Artistic Director Kathleen Yore is all about the craft and all that goes into transporting audiences. Having formed Odd Doll in 2012 with the aim of telling visual, universally appealing stories through painstaking craft, she's been busy ever since doing exactly that. I was a huge fan of Seaside Terror after seeing it back in... Continue Reading →
Saturday 9th November 2019 at Leeds Carriageworks Theatre. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In The Hit we meet Hitman Mikey...who happens to be a puppet. There’s undeniably perfect messaging there, nestled snugly between irony and some dark psychology and the show basks in this dynamic very intelligently. Written and directed by Russell Dean (who also designs and makes the... Continue Reading →
Strangeface Theatre Company’s latest work, The Hit, is set to play at the University if York this Friday (November 8th) and the Leeds Carriageworks this Saturday (9th - tickets here). The award-winning company produce a broad range of shows which seek to make accessibility and the exploration of complex ideas their core. I caught up... Continue Reading →
2018 has given me a grand total of 110 productions to mull over to find the best of the theatre that I’ve managed to cram into the last year. There were countless shows I was desperate to see and I know a whole bunch of them have inspired great hype, rave reviews and must-see lists.... Continue Reading →
Saturday 17th March 2018 at York Theatre Royal. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hot Coals Theatre bring a unique combination of gross grubbiness and heart to the land of Children’s Theatre with their production of Finders Keepers. Set on a junkyard where father and daughter live with and in squalor but not without fun, the pair find themselves caring... Continue Reading →
Saturday 10th February at Trafalgar Studios, London. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Walking through the corridors to Studio One at Trafalgar Studios, we are greeted with an extension of Set Designer Jon Bausor’s work on the stage; walls dripping in blood, fading circus posters and curling bunting only just clinging on... All serve to create an instant ominous note... Continue Reading →
When I think about the best stage designs I’ve seen, I think of productions both big and small; Matilda, Follies, My Judy Garland Life, War Horse, Finding Joy, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe...the list goes on and on. The ability of good design to capture different worlds, times and moods can make a... Continue Reading →
Saturday 13th January, 2018 at the National Theatre. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The National Theatre’s production of Pinocchio, complete with selected songs from the Disney film (Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Paul J.Smith) features some wonderful puppetry, theatrical illusions and some sweet moments of heart and humour. While this is by no means a staging of the Disney... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 6th December 2017 at West Yorkshire Playhouse. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ As Professor Kirke tells our child protagonists; the mind should be like a parachute in order to function: open. This spectacular production of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe glorifies exactly that, taking the audience on an adventure of pure fantasy. West Yorkshire... Continue Reading →
Saturday 18th November 2017 at Liverpool Empire Theatre. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A National Theatre production which has seen enormous success since its conception, this play based on Michael Morpurgo's novel and adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford is now making its way around a U.K. tour. I saw the production way back when it was at... Continue Reading →
