Wednesday 2nd March 2022 at York Theatre Royal. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Zara Fraillon’s novel about a young boy born in an Australian detention centre for refugees has been adapted for the stage by S. Shakthidharan - and it’s an adaptation with a keen sense of its own emotive power. Esther Richardson’s direction of this Pilot Theatre production... Continue Reading →
Interview: Alastair Michael Talks Ransack Theatre’s “Catching Comets”
February 2022 Ransack Theatre’s “Catching Comets” is a “multi-dimensional genre mashup” which sees a lonely heart find love and action hero status all at once. Promising honesty and laughter through an ambitious merging of rom-com and action, the play offers up an exploration of love, vulnerability and the impact of notions of masculinity. “Catching Comets”... Continue Reading →
Interview: Nicole Acquah Talks Award-Nominated Play “Sankofa”
February 2022 san - to return ko - to go fa - to fetch Nicole Acquah’s award-nominated play, “Sankofa”, weaves together live music, storytelling, and traditional pottery to explore legacy, heritage, and what it means to belong as part of the African diaspora. The play will take to the stage at The Bread and Roses... Continue Reading →
Interview: Tom Foreman Talks New Play “Swell”
February 2022 Following on from the success of “Big Boys”, the latest new work from Tom Foreman is “Swell” - a climate-conscious drama based on real events which follows siblings in a town decommissioned due to rising sea levels. The play runs at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre from 8-12 February, so I caught up... Continue Reading →
Interview: Zana Fraillon, S.Shakthidharan & Esther Richardson Talk “The Bone Sparrow”
January 2022 Published in 2016, Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow tells the story of Subhi, a young Rohingya boy who has spent his entire life inside an Australian detention camp. His world has been shaped by fences, but in his imagination he is free. The book was shortlisted for both the Carnegie Award and the... Continue Reading →
Review: Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Touring)
Tuesday 14th December 2021 at the Grand Theatre and Opera House, Leeds. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is to know the secrets of the illusions in this show… I’ll start as others have and confess that I don’t know the movie and I didn’t know anything about the story going in, but... Continue Reading →
Review: Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights (Touring)
*Spoiler alert: if you don’t know the fate of Brontë’s characters and you don’t want to know in advance, you may want to abandon ship now…* Wednesday 10th November 2021 at York Theatre Royal. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In Emma Rice’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s gorgeous Wuthering Heights, we lose a housekeeper and gain a chorus: The Moor... Continue Reading →
Interview: Lucy McCormick & Ash Hunter Talk Wise Children’s “Wuthering Heights”
Following the flurry of A*s and 5*s for “Malory Towers” back in 2019, Wise Children are heading back to York’s Theatre Royal this month. This time they’re bringing us an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s superbly dramatic “Wuthering Heights”, and with Emma Rice at the helm, the promise of epic theatricality can be heard on the... Continue Reading →
Review: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Touring)
Tuesday October 5th 2021 at York Theatre Royal. ⭐️⭐️ Philip Meeks adapts Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman tale for the stage and in Tilted Wig’s production, ambition (and over-ambition) is at the centre of everything. The story follows a newcomer to the isolated village of Sleepy Hollow, where folk are living by their own rules and... Continue Reading →
Review: Dracula: The Untold Story (Touring)
Wednesday 29th September 2021 at Leeds Playhouse. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” gets a cinematic comic strip makeover in this bold adaptation from Imitating the Dog. It’s rare for a production to fulfil its descriptors to perfection, but this show is exactly as billed: “a live graphic novel”. This version of the Dracula tale is told... Continue Reading →