Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

Writers: Sean Foley, Hamish McColl, Eddie Braben Director: Sean Foley The Play What I Wrote is something of a mystery. This Birmingham Rep production seems to garner very enthusiastic reviews, but really tries hard to justify them in only two sequences: the prior-to-the-interval song and dance to A You’re Adorable, with Carmen Miranda get-ups, and the play itself, A Tight Squeeze for the Scarlet Pimple, a piece of French Revolutionary hokum that runs the gamut of French Revolutionary gags. Otherwise it jogs along pleasantly. A secondary mystery is the special guest. Pre-performance publicity listed off any number of big names…

Conductor: Antony Hermus The latest concert in the Kirklees Town Halls concert season was always supposed to be commemorative. Poignantly and ironically, as General Director of Opera North Richard Mantle pointed out in an opening speech, it had become even more so, with, coincidentally, its first half dedicated to Russian music. A brass quintet played the Ukrainian national anthem to make it clear where Opera North’s sympathies lie and we were ready to start. The other reason why it was commemorative was the departure of David Greed after 44 years as leader of the orchestra. For a farewell he had…

Director: Victor Sjostrom Composer: Erland Cooper The Wind is a 1928 silent film by Victor Sjostrom, incidentally billed as “Victor Seastrom” on the copy used at the Howard. Scottish composer Erland Cooper, commissioned to compose a new score for the film, settled on the female voices of the Chorus of Opera North, plus clarinet and bass clarinet and himself in charge of the electronics. The film is well titled. Presented as a vehicle for Lillian Gish, it is dominated by the wind. Initially the train moving west and carrying Lottie (Gish) encounters violent wind storms, but that train is the…

Writer: Oladipo Agboluaje Director: Mojisola Elufowoju Hull’s long-standing relationships with intercontinental collaboration reaches far beyond the 2017 City of Culture festivities. The city, proud of its heritage and cultural exchange, it twinned with Freetown, West Africa, in 1979. Here’s What She Said To Me seems perfectly relevant,  housed at Hull Truck during the theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations and, though played in rep by a touring company, it feels like the right time for this story to be told. Cross generations of actors from Utopia Theatre present this typically accurate and necessary new play which proudly flies the flag for black…

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…

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…