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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
National Theatre Live, from The Harold Pinter Theatre. 18th May 2017. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Knock out. Star. Superstar. Electrifying. Scrap the cliches guys; Imelda Staunton's performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is of stratospheric brilliance. Edward Albee's play is superbly written and James Macdonald has brought about one hell of an intense and explosive piece of... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 26th April, 2017 at West Yorkshire Playhouse ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ There is a brilliant energy running through this enchanting production with its enveloping rowdy scenes of bars and busy streets. But the surreal energy of this piece also pervades the darker aspects and although she lives life under a perpetual dark cloud, our protagonist is a... Continue Reading →
