Author: The Reviews Hub - North West

Writer: David Drake Director: Adam Zane When David Drake starred in the premier of his play The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me in 1992, it would have been a shockingly honest and relevant piece of theatre. Now, over thirty years on, the play has a somewhat different impact. Given these are subjects that have since been much explored in theatre, and culture more widely, it’s interesting to look back at what’s almost a period piece, and see what it delivers in the 2020s. At the beginning of the 90s the 1969 Stonewall Riots, considered to be the earliest demonstration of…

Writer: Gerry Linford Director: Emma Bird Gerry Linford returns to Liverpool’s Royal Court stage with the sequel to his show from last year, The Peaceful Hour 2, bringing with him his band of beloved Scouse characters. Sat in the audience, the opportunity to enjoy a delicious meal while exploring Liverpool’s vibrantly staged culture can’t be missed. This heart-warming show, and its inaugural production, is based upon the after-hours radio fixture The Peaceful Hour, which ran on Radio City for over four decades. Hosted by Pete Price, the show is constantly referenced, with Price himself providing some nostalgic voiceovers. With Emma…

Directors: Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney “Circus couples are a pain in the arse,” Charlotte Mooney tells us right at the start of the show. It’s a blunt but enlightening glimpse into circus life, and a widely held belief that romantic partners don’t exactly play well together. Which makes it all the more interesting that Mooney and Alex Harvey fell in love 24 years ago, and, despite vowing never to work together, have been doing precisely that ever since. The pair went on to form Ockham’s Razor and have spent the years making and performing critically acclaimed circus shows. When…

Writer: Victoria Oxley Director: Megan Marie Griffith Maggie is struggling to come to terms with the death of her Nan. No surprise really, as it’s the end of everything she knew and loved, and suddenly her world is falling apart. Her life now mostly consists   weekly visits to her therapist and nights out with her sister at the Blue Anchor pub. This powerful two hander brilliantly explores a whole range of tough subjects – depression, OCD, overeating, abuse, grief and addiction – all wrapped up in 75 minutes of affecting drama. But if this sounds like a difficult watch, it’s…

Writer: Stephen M Hornby Director: Oliver Hurst Multi-award winning Inkbrew Productions has come to the New Adelphi Theatre at the University of Salford as part of a national tour of The BBC’s First Homosexual – a production based on the lost 1954 radio documentary on male homosexuality.  Powerful and poignant, the piece is being delivered as part of LGBT+ History Month – an annual celebration of the lives of LGBT+ people of the past, which is marked every February in the UK.  Writer Stephen M Hornby has done a phenomenal job of bringing history to life, interspersing a fictional story…

Teaċ Daṁsa are a dance company established in Dingle, West Kerry just ten years ago, by Choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan. They have fast become known for their fearless and original contemporary productions. Keegan-Dolan didn’t appear out of nowhere in 2019 though. He’s was formally an Associate Artist at Sadlers Wells and the Barbican, and was Artistic Director of Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, but with Teaċ Daṁsa he has created something rooted in his own heritage, the folklore, music, landscape and culture of rural Ireland, and enhanced through collaboration and improvisation with international dancers and musicians. MÁM is a brilliantly conceived collaboration…

Co-creators & Directors: Chloe Barlow & Joshua Wilkinson This original piece of theatre is a love letter to Manchester. Hearing the real accounts of people who belong in Manchester feels heartfelt and organic. The play focuses on three main characters. Demereece Green, Elizabeth Cameron, and Verity Walker-Sherrif all play themselves and tell their stories in their own words. The show centres on a theme of belonging, which shines through from the very start. It encourages audiences to reflect on their own sense of belonging and places value on the groups where people most feel themselves. It asks the question: what…

Writer: Noel Coward Director: Amy Gavin Private Lives at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre feels like being let into a delicately tricky matter of affairs, both volatile and magnetic, presented by HER Productions with a fresh take. Set within Hope Mill’s intimate space, Noël Coward’s comedy becomes all the more attainable. Set in the 1930s, with the women draped in silks and lace and the men clad in beige suits and luxurious dress robes, the production focuses on the divorced couple Amanda (Hannah Ellis Ryan) and Elyot (Charlie Nobel), who unexpectedly reunite while honeymooning with their new partners in the same…