Waterside Arts Archives - North West End UK

19Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

North West

Daddy’s First Gay Date – Waterside Arts

After the success of BI-TOPIA, writer and performer Sam Danson has once again collaborated with legendary director Rikki Beadle-Blair for a new show about the bisexual experience. Daddy’s First Gay Date is Danson’s first full-length play for multiple cast members and is set to tour the UK after an initial couple of dates at Sale’s Waterside theatre. Much like BI-TOPIA, the show focuses on a slice of queer life that is sadly often underrepresented in mainstream culture. Danson takes the audience on an interesting and, often, unexpected journey. Ben (Danson) and Helen (Megan Edmondson) are celebrating their 15-year anniversary at the local restaurant. Well, Helen thinks she is there to celebrate. To celebrate and to enjoy Ben popping the question. Ben, on the other hand, thin...

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Waterside Arts

8May

By Helen JonesNo Comments

North West

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Waterside Arts

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was originally a 1994 film starring the sublime Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce. Some years later it was converted into a stage musical, and it is one of the campest but fun musicals around. Sale Nomads have this year brought it to Waterside Arts for a four-day run. The plot takes two drag queens and a transgender woman as they travel together across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs to perform at a resort there. One of the drag queens, Tick, has a more important reason for organising the trip. The resort is run by his wife and the six-year-old son he has never met is there. Buying an old bus they name Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, their journey is an experience of rejection, acceptance and frien...

12Oct

By Helen JonesNo Comments

North West

Barbara Nice: Fun – Waterside Arts

Barbara Nice, the stand-up comedy alter ego of actress Janice Connolly, returned to the region of her birth to appear at Waterside Arts with her new tour entitled Fun. The character of Barbara Nice cannot avoid comparisons with Victoria Wood in her housewife persona and Caroline Aherne's Mrs Merton. This comparison is not always favourable. A Stockport housewife, cleaner to the stars, the entire act is a caricature of a northern homemaker of thirty years ago with most of the comedy feeling like it could have been performed then too. Even then it would have felt dated. There are occasional more modern notes, but the majority of the show is very much based on the era of the seventies and eighties. It is very much a woman of a certain age with a principal target aud...

The Marriage of Figaro – Waterside Arts, Sale

15Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Marriage of Figaro – Waterside Arts, Sale

Mozart’s satirical and deeply human four-act comic opera, an adaptation with Da Ponte of Beaumarchais’ banned 1778 play about warring masters and servants, is delightfully brought to life with Chris Gill’s English libretto translation entertainingly directed by Sarah Helsby-Hughes. As the day of Figaro (David Cane) and Susanna’s (Heather Buckmaster) wedding arrives, it becomes clear that the Count (Mike Dewis), is keen to exercise his ‘droit du seigneur’ – his right to bed a servant girl on her wedding night – and they conspire with the forsaken Countess (Helsby-Hughes), to outwit her husband and teach him a lesson in fidelity. Plans however are thrown awry when Bartolo (Matthew Baldwin), seeking revenge against Figaro for thwarting his own earlier plans to marry the Countess, tries to ...

Dick Whittington and the Pirates – Waterside Arts

14Jan

By Emma WildNo Comments

North West

Dick Whittington and the Pirates – Waterside Arts

On arrival, a buzz of excitement filled the air as the welcoming volunteers enthusiastically encouraged the young pirates in the audience to wear hats and eye patches. I was slightly concerned at this point that this panto was going to be aimed solely at the younger audience members, however, myself and my slightly cool teenage son, laughed, shouted “behind you” and found ourselves joining in with the actions to the pirate song! With a cleverly written script by Terry Hollinshead (updated by Ross Douglas), there were cheeky innuendos and political jokes for the adults whilst plenty of slapstick kept the younger audience members chuckling. Truly something for everyone to enjoy. This joyous, colourful, rags to riches tale filled with pirates, mermaids, a hairy fairy, talking animals an...

18Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Sweeney Todd – Waterside Arts

I always jump at any chance to see a show written by Stephen Sondheim, and as we approach the second anniversary of his death next month opportunities on both the professional and amateur stage approach thick and fast. Tonight, Sale & Altrincham Musical Theatre present 'Sweeney Todd' written by Sondheim and his long time collaborator Hugh Wheeler, a production that despite some excellent individual performances never fulfils its potential as the 'sensational horror show' that Sondheim conceived. Written at the zenith of his productivity in 1979, 'Sweeney Todd' is the tale of a tortured barber (played this evening by Richard Ross), escaping from transportation to Australia for a crime he did not commit, returning to Victorian London to exact his revenge on evil Judge Turpin (Jon Gard...

By The Waters of Liverpool – Waterside Arts

25Sep

By Louise KershawNo Comments

North West

By The Waters of Liverpool – Waterside Arts

Helen Forrester’s much loved million-selling novels which depict her difficult childhood growing up in post-Depression Liverpool have been popular with readers for decades. Born into a wealthy family and the eldest of seven children, Helen enjoyed a privileged existence filled with private education, nannies and servants. When her father became bankrupt following the economic crash of 1929, the family, now destitute, moved from their comfortable existence in the South-West of England, to Liverpool. This is where we meet Helen and family. Living in serious poverty, struggling to get by, living on parish handouts and credit; her parents seemingly unable to face the reality of their situation and take responsibility for their poor decision making. The weight of the situation falls onto ...

Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me – Waterside Arts, Sale

20May

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me – Waterside Arts, Sale

There is a rich theatrical tradition of showcasing stories of people who have been left behind, left out. They tend to veer towards empowering and uplifting. So, it is safe to say theatregoers may make certain assumptions as they head into a one-person show about a young man growing up in a challenging background only to discover the power of cruise ship singer Jane McDonald. In reality, however, Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me is something altogether darker. Daniel Valentine (Jack Stokes) is restlessly roaming his mothers’ front room as the audience members take their seats. Bin bags full of clothes litter the floor, the windows are boarded up, no cleaner has troubled the space for many years and the faded shape of a cross on the wall tells us religion was here but is present no longer...

Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood – Waterside Arts

10Mar

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood – Waterside Arts

As Storm Larisa battered the north of England, the near three hundred hardy souls who braved blizzard conditions to eventually reach the Waterside Arts in Sale were amply rewarded with this hugely entertaining and affectionate tribute to the genius that was Victoria Wood. Paul Martin aka 'Paulus' is our window into the world that Victoria created, using elements of her stand up comedy, sketches, sitcoms and above all songs, to weave an eighty minute show of affable geniality and insight that warmed everyone on a bitter evening. The simple staging without props betrays the Edinburgh Fringe origins of this show but it has developed from its humble beginnings with a confident breadth to the narrative of the production. Accompanied by pianist Michael Roulston, who's tart interjections and h...

An Evening without Kate Bush – Waterside Arts

28Mar

By David S ClarkeNo Comments

North West

An Evening without Kate Bush – Waterside Arts

Well, I expected this show to be a straightforward tribute to Kate Bush – how wrong I was, it was so much more. I would probably describe it as more like a comedy show with Kate Bush songs thrown in. It did help if (like the majority of the audience) you were an ardent fan of Kate Bush herself, although this was by no means an essential pre-requisite for enjoying the show. The lights dimmed and a darkly clad Sarah-Louise Young appeared on the stage to the sounds of Hounds of Love and this initiated a section of audience participation where a couple of willing volunteers were enticed onto the stage to sing backing vocals to the song Cloud bursting, which had all the audience waving their arms in time to the music. This was only the start of an evening which emphasised her amazing rapport...