Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

Writer: William Golding Adapter: Nigel Williams Director: Amy Leach  Amy Leach, Deputy Artistic Director at Leeds Playhouse and Director of Lord of the Flies, invites the audience of Lord of the Flies to draw parallels between the themes of this famous story and the world we live in today. A nameless island represented by a set comprising of a single brutalist structure and tall palm trees becomes home for a group of young plane crash survivors, fleeing war in Britain. No sooner are we introduced to the school children do we see hierarchies and tribes form onstage. Allegiances are pledged…

This recital, by this season’s Ariadne and her outstanding accompanist, was the first in what it is hoped will be a regular series of commemorations of the late Dr Keith Howard OBE whose philanthropic donations to Opera North have done so much to enable the company to expand, including, among other things, endowing the venue where this was taking place. It was an interesting and intelligently planned evening, with Llewellyn majestic across the full range of her voice and Lepper subtle and attentive to her every phrase, but in truth weighted a little towards angst and gloom. No matter -…

Music: Gioachino Rossini Director: Valentina Ceschi Conductor: Jonathan Peter Kenny It says much for the development of English Touring Opera as a company and their growing ambition that they are prepared to tackle Il Viaggio a Reims. This opera, full of Rossini’s music at its most sparkling, is almost never performed by opera houses because of the demands on the singers: it’s claimed with a touch of exaggeration that you need the 14 finest singers in the world! English Touring Opera can’t manage that, but – the occasional straining for a high note or swallowing of patter apart – the cast…

Writer: Jules Verne Adapter and Director: Juliet Forster With enough imagination and creativity, anything is possible on a stage. That being said, it is to Tilted Wig Productions’ credit that they have tackled such a challenging multi-location tale as Around the World in 80 Days and successfully captured the essence of Jules Verne’s story of the globetrotting Phileas Fogg. Verne’s 1973 novel follows the intrepid Fogg as he attempts what (at the time) seemed an impossible feat: circumnavigating the globe in eleven and a half weeks. Accompanied by this manservant Passepartout and pursued by a dogged detective who wrongly believes…

Writer and Director: Nicola Pollard Nicola Pollard has set herself the formidable challenge of reducing a mass of real stories of miners and their families to a two-hander to tour the various mining regions of England for Up the Road Theatre. Despite the good intentions and the noble efforts of Ellinor Larsson and Philip Gill, the enterprise is only partially successful. Much about the staging is very effective. Aileen Kelly’s set design is simple, but works well in the non-theatrical venues the tour takes in: a couple of chairs and a table and a pile of furniture initially covered by…

Writer: F. Scott Fitzgerald Music: Richard Rodney Bennett Choreographer: David Nixon It is after the Great War, in roaring ’20s America, where F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fictional character Jay Gatsby has amassed a great fortune and throws extravagant parties for the wealthy set. In his mansion in West Egg, Long Island, Gatsby looks across the bay and pines for his long lost love, Daisy. She lives in East Egg and is unhappily married to the deceitful and cheating Tom Buchanan. Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s new neighbour, is Daisy’s cousin and he arranges for Gatsby and Daisy to meet. The couple’s love is…

Music: Giuseppe Verdi Libretto: Antonio Ghislanzoni Director: Ellen Kent Conductor: Vasyl Vasylenko Verdi’s Aida is opera on the grand scale and this production by Ellen Kent certainly does not disappoint in terms of its visual staging and spectacle. The Alhambra is undoubtedly not the biggest theatre this opera will ever have been performed upon but the design makes full use of the space at hand to deliver an enthralling theatre experience that will live long in the memory. A traditional Egyptian setting – all god statues, grand temples, royal palace and colourful costumes with a hint of the Coloseum and…

Writer: Bertolt Brecht Adapter: Nina Segal Director: Anthony Lau The Good Person of Szechwan was written between 1938 and 1943 but sadly, with its themes of relentless financial pressure and a system rigged from above, remains as relevant as ever. While many adaptations and iterations have been brought to the stage in the intervening years, something about staging a production amidst a cost-of-living crisis bears more than a little resemblance to Brecht’s overt political messaging. Though this new translation brings contemporary flair, director Anthony Lau has elegantly executed the epic theatre style of neither leading nor lecturing an audience but…