Newcastle’s Live Theatre have announced casting for their new festive tale, Where Do All The Kittiwakes Go At Christmas? This new wintry play is sure to have all the family squawking with laughter as it answers the question ‘where do those cheeky seabirds go when Christmas comes and there aren’t any fish and chips left to steal?’. Actor and theatre school owner Shannon McLean makes her Live Theatre debut in the production. Her credits include Cinderella in A Crackin’ Cinderella Story (Webster’s Theatre), Mother for an Hour (feature film), Blue Jean (BBC Films) and The Wizard of Oz (Tron Theatre). Joining her is actor, dancer and choreographer Malcolm Shields.…
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.
Original Writer: Roald Dahl Book: Dennis Kelly Music and Lyrics: Tim Minchin Director: Matthew Warchus The revolting children have moved into Alhambra Theatre for just over three weeks, courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a testament to the success of this show. The current national tour of Matilda the Musical marks its 15th anniversary, having premiered at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon in November 2010. In these 15 years it has won over 100 musical awards across the world including 24 for the best musical. In 2012, it claimed the most wins of any show to that date at the Laurence…
Based on the characters by Colin Dexter Writer: Alma Cullen Director: Anthony Banks One of TV’s favourite police officers, Inspector Morse, has made the leap from screen to stage for a new UK tour of Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts. Despite what the title may suggest, this play isn’t particularly spooky – it’s a murder mystery that uncovers the metaphorical ghosts from our characters’ pasts that come back to haunt them. It is perhaps worth mentioning from the outset that your reviewer hadn’t seen any iteration of Morse prior to this play, but regardless he had an enjoyable evening out. Inspector…
Writer: Bertolt Brecht Translator and Adapter: Lee Hall Director: Mark Dornford-May A courageous company of talented North East stars shine brightly at the Live Theatre in Newcastle this week as Ensemble ’84 and Isango Ensemble combine to bring Mother Courage and Her Children to life. The intimate, cabaret setting creates an ideal platform for the retelling of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children. This is an anti-war play written by Brecht in response to the invasion of Poland in 1939. Although this play is set in 1624, portraying a war between Catholics and Protestants, it is still relevant today. Mother…
Co-created and performed by Matt Miller, Fixing is a hilarious, moving one-person show, which premiered in Newcastle last year and deals with family breakups and trying to make things better, learning car maintenance – with the help of Miller’s drag alter-ego Natalie Spanner – and choosing the right shade of lipstick to do it in. The show seeks to initiate conversations around care, nurture, rupture and recovery. Ahead of the show touring to the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, Queen’s Hall Arts Centre in Hexham, The Garage in Norwich and the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse in Sheffield, we spoke to Miller about how…
Writer/Director: Jonathan Ainscough Conductor: Jack Ridley Opera North ticks all the boxes in this full-house children’s matinee at the Grand Theatre, a show repeated in single performances at all the theatres the opera company is touring to. All audience members (including your reviewer who, to his shame, didn’t fill it in) are equipped with a “very very important detective’s notebook”, with lots of spaces for such things as characters and clues. During the show constant reference is made to this and, judging from the audience response when asked to remember clues, most of the youngsters were a great deal more…
Writer/Director: Javaad Alipoor Fiona Mozley’s award-winning debut novel, Elmet, was greeted with much enthusiasm in 2017, but it is not the sort of thing that transfers easily to the stage. In fact for the Javaad Alipoor Company’s production as part of Bradford’s 2025 City of Culture the original concept is credited to Javaad Alipoor. The main difference, it seems, is to transform a mythic story of identity and memory into a tragedy. The result is an ambitious, but not wholly successful, version of the novel. What it is not, deliberately, is naturalistic. At the start L.J. Parkinson talks to us…
Writer: Neil Gore Director: Louise Townsend Townsend Theatre Productions are an unashamedly political organisation, consisting of Louise Townsend and Neil Gore. Occasionally they may deal with a classic of socialist fiction such as The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, but for the most part their themes are taken from factual stories of working class and trade union life. As a result they may be seen as swimming against the tide in 2025 – which is why this revival of We Are The Lions, Mr Manager!, an improved version of the 2017 play, is touring the UK now. In 1976 six workers at…