Month: July 2023

The COVID pandemic had a devastating impact upon the workplace; many people found their livelihoods vanished, compelling them to seek alternative employment. In Bright Lights City, Marchia Brogan plays a middle-aged woman whose career in finance is threatened by a combination of old-school tie office politics and a resentful ex-husband. Her world turned upside down, she… Continue reading Bright Lights City

Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian will be honoured as Singer of the Year this October in Germany’s most prestigious classical music awards. This triple triumph in Puccini’s three one-act operas at the 2022 Salzburg Festival must surely have been a major factor leading to that award. Grigorian is winsome and winning as Lauretta in the comedy… Continue reading Il Trittico (Gianni Schicchi, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica)

Gillian Slovo’s powerful verbatim drama, derived mostly from interviews with survivors of the Grenfell fire, begins gently enough. Performers introduce themselves to the audience who sit on four sides of a performance space that is lit by the house lights for the early part of the show. We are told we can at any point… Continue reading Grenfell: in the words of survivors

It seems almost sacrilegious for a theatre company from the North West to stage Steven Berkoff’s East, a play closely associated with the East End of London. However, despite incorporating the name of the author into the title, Room 5064 Productions shows no signs of being intimidated by the famous material stamping their own imprint… Continue reading Steven Berkoff’s East

During the overture, a pastiche Busby Berkeley dance number is shown on film, which instantly establishes the golden era of the Hollywood musical. The chorus girls with their plumed headdresses and silken arm attachments and a chorus of sailor boys straight out of On the Town make for an instant nostalgic image. The Dutch National Opera’s production,… Continue reading Rusalka

The 2023 GM Fringe is not short of ambitious shows. In the tradition of the documentary Searching for Sugar Man, Róis Doherty and Xenia Lily investigate the true-life disappearance of singer Connie Converse who vanished in 1974. Connie Converse came from a strict Baptist family and, it is implied, overindulged in alcohol to cope with… Continue reading What Happened to Connie Converse?

The Mousetrap stops off on its epic, cross-country 70th anniversary tour at the Bristol Hippodrome—one of the larger venues it’s playing. What more can be added to the reviewing world in regards to Agatha Christie’s globally renowned whodunnit play? Let’s see… It is a remarkable feat, with a worldwide pandemic aside, The Mousetrap remains a constant attraction all… Continue reading The Mousetrap

Cruise was one of the first plays to be staged as theatreland timidly emerged from lockdown in 2021. The appeal at such a fraught time is obvious, with just two people on stage social distancing is easy to achieve. There is also a topical aspect—as the world comes to terms with the end of a health… Continue reading Cruise

(Short summary) March. Time of the Napoleon wars. Ruined church and surroundings on the stage. Seriously ill, leprosy people on the ground. Basilius, the alchemist, comes out of the undercroft. Here he will meet soon the rulers of the nature and the Universe, the rulers of us, the entire humankind. Our world is full of… Continue reading Tyranny, a Stage Puppet Show