Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

Writer: J B Priestley Director: Stephen Daldry An Inspector Calls is a hugely popular GCSE text across England (and probably beyond) so it is no surprise that J B Priestley’s complex play is still enjoying sell out tours of the UK. It tells the story of Birling family as they get tied up in a police investigation. The play address key themes around morality and features plenty of social commentary that still, alas, finds itself relevant today. Stephen Daldry directs this production, alongside Charlotte Peters as Associate Director. The production is packed full of symbolism and the use of space has…

Book, Music and Lyrics: Gus Gowland Director: Tania Azevedo There is much to love about Gus Gowland’s new musical Mayflies. For a start, there’s a narrative that is in parts funny, in others gut wrenching – the tale of a two-year online relationship that goes fleetingly offline (almost akin to the life cycle of a mayfly) has a familiarity to it that anyone attempting to navigate the past three years in the world will feel. Another big plus is the incredibly talented rotational cast who have been directed to convey a relatability and sense of realness by director Tania Azevedo…

Director: Andrii Bilous Writer: William Shakespeare In Ukraine, the humble Rhododendron flower is called Chervona Ruta, and there’s a folk tale that says once every ten years, if a girl can gives the bloom to her partner then he will stay with her forever. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, fairy Puck uses a flower to cast a love spell on two sleeping couples. Spotting this connection gave Kyiv National Academic Molodyy Theatre the keys to opening their interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most loved romantic comedies. Cut down to a tight one hour, this retelling stars only seven actors, mostly removes…

Writer: Lyndsay Rodden Director: Annie Rigby Part of a Public Acts multi-chapter production that has already visited three venues and will next reach its conclusion at London’s National Theatre, The Island of the Sun is chapter four of a new stage adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Each chapter has been created and staged by the local communities of each venue, with this chapter of the Greek epic being given a very Sunderland flavour. Rodden’s script features references to the local football team, shipbuilding and pease pudding along with lashings of Mackem dialect and slang and, along with setting it all…

Co-Creators: Chloe Darke, Susannah Scott and Laurie Caldwell Director: Helen Tennison As part of Hull Truck’s Grow Season, which by the looks of it is an exciting programme of events, tonight’s offering is somewhat of an acquired taste. As bawdy as you’d expect from a restoration comedy, Dirty Corset certainly lives up to its title. Bang Average Theatre’s production is both filthy and flirtatious and their commitment to the art form should be commended. The players are deft in movement and form and in this, a  cathartic pastiche, the darkly honest performances are played out with an ardent quality and…

Writer: John Godber Director: Jane Thornton The problem with Bouncers is that it is so very much of its time. 40-odd years on references are more difficult to pick up and the ground-breaking style is no longer so ground-breaking. Yet audiences clamour to see it again. Only some four years after the last tour Hull Truck Theatre was pretty much crammed for a matinee performance and audience amusement was considerable, if not quite as hysterical as in years gone by. It’s interesting to note the changes that Godber makes as the years pass. On the previous tour the play ran for 100…

Book, Music and Lyrics: Willy Russell Directors: Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright At the end of his most famous love story, William Shakespeare asks “For ever was there a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo?”. Well, clearly Shakespeare never saw Blood Brothers. Set in Liverpool between roughly the 1950s and the 1980s, Blood Brothers presents the audience with a challenging question: “And do we blame superstition for what came to pass? Or is it what we the English have come to know as class?” Is the story one of nature vs nurture, fate vs free…

Writer and Director: Ben Humphrey The York International Shakespeare Festival runs under the aegis of York St John University for some ten days to May 1, with a whole variety of projects available, from a sonnet marathon to performances of European plays, from staging Shakespeare’s plays to an introduction to Shakespeare’s Croatian contemporary, Marin Drzic. For Shakespeare’s Fool the Festival moves to Theatre@41, an upstairs venue with a wide-open stage area. This is very much a Fringe production, with two years at Edinburgh behind it, a 75-minute running time without interval, a single actor and no set. It’s none the worse for…