Writer: Neil Gore Director: Louise Townsend Townsend Productions are unique in mounting productions that tour widely and offer a firmly left-wing perspective whilst remaining thoroughly entertaining. This time it’s the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders that get the Townsend treatment – and it seems to this reviewer that the production has a spot more gloss than usual! The story of the UCS work-in is told through the eyes of two young women: Aggie McGraw, silly, prepared for a fight where justice in involved, learning about left-wing politics through the work-in, and Eddy Edson, more sophisticated, with art school in the background as…
Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East
The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East
The Yorkshire & North East team is under the editorship of Jacob Bush. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.
Writer: Noel Coward Director: Christopher Luscombe Private Lives, one of Noel Coward’s classic plays, centres around divorced couple Amanda and Elyot. They both remarry to younger partners and find themselves honeymooning in neighbouring rooms in the same hotel. The play discusses ideas around what love is and whether one can ever truly fall out of love. Coward’s script is funny, perfectly paced and believable. It is no surprise that the play has become so popular when he has written some brilliant characters. Christopher Luscombe’s direction is good – the piece is well staged. However, some transitions between scenes, particularly in…
Writer: John Rwothomack Director: Mojisola Elufowoju How does an innocent child become a ruthless child soldier, killing on command? Is it fear, brainwashing, intimidation, bullying, religion, captivity, or all of these things? When the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacks his village in Northern Uganda in the 1980s, young Okumu and his older brother are out playing. Okumu takes the audience with him on his terrifying journey of coercion to becoming a soldier for the LRA. John Rwothomack, the writer and actor of this one act play was born in Uganda and was almost kidnapped himself by the LRA. He believes,…
Writers: Rachel Newton, Lauren MacColl Heal & Harrow is a 50-minute suite of music about the Scottish witch trials, written and performed by Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl, taking inspiration from the writings of Mairi Kidd and accompanied by visuals by Alison Piper. The Leeds date was the last but one in a short tour of the UK. The short first half revealed Newton and MacColl in relaxed mood, taking turns to introduce a number from their folk song repertory, chatting happily between numbers about the attractiveness of the room, the weather and their visit to the Witch’s Stone at…
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…