Author: The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East

Director: Lucy Bailey As one of Agatha Christie’s most iconic works, And Then There Were None tells the story of ten strangers lured to an isolated mansion off the Devon coast where a murder mystery unfolds as a storm cuts them off from the mainland. The narrative follows the old children’s nursery rhyme, beginning with ten and one by one each of them dropping, as they are murdered by one of their number. The original Christie classic keeps the reader guessing until the end and this adaptation does her justice, with all of the murder, intrigue, and absurdities essential to…

Writer: Joseph Gardner Hodges Director and Choreographer: Jay Gardner Hodges There are colourful sets and eye-catching choreographed routines abound in this otherwise cliche-riddled and repetitive pantomime, Snow White, which is the festive offering at Canterbury’s Malthouse Theatre this year. It is a story we are largely familiar with, with Snow White falling to the cruel intentions of her Step-Mothers, named in this production as Queen Camilla, a dig it seems in name only at the current monarch, as nothing else is mentioned. As the pantomime rolls on, it falls to Prince Charming, Muddles, Nurse Fanny and The Spirit of the…

Writer: Joe Tracini Additional Material: Richard Gauntlett Director: Christ Cuming Sleeping Beauty is a staple of the panto season, with plenty of opportunity for fairies, wishes, and happily ever afters. Of course, a story in which the princess spends the entire second act taking a nap until a man shows up to fix everything is more than a little problematic and is one in need of an update. And that’s a challenge that Joe Tracini, with support from Richard Gauntlett, has taken on in Norwich this year. In this incarnation of Sleeping Beauty we have a self-aware princess making her…

Writer: Alan McHugh Director: Joseph Houston A pair of Albert Square residents bring some much-needed cheer to the new Orchard West in this year’s pantomime Beauty and the Beast. Dartford’s Orchard West is the temporary home for theatre in Dartford following the closure of the Orchard Theatre, after the latter’s roof forced the venue to shut its doors following the discovery of the much-maligned reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) earlier this year. As a result, Dartford has been without its biggest theatre until a new, temporary, venue popped up a few yards away, bringing with it this Christmas’s festive feast.…

Choreographer: David Nixon Beauty and the Beast is, of course, the classic story of Beauty selflessly leaving her home and family to go and live in the Beast’s castle where she sees him for more than just a monster. Northern Ballet’s return to the stage this winter version of this familiar tale, now a little over a decade old, but showing no signs of rusting. Set to a handpicked score of French and Russian music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the likes of Bizet and Debussy, this incarnation of the tale as old as time gives…

Writer: Michael Frayn Director: Lindsay Posner Fresh from the West End, the revival of Michael Frayn’s 1982 Noises Off brings its brand of traditional British farce to Norwich. The play-within-a-play structure takes us across three acts of the production journey of Nothing On from its dress rehearsal beginning, behind the scenes, and on stage to the final curtain. With a set containing seven doors, it’s clear from the outset that this will be a door-slamming farce full of quick jokes, mistaken identities, and precision timing. The stage is a character in and of itself in this production with its careful…

Writer: James Graham Director: Daniel Evans & Sean Linnen Instant nostalgia comes to Norwich as the curtain opens on this revival of James Graham’s Quiz, to give us the stage, the screen, and the chairs that filled just about every home once a week at the turn of the millennium.  The show, based on the headline-grabbing ‘Coughing Major’ incident in Charles Ingram’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire run pokes light-hearted fun at it all, while of course exploring whether Charles and his wife really were guilty (that’s for the audience to decide). Leading the show as Chris Tarrant, impressionist…

 Writer : Kelly Jones, Shamser Sinha and Nicola Werenowska Composer: Georgia Shackleton Director : Elayce Ismail We gather in the imposing, philanthropic space of Colchester’s Old Library – it has its own atmosphere, like most of the venues on this carefully curated tour, which began in Bury St Edmunds Georgian Theatre Royal, and ends in November in the iconic candlelight of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe. The small acting area is populated with candles and anglepoise lamps. On the floor, a few white feathers drift in the draught from the door. The three actors enter through the audience – dressed in white,…