Writer: Natalie Songer Director: Nicholas Barton-Wines “Not all of this story is true,” confesses Natalie Songer at the outset, promising to shed light on dark matter as she shares a powerfully personal exploration of family, war and outer space. Now a successful and creative theatre maker, as a teenager she’d dreamed of being an astronaut, hence the connection she made with her uncle Tom, by then a leading NASA scientist. Tom sent the young Natalie encouraging letters, and an airmail package containing On the Glassy Sea, his autobiography. Too technical, too dense, it was set aside on a shelf, “waiting…
Author: The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East
The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East
The South East team is under the editorship of John McRoberts. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.
Book: Stephen Elliott and Allan Scott Director: Dan Smith A riot of wigs, heels, and glitter arrive in Norwich on the back end of Pride month to take the audience on an adventure through the Australian outback with three friends in a battered old bus. Based on the 1994 film that paved the way for so many, this incarnation of Pricilla proudly arrives to fly the flag once more. Drag performer Mitzi (Matt Squance) sets out on a cross-Australia journey to play the gig of a lifetime and finally meet his young son, for which he recruits the help of…
Music/Lyrics: Tom Eyen Director: Henry Krieger Set in the United States in the 60s, Dream girls introduces us to a trio known as the Dreamettes; a group of young black women trying to make their way into an industry controlled by old white men. The show follows their highs and lows, both emotionally and vocally, as they navigate love, friendship, and the pitfalls of fame. From the opening notes of the show, it is clear that this will be a spectacle. Brandon Lee Sears as Jimmy Early seizes the stage and pulls the focus of everyone in the room in…
Performers: Cirque Alfonse For seventeen days each May, The Norfolk and Norwich Festival transforms public spaces, streets, performance venues, parks, forests, and beaches into the home of music, theatre, literature, dance, and more. The aim of the festival is to bring people together to experience the bold, the unusual, and the inspirational. Found in the Adnams’ Spiegeltent within the festival gardens, Cirque Alfonse has arrived with their show Barbu, which certainly embodies precisely what the festival is all about. Cirque Alfonse melds the old with the new in this unusual circus. The French-Candian troupe is a riot of colour, beards,…
Writers: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields with Penn and Teller Director: Adam Megiddo In the latest creation from Mischief Theatre, of The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong fame, in conjunction with the ever anarchistic Penn and Teller the audience are welcomed into an evening of magic titled Disasters in Magic Charity Fundraiser. The show-within-the-show to honour all the magicians who have met untimely ends within the last year is hosted by Sophisticato (Sam Hill) following the untimely death of his father the original Sophisticato, who is joined by a range of magical stereotypes. Each…
When a super-sleuth 11-year-old received a strange postcard addressed to her, her interests were immediately piqued. Once her adult had explained she wasn’t being stalked by a strange person with great artistic talent and they had, in fact, signed her up to New Perspectives’ Fair Play postcard series, she set to work on cracking the mysterious code and taking part in some of the activities presented. Billed as “a six-part funfair mystery posted through letterboxes for children and families to enjoy”, the series promises codes to crack, creative challenges and mysterious scenarios to promote thinking and problem-solving. A detective notebook…
Writer: George Orwell Adaptor: Robert Icke Director: Robert Icke Orwell’s novella, an allegorical tale about Stalinism in the form of the animals of Manor Farm who rise in a revolution to drive out the humans and strive for a home in which all animals are equal, has been brought to life on stage thanks to the puppetry of Toby Olié. Robert Icke’s take on the classic, while co-produced by the Children’s Theatre Partnership, is certainly not a toned-down version of the book aimed at kids. This telling stays true to the original with all of the brutality and horror which…
Music, Book and Lyrics: Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom Macrae From an original idea by Jonathan Butterell. Director: Matt Ryan Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, hit West End musical and now touring production, tells the story of a sixteen-year-old boy who wants to become a drag queen. The show, inspired by the BBC documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, follows its titular character as he tries to navigate the prejudice and bullying of a British School system to step into the light and become a drag star. In the role of Jamie, Layton Williams is the quintessential ‘superstar, in a wonderbra’.…