Author: The Reviews Hub - Central

Writer: Ian Hallard Director: Mark Gatiss In the programme, writer Ian Hallard says that imagining his dream role was the spark from which The Way Old Friends Do was kindled. And here he is, playing that very role. Sort of. In the 1980s, two misfit Brummie schoolfriends pluck up the courage to come out to one another: Edward is gay; Peter is an ABBA fan. After school, they go their separate ways until a bizarre chance meeting some thirty years later. By now, Peter is single and has come to terms with his bisexuality, while Edward is in a happy…

Music: Roman GianArthur and Nate Wonder Writer: Steven Knight CBE Director and choreographer: Benoit Swan Pouffer How does one bring a sense of majesty and beauty to a story such as the Peaky Blinders? A story of death and destruction, of love and loss and of greed and grief, so filled with hardships that the thought of breaking into dance seems ludicrous. The Rambert Dance Group manages it and then some, with wonder and spectacle oozing out of every inch of the stage, every second of the music and every movement of the dancers. Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas…

Music: Felix Hagan Writers: Al Murray, Matt Forde and Sean Foley Director: Sean Foley The choreographers of corruptible caricature, the savage savants of satire, the latex lampooners of spotlit media mayhem lunacies are back in business. Forty years on from their Central TV Sunday peak-viewing schlock and phwoar rubber-themed anarchies, they’re on a Magnificent Seven Mission led by the pint-sized Tom Cruise. Puppets on a bling, extreme mannequins make-over for the Third Millenium: it’s all refreshingly offensive in the good old-fashioned way. How to flesh out a disparate, often despicably bad-taste, desperate twenty-minute shotgun marriage cursed in Hell sketch-show format…

Writer: Agatha Christie Adapter: Rachel Wagstaff Director: Philip Franks The village of St Mary Mead is positively agog. Fading movie star Marina Gregg has bought Gossington Hall from the widowed Dolly Bantry to use as a base for her comeback movie. She’s moved her entire entourage in and has graciously allowed the hall to be used for a fundraiser for the local St John Ambulance – the president of which, Heather Leigh, is star struck having dined out for years on her story of having met Miss Gregg some years ago. But tragedy strikes at the reception and Mrs Leigh…

Writer:  J.B Priestley Director: Stephen Daldry J.B. Priestley’s best-known work, An Inspector Calls, has consistently stood the test of time. This is a revival of the 1992 award-winning National Theatre production directed by Stephen Daldry. Written by Priestley at the end of the Second World War and set just before the onset of the first, Daldry evokes the theme of war as a looming monster plainly surrounding the ivory tower of the Birlings, the safe bubble in which they all live. Here they are visited by Inspector Goole, investigating the murder of Eva Smith and their involvement in it. Daldry…

Music: Marc Shaiman Lyrics: Scott Wittman Writer: Roald Dahl Adaptor: David Grieg Director: James Brining Stories do not come much bigger than Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. This rags-to-riches tale speaks to us all on some level, hence the many incarnations the story has enjoyed. Roald Dahl’s iconic book has carved itself a place in our collective consciousness as a rite of passage for every child to experience.  The story follows Charlie (at this performance, Noah Walton), the only child of the impoverished Bucket family. Charlie fantasises of a life free from poverty, where his family are comfortable, and he is…

Writer: Christy Lefteri Adaptors: Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler Director: Miranda Cromwell Nuri is a beekeeper. Not that he was always happy with that – the bees used to scare him. Now though, he understands them – as he says, “they are like a society in complete harmony with itself. Not like people at all”. He lives happily with his wife Afra in Aleppo, a beautiful place until war strikes. All they care about is destroyed and they decide to leave, to head for the UK. How are they to get there though? As a piece of theatre, the concept works…

Creator and Director: Kevin Finnan Music: Tim Dickinson and Sophy Smith What can you do with a cardboard box? When you’re an adult you might decide to use it for storage, or simply put it in the recycling bin. When you’re a child though, you have a child’s imagination – and with a child’s imagination, a cardboard box can be almost anything. If you’ve got a lot of cardboard boxes, and a lot of imagination, the possibilities become almost endless. You could make a roller coaster – or a train – or a fort – or even, maybe, a rocket…