You don’t have to look very hard to find a regeneration area in London. We see some of them in the film footage projected onto a back-screen in Chickenshed’s Rush, a musical journey through the lives of three women victims of Britain’s pursuit of wealth. Houses are being demolished and flash new blocks are being… Continue reading Rush
Month: April 2023
The Book of Will to tour
A new production of Lauren Gunderson’s award-winning comedy The Book of Will is coming to UK audiences this year in its European première. This love letter to theatre is a co-production from Octagon Theatre Bolton, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Shakespeare North Playhouse. Opening at Hornchurch from April 27–May 13, before transferring to Bolton from May 17–June 3… Continue reading The Book of Will to tour
The Merchant of Venice 1936
The history of the playing of Shylock on stage is, in some ways, the history of attitudes towards Jews in different times and countries, particularly in Europe, over the last 400 years; he has been a monster, a pantomime villain and an innocent victim of evil Christians, but all of these distort Shakespeare’s play in… Continue reading The Merchant of Venice 1936
Anne to govern in Chesterfield panto
Anne Hegerty, The Governess from the ITV quiz programme The Chase, will play the Empress in Aladdin, the 2023 pantomime at Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel Theatre. Hegerty, a favourite with fans of The Chase in both the UK and Australia, has also appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Loose Women and This Morning. Panto producer Paul Holman said, “Anne is… Continue reading Anne to govern in Chesterfield panto
Marjorie Prime
Prime—would does that word mean—in the prime of life, prime numbers? In Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated 2014 play, made into a sci-fi film in 2017, it’s about mortality, old age, memory, and what remains of us when we’re gone. And AI, artificial intelligence—AI avatars called Primes, who are recreations of our dear departed. It couldn’t be… Continue reading Marjorie Prime
New Vic and Upswing to fuse theatre with circus
Staffordshire’s New Vic Theatre and circus company Upswing are to begin an annual programme of work fusing theatre with contemporary circus. The two organisations will develop their creative collaborations which began in 2009 with Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Magdalen King-Hall’s novel The Wicked Lady. The partnership aims to bring circus home to Newcastle-under-Lyme where Philip Astley, father of the modern… Continue reading New Vic and Upswing to fuse theatre with circus
Blackpool Tower Circus
When it comes to a Big Top circus, they don’t come any bigger than the one that nestles between the legs of Blackpool Tower. Now, as it approaches its 130th year of entertainment, the world’s oldest permanent circus arena can also boast one of the longest ‘summer’ seasons as well. This year’s started at February… Continue reading Blackpool Tower Circus
Body positive?
Would you trade five years of your life for the perfect body? A new play touring the UK this spring asks audiences this question and tells the story of one woman prepared to do just that. 5 Years, which comes to The Dukes in Lancaster May 4, uses hologram technology to turn the spotlight on… Continue reading Body positive?
The Way Old Friends Do
Actor Ian Hallard’s debut play as a dramatist takes its title from an ABBA song and ABBA are its inspiration, but you don’t have to be an ABBA aficionado to enjoy it, though fans will get an extra fillip from recognising song references and arcane information about the Scandinavian foursome. Back in the day, schoolboys… Continue reading The Way Old Friends Do
Akhnaten
Magical, mystical, magnificent… Philip Glass’s Akhnaten (1983/4) returns to the Coliseum for its first ENO revival since 2016. I have seen it three times and the score still spins its mesmerising spell on me. Baroque, lyrical, minimalism moderated, Akhnaten is a spiritual meditation. Sung in Egyptian, Hebrew and Akkadian with no distracting surtitles, (the libretto is printed in the programme)… Continue reading Akhnaten