Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

Writer: Ryan Calais Cameron Director: Rob Watt Theatre Centre’s production of Ryan Calais Cameron’s play, Human Nurture, tells the story of two young men, one black and one white, survivors of the social care system. They grew up like brothers but their roads have diverged and, whilst each seeks the same thing, a sense of belonging, they are finding it in very different ways. Justice Ritchie’s Runaku, in a warm, expansive performance, has denounced his white-given name of Roger, has found his Ugandan roots with a family in the south of England and is preparing to go to university. Harry,…

Director: Marianne Elliott Based on the novel by: Mark Haddon Adapted by: Simon Stephens It’s a dramatic start to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as the audience is thrown right into the action. A very realistic looking dead dog lays in the middle of the stage, a garden fork thrust through its back, a boy curled over it. This is how the show introduces Christopher Boone, aged 15 years, three months and two days, clearly on the autistic spectrum and determined to find the dog’s murderer. Christopher’s detecting will force him to be very brave as…

Book: Leo Tolstoy Adapted by : Helen Edmundson Director: Anthony Lau “Politics is our daily bread,” wrote George Eliot in the great 19th Century novel, Felix Holt. She omitted history, culture, faith, religion, morality, education, justice, gender, social class and a dozen other literary themes, without even mentioning love and death, or war and peace. The scope of novels can be vast; rendering one into a few hours on a stage is an enormous challenge. Unsurprisingly, adaptor Helen Edmundson focuses on the central love story, which is mirrored by, and contrasted with, relationships between other characters. Anna, married to the…

Book: Patricia Resnick Music and Lyrics: Dolly Parton Director: Jeff Calhoun Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 the Musical is the musical adaptation of the popular 1980s 20th Century Fox movie and tells the stories of office workers Violet Newstead, Judy Bernly and Doralee Rhodes and how they come together to overthrow their misogynistic boss Franklin Hart Jr. The show has a strong cast and features a great score, however, in some ways the story hasn’t necessarily aged very well. Audiences of different ages seemed to respond in different ways. What some older members of the audience found funny, younger audience…

Writer: Ronald Harwood Director: Terry Johnson “What play is it tonight?” queries Sir not long before curtain up. The question seems strange nowadays but not in Ronald Harwood’s 1980 play set in the days of 1940s touring repertoire. The Dresser is a detailed play about a bygone world of English theatre as well as acting as a love letter to the art form. Weary actor-manager (only know as Sir) played by Matthew Kelly is either in the midst or has recently suffered a nervous breakdown. His company of Shakespeare players are performing King Lear this evening with him taking the…

Writers: John Godber, Elizabeth Godber Directors: John Godber, Jane Thornton Much to John Godber’s credit, rather than continuing to plough a furrow that has brought almost continuous success, he attempts something different in this quirky feel-good musical romance, fantasy within a realistically mundane frame. Godber spans the generations by co-writing Ruby and the Vinyl for the John Godber Company with his daughter Elizabeth. In fact the Godber dynasty keeps a firm hold on proceedings, his wife, Jane Thornton, co-directing and daughter Martha serving as choreographer, though there’s not a lot of dancing on display. Sadly the distinctive tang of a…

Composer: George Frideric Handel Conductor: Laurence Cummings Director: Tim Albery Alcina is one of those Handel Italian operas (staged in London) that relied originally on myth, magic and massive spectacle. The sublime music remains a constant, but it’s important also to devise a stage language that makes sense in the 21st century. One problem is the absurdity of not only the general plot, but of individual situations. In the opening scene of Alcina, for instance, a woman catches her first sight of a handsome knight (actually another woman) and declares that she’s in love. The audience, inevitably, titters. The opera…

Writer/Director: Ross Ericson The Ballad of Mulan shares its name with a 4th/5th century Chinese poem, though the first appearance of the story is even older than that. How far we can attach the word “authentic” to Ross Ericson’s play is debatable, but it’s certainly much more real than the various Disney Princess versions. The legend of Mulan – and opinion is divided as to whether the character existed – tells of a young woman who assumes male identity to take her sick or aged father’s place in the Imperial Army, fights with great distinction, gains high rank and after…