Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

Writer: Tajinder Singh Hayer Director: Madeleine O’Reilly Public Acts is a nationwide initiative to create extraordinary acts of theatre and community. Cast’s second Public Acts performance follows the triumph of last year’s Doncastrian Chalk Circle, a joyful adaptation of the Brechtian classic from award-winning writer Chris Bush. This time the community ensemble, with professional performer Terence Rae as Polyphemus, take on the Greek epic poem The Odyssey by Homer. This is part two of five, with the other parts being taken on by community companies across the UK. Also following The Odyssey on its trek across the UK is The…

Writer: Dan Lovatt Director: Heather Carroll The idea is irreproachable: Divided Culture Company’s play dealing frankly with the problems of poverty, particularly as it comes unexpectedly to previously stable families, is supported by buckets for local charities and St. Catherine’s Church Centre’s work is publicised by leaflets. Unfortunately the play, though it bursts into life in the closing quarter hour, lacks the emotional impact the subject deserves. Nobody could accuse Dan Lovatt of taking his time at the beginning. Barely is the curtain up than Kivan Dene as Paul staggers in downstage left and collapses on the settee, having suffered…

Writer and Lyrics: Poppy Hollman Music: Amal El-Sawad Director: Marianne McNamara It may be raining outside, but you know Summer is on the way when Mikron take to the road. This astonishing company works on a simple creative principle: take two topics (generally very English ones) each year, commission plays about them, then take four actors, all skilled in at least one musical instrument, to perform them and, finally, head off to the playing fields, village halls and canal-side pubs of England for the summer. The first couple of months finds the company travelling by van from its Marsden base;…

Writer: Kieran Knowles Music and Lyrics: Megson Director: Jess Millward It’s hard to describe The Herald, and indeed Megson themselves aren’t quite sure what to call their current creative output. The folk duo have created a collaboration that definitely isn’t a folk musical, it also isn’t a play with music. It could possibly be described as ‘songs with a storyline’, but this really doesn’t do it justice. Megson, named after a dead dog (their words, not mine), is comprised of Debs and Stu Hanna, who have been singing together since they were bright young things, releasing numerous acclaimed folk albums…

Writer: Rich Hardisty Philosophical and deeply emotive, Rich Hardisty’s Silly Boy is more than just a stand up comedy show. As a storyteller and true master of his craft, he brings a sublime yet deeply moving debut show to the Godber Studio at Hull Truck Theatre – and what a show it was – a real tonic; endearing and utterly flawless. Set to an 80s power ballad soundtrack this beautifully shocking and well rehearsed routine was a pure joy from start to finish with Hardisty not pausing for breath; full throttle, high-octane and passionately compelling. Baring his soul with themes often…

Writers: Elizabeth Godber and Nick Lane Director: Paul Robinson According to the programme this was “originally by William Shakespeare, messed around with by Elizabeth Godber and Nick Lane”, but this is messing around on a grand scale. Shakespeare’s shortest play becomes a near-three hour affair, stuffed with 1980s songs, sometimes shoehorned in, but always performed with zest and animation – choreography by Wayne Parsons. It’s difficult to describe what Godber and Lane (and director Paul Robinson who had the original idea) do to The Comedy of Errors. Originally set in Ephesus, in Shakespeare’s version a series of remarkable events means that Egeon…

Conductor: Jordan de Souza For the final concert of the 2022-23 season, the Orchestra of Opera North engaged two international stars, Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and in-demand Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza. If Helseth’s artistry and technique came as no surprise, de Souza’s fiercely energetic approach to Brahms (and, earlier, to Richard Strauss’s Don Juan) produced some electrifying edge-of-the-seat moments. In Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto Tine Thing Helseth displayed all the fluency, combined with purity of tone and range, that Anton Weidinger’s new improved trumpet could muster in 1803. The longish first movement contained delightful interplay with the orchestra; the…

Writer: Keith Alessi Director: Erika Conway This show is described on Keith Alessi’s website as “A joke tellin’, banjo playin’, heart healin’ experience”, which gives potential audience members a very good idea of what to expect. A one-man show, performed by Alessi, it charts his story from accountant and successful businessman, through life-threatening illness and harrowing treatment to banjo-playing survivor. Alessi comes on in a check shirt and jeans, smiling a little shyly at the audience. Like Alessi, this is a dressed-down production, being chiefly staged in informal performance spaces, without any lights and with little fuss. Alessi is not…