It’s been a tough year for the arts industry, that’s for sure. With closures and hopeful partial re-openings dominating the news feeds, the industry has been working nose to the grindstone for months. Victoria Smith, like others, has decided to take some action and do what she can to support. In September, the fundraising initiative... Continue Reading →
Built in 1900 and now featuring both main stage and studio performance spaces alongside an impressive array of beautiful finer details, Harrogate Theatre is definitely a favourite of mine. Here’s five things to love about it... 1. The team. Rachel Auty departs next month but she’s been an amazing contact as Press Officer and has... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th February 2020 at Harrogate Theatre (Studio). ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Doubt and shadows do indeed pervade this interesting piece from Gill Mcvey who writes, directs and stars as the daughter of a mother lost to dementia and a husband lost to an abrupt, unexpected end. Now living with her father and greeted daily by a warmly... Continue Reading →
Friday 31st January 2020 at Harrogate Theatre (Studio). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Four young people arrive into a void dressed as something resembling 80s teens playing at Star Trek. Four camp beds and a side table are all they have to help them make the big leap from one realm to another and we’re here to witness the... Continue Reading →
Monday 16th December 2019 at The Grand Theatre and Opera House, York. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are taking to the stage at the the Grand Opera House York for the festive season this year. Expect plenty of song and dance, a litany of tongue in cheek gags and some great fun-loving silliness.... 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 →
Wednesday 2nd October 2019 at Harrogate Theatre (Studio). ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rachael Halliwell’s Connection is exactly what it says on the tin: a take on the connections between both strangers and those we know - though perhaps not quite as well as we think. It’s a play which balances some well delivered comedy with some dark edges... Continue Reading →
Saturday 28th September 2019 at York Theatre Royal. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge is a brilliant, intensely gripping play and with an impeccable performance like Nicholas Karimi’s at its centre, this is an outstanding production wholly worthy of its source material. A haunted lawyer (Robert Pickavance) narrates, recalling this tale with gravity... Continue Reading →
Saturday 20th July 2019 at the Grand Theatre and Opera House, York. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Austentatious is improv with a lovely and quirky twist (the clue is in the name). A quick-thinking cast of six take an audience-suggested title of a ‘lost’ or under-appreciated Austen novel and spend an hour and something bringing it into being. Among... Continue Reading →
My top theatre productions of 2018 are up! You can read them all here. But there’s more praise to go around when I look back at the performances and productions to have impressed over the last year. So, with no actual awards to deliver, here are my top cast and creatives of 2018, who shall... Continue Reading →
