Friday, May 19, 2023
Royal Exchange theatre, ManchesterAn updated version of Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s 1974 satire speaks to our times but also suffers from a lack of cohesion
It is quite startling to witness…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:03PMSaturday, April 1, 2023
Maxine Peake and Christopher Eccleston among performers as venue put on final show after losing Arts Council funding
In the end, if indeed it is the end (many on stage would have you believe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMFriday, March 17, 2023
Crucible, Sheffield Anthony Lau brings rich cultural authenticity to the stinging China-set capitalist critique – as well as slides and giant frogs
The success of Everything Everywhere All…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:02AMWednesday, September 14, 2022
Crucible, SheffieldDaneka Etchells is the most compelling Beatrice you might ever see in an exceptional production of the romantic comedy
Post lockdown, theatres are looking for sure things …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04AMWednesday, August 3, 2022
Nottingham PlayhouseThis earnest musical, which features three sets of real twins across its cast, has a deeply moving pay-off
This is an implausible musical, and you may spend the overlong …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:07AMWednesday, July 20, 2022
Hope Mill theatre, ManchesterHeading to the Edinburgh fringe, Justin Huertas’s wildly original musical is sweet and likable but takes itself too seriously
In 2004, the off-kilter American …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:37AMFriday, April 1, 2022
Home, ManchesterSophie Anderson’s novel about a ‘yaga’ ushering the newly dead to the next world is put on its feet in this exuberant show
Is the house going to grow chicken legs and r…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMSunday, March 27, 2022
Leeds PlayhouseWhile unrefined, this show based on Tess Seddon’s failed attempt to stand for parliament, has a heart the size of at least one of the Ridings
There is a neat irony here: had…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AMSunday, February 27, 2022
Hull TruckOne-liners and vernacular idiosyncrasies at the ready, the Hull-born One Man, Two Guvnors playwright Richard Bean takes us back to 1971 and the founding of a local institution
Ori…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AMFriday, February 11, 2022
Crucible, SheffieldWith hula hoops and a giant cake, this show bashes the narrative with disco glitz but keeps tragedy at its centre
That the props department had to source a giant birthday …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMThursday, February 10, 2022
Octagon, BoltonThe regional premiere of Vinay Patel’s six-decade, three-continent story features a fantastic first professional performance from Saba Shiraz
Early on in this three-act, two…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMFriday, January 28, 2022
Studio, SheffieldRyan Calais Cameron’s story of two young men who grew up together in care is flawed yet has a visceral rawness
A writer singled out as a future star, Ryan Calais Cameron (…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:03PMThursday, January 6, 2022
Leeds PlayhouseAfter a run at the Tokyo Olympics, this production arrives in Britain with every ounce of humour and verve exploited to the full
A witty retelling of a classic that leaves no …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMFriday, December 17, 2021
Crucible, SheffieldThis story of loneliness and romantic disappointment is not obvious Christmas show material but has a lot to say about the season
An attempted suicide, characters in the g…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMWednesday, December 1, 2021
Derby theatreJim Hawkins becomes a young woman (or two) in this joyous but flawed adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale
While this is a sometimes flawed production, with an o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24AMMonday, October 25, 2021
The Civic, BarnsleyProper Job’s staging of Kafka’s unfinished novel has a watchable lead and some cracking jokes, but leaves us short on connection
There is a clue about what is to come …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMThursday, September 30, 2021
Leeds PlayhouseFor a tale of the undead, Imitating the Dog’s inventive blend of live theatre and tech is bursting with life
Having tackled zombies in its most recent production, Night of t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AMWednesday, September 29, 2021
Crucible, SheffieldA group of female prisoners come together for a concert in Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s energetic and joyful play
You wait three years for a new Morgan Lloyd Malcolm play and…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AMWednesday, January 30, 2019
As a boy, Nick Ahad idolised the wrestlers he saw on Saturday TV. Now he has revisited the sport’s northern heartland in Glory, a state-of-the-nation play that captures the thrill of the r…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:04AMThursday, December 13, 2018
Christopher Biggins arrives on stage as Widow Twankey in a cake emblazoned with a great 20™ and the curtain call ends with
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:38PMThursday, August 30, 2018
As the only brown person in the room at The Glang Show, I couldn’t shake a sense of otherness when a quip turned sourI’m a few months into a new career as a standup comedian. I’ve had …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:33PMThursday, May 10, 2018
Ask anyone who has trained with Philippe Gaulier: clowning is seriously hard work. A reminder of just how hard comes in Keepy
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:36AMTuesday, April 24, 2018
With his background writing for Coronation Street, playwright Ben Tagoe knows how to crank up the tension in a confined space. With
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:19AMTuesday, February 20, 2018
In the 50th anniversary year of Bolton’s Octagon Theatre, current artistic director Elizabeth Newman has invited back previous holders of the role
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:53AMWednesday, December 20, 2017
The Bradford Alhambra pantomime, part of the Qdos stable, is one of the biggest in the country and this year it doesn’t
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:49AM 
