Friday 4th March, 2022, at Leeds Playhouse. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In Shakespeare’s epic tragedy, ambition provides the ultimate downfall for its eponymous tragic hero. In this production though, ambition finds rich rewards, and as with her 2019 Hamlet, this take on Macbeth provides a great example of Director Amy Leach’s impressive talent for staging Shakespeare’s work for... Continue Reading →
Interview: Oddsocks Productions’ Elli Mackenzie & Andy Barrow
As an outdoor theatre company priding themselves on a party atmosphere and accessible entertainment for all, Oddsocks have been delighting audiences as an independent theatre company for just over 30 years. Their wonderful work bringing Shakespeare’s plays to life in brave and whacky ways places them firmly in my top five theatre companies line-up, so... Continue Reading →
Review: Blood Brothers (Touring)
Monday 28th October 2019 at the Grand Opera House, York. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Blood Brothers continues its triumphant circuit on our stages with Lyn Paul reinstated as Mrs Johnstone for one last time. Paul, voted ‘the definitive Mrs Johnstone’, proves wholeheartedly that the accolade is entirely deserved and then some. Joined by yet another cracking cast with... Continue Reading →
Review: Death of a Salesman at the Young Vic, London
Saturday 6th July 2019 at the Young Vic, London. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Death of a Saleman is a hard-hitting and melancholy play. It entertains very little joy but hammers home plenty of gripping drama and it’s in this element that the play remains timeless in appeal. In fact, considering the frightening numbers bandied about on the subject... Continue Reading →
The Duchess of Malfi: Webster’s Disturbing Tale of Control & Revenge
Saturday 9th March 2019 at York Theatre Royal (Studio). ⭐️⭐️⭐️ John Webster’s The Duchess Of Malfi is a bit of a titan and York Settlement Community Players do a great job of bringing its most gripping moments of dramatic power to life. It’s impossible to experience this play without our current social and political climate... Continue Reading →
Hamlet: Take a Seat Patriarchy, Here Come the Women
Tuesday 5th March 2019 at Leeds Playhouse (Pop Up). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A female Hamlet? A northern tragedy? Multiple gender switches? Leeds Playhouse’s latest Shakespeare offering is a finely tuned combination of exactly that. As Shakespeare’s longest play, Hamlet is in so many cases numbingly over-long and mercilessly dark, but thankfully, Amy Leach’s direction and approach to... Continue Reading →
Blood Brothers: A Timeless, Superlative Piece of Theatre
Saturday 19th May 2018 at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s been eight years since I saw Blood Brothers for the first time. I loved it the moment I saw it and I’ve been so desperate to see it again that I was a little cautious going in, thinking perhaps I’d over-egged the memory over... Continue Reading →
Miss Saigon: An Epic Production in Every Sense
Saturday 7th April 2018 at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ There’s little to say about Boublil and Schönberg’s Miss Saigon that hasn’t already been said; the consensus has always declared it a supreme theatrical triumph and that is entirely evident in this revival currently touring the UK. What struck me most about this production is... Continue Reading →
The Grinning Man: Warped & Dramatic with Plenty of Comedy
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 →
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? : An Intense, Explosive, Brilliant Piece of Theatre
National Theatre Live, from The Harold Pinter Theatre. 18th May 2017. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Imelda Staunton's performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a thing of brilliance. All four members of the cast give brilliant performances but none more so than Staunton - this is the kind of production which makes you wonder why we stop... Continue Reading →