn’t compromis...

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Liverpool Playhouse

Tennessee Williams' searing masterpiece is brought back to the stage with this joint production between Curve Leicester, The English Touring Theatre and Liverpool Everyman/Playhouse. It’s a play about deception, greed, sexual desire, self- delusion and how lies seem so much more important than truth. Set on one hot Mississippi night, the highly dysfunctional Pollitt family meet up to celebrate Big Daddy’s 65th birthday and from the start all the characters begin their gameplay in earnest. Williams’s beautifully constructed play has many elaborate and intoxicating layers and explores each fractured character in great depth – his dialogue is always stark and unrelenting, and director (Anthony Almeida) lets each of the actors shine in all the iconic parts. Big Daddy played by (Pe...