Author: The Reviews Hub - Central

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Gregory Doran Richard III marks the end of Shakespeare’s first great history cycle, and this production marks a first for the Royal Shakespeare Company as we finally get to see Richard – famed for his disability – played in Stratford by a disabled actor. Casting Arthur Hughes in the role adds an extra layer of authenticity to the play, the insults sting a little harder, his bitter comments about himself strike home a little more. This Richard is a long way from the limping, shuffling figure that we often see. Hughes takes a naturalistic approach to his…

Music: Clement Ishmael and Dominique Le Gendre Lyrics: Clement Ishmael, Dominique Le Gendre, Mustapha Matura and Nicolas Kent Writer: Mustapha Matura Directors: Clement Ishmael, Nicolas Kent and Dominique Le Gendre It was early in the twentieth century that John Millington Synge wrote Playboy of the Western World, a play set in County Mayo that was notable for its poetic use of language and celebrating the speech patterns of the Irish. In 1984, Trinidadian playwright, Mustapha Matura created a version, Playboy of the West Indies, set in the West Indies in the 1950s and full of the patois of the area. Sadly,…

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Andy Barrow After an imposed hiatus, Oddsocks Theatre is back on its quest to make theatre, especially Shakespeare, accessible to all. But have they bitten off more than they can chew in the attempt to make Hamlet – usually considered a somewhat dour experience – into a comedy? With over thirty years’ experience of doing exactly that kind of thing, who’d bet against them? And yes, they’ve done it again. Hamlet the Comedy is a magical combination of farce, physical theatre, silly sight gags, puppetry and, yes, the bard’s immortal prose. The set is compact and…

Conductor: Martin Yates It must have been divine inspiration to call this concert Some Enchanted Evening because that is exactly what conductor Martin Yates and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) deliver. The opening piece, Carousel Waltz, is a microcosm of the whole; under Yates’ economical yet fluid and authoritative direction, the orchestra changes mood and pace effortlessly, moving from the unsettling opening to the positively mellifluous swinging main them. Over and over, Yates coaxes climaxes that are somehow subtle and unexpected while in retrospect being entirely inevitable. And we immediately warm to quietly spoken Yates as he takes…

Songs: Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed Original Screenplay: Betty Comden and Adolph Green Director: Jonathan Church It’s 1927 and the world is about to change for Lockwood and Lamont and the entire movie industry. Their latest silent feature film has been released to great acclaim but it is the end of an era. The Jazz Singer is hot on its tails and now the audience wants talkies. This was a genuinely trying time as some of the stars of the silver screen gracefully retired as they simply couldn’t sound as good as they looked. But that won’t happen to…

Writer: Judith Kerr Adaptor: The Wardrobe Ensemble Music: Joey Hickman Directors: Jesse Jones and Helena Middleton Prowling onto the Royal and Derngate stage this summer is Mog the Forgetful Cat. Part of the Made in Northampton season,  it’s a story that fills us with joy and nostalgia in equal measure as we collectively remember reading the books on the hard cold floor of the school assembly hall. Just as the books stole our hearts as children, so too will the play as we share the story with the next generation. Made famous by the books written by Judith Kerr, Mog forgets…

Writer: David Walliams Adaptor/Director: Neal Foster Joe Spud has everything money can buy that a 12-year-old could wish for: we first meet him racing against the computer on a massive screen in a video game. Four years ago, Joe’s dad, Len, was wrapping toilet rolls at the factory when he had a brilliant idea for a better loo roll – and so Bumfresh was born. Bumfresh is so revolutionary that Len is soon the richest man in Britain and Joe the richest boy. But can money buy you happiness? Can it solve all your problems? Can it buy you the one…

Writer: Sandy Rustin Director: Mark Bell Cluedo, the play of the film of the famous 1949 board game; whatever your introduction to Cluedo, you will know all about the characters, the drama, the intrigue, and the classic line of ‘Miss Scarlett, in the hall with the revolver!’ A performance like this is nothing without its cast, who must deliver memorable and intriguing characters that keep us entertained and enthralled throughout. The cast of Cluedo manages this and then some with exceptional performances across the entire ensemble. And even with a change in the cast with Harry Bradley replacing Daniel Casey…