Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

Writer: Marc Graham Director: Paul Smith This is Middle Child’s first production in their new studio theatre, converted from a nail salon at 69 Humber Street in Hull’s Fruit Market. By great ingenuity in terms of space, Middle Child has managed to squeeze in 70-plus seats in a steep rake and sufficient toilets, the stage adequate, if entries can be somewhat awkward. Black-out curtains are used to good effect, there is no permanent box office – and a neighbouring bar supplies drinks in plastic glasses for in-house consumption. You can sense a great deal of good will from businesses on…

Writer: Caroline Graham Adapter and Director: Guy Unsworth  Just like Miss Marple’s St Mary Mead and Jessica Fletcher’s Cabot Cove, it’s a wonder why anyone would want to live in the county of Midsomer, what with its per capita murder rate being through the roof. At the time of writing, Midsomer Murders has been presenting grisly homicide in a quaint English setting for nearly forty years, starting with the publication of Caroline Graham’s first of seven Chief Inspector Barnaby books in 1987, followed by the launch of the popular television adaptation in 1997, which currently boast 144 episodes. That’s a lot of dead bodies!  And now…

Writer: Shelagh Stephenson Director: Karen Traynor Shelagh Stephenson was born in Tynemouth and, whilst creating work that has been produced both nationally and abroad, has a long-standing relationship with Live Theatre. Astell & Woolf is the third play in her Cullercoats Trilogy to be produced there, following A Northern Odyssey and Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing. The play is set in a bleak, characterless waiting room in the afterlife, where Mary Astell, a Newcastle born writer and philosopher from the late 17th century, often described as the first feminist, is shackled by a rope to an exit. We are meant…

Writer: Malory Blackman Adapter: Sabrina Mahfouz Director: Esther Richardson Noughts and Crosses is one of those books that defines a generation. First published 25 years ago, it would be hard to find a millennial adult today who hasn’t read it. It was adapted by the RSC in 2007, and again in 2019 by Pilot Theatre. The 2007 show is a straight adaptation. The 2019 show is a little more abstract. The 2026 tour unfortunately uses the latter script. Sephy Hadley (Brianna Douglas) is a Cross, the black skinned leaders of society and the upper class. Her best friend Callum McGregor…

Writers: John Cleese and Connie Booth Adapter: John Cleese Director: Caroline Jay Ranger Fawlty Towers first aired on BBC Two in September 1975, running for just twelve episodes across two series before its creators called time. Written by John Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth, it followed Basil Fawlty, a desperately snobbish hotel owner who is perpetually at war with his wife Sybil. Through the series the audience sees his guests, his catastrophic incompetence and the antics of the hapless waiter Manuel and unflappable chambermaid Polly. It is routinely cited as one of the greatest British sitcoms ever made, and…

Ahead of their upcoming performances of their new play How to be the Perfect Couple at Otley Courthouse and Buxton Fringe, we spoke to real-life married couple Jon and Katie Rand of Randmade Productions about the play and what it’s like working together as a married couple. Can you tell us what How to be the Perfect Couple is about? Jon: It’s a comedy featuring married couple, Doctor Veronica and Professor Robert Stenk – two renowned marriage experts, who are delivering a lecture on how to have the perfect relationship while their own falls apart spectacularly, live on stage. Where did the idea for How to…

Opera North has announced that leading soprano Katie Bird and star of stage screen Edward Bennett will star as Maria and Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music this summer at Leeds Grand Theatre. Bennett is an RSC Associate Artist whilst Bird is part of the Chorus of Opera North. Bird was seen as Eliza Doolittle in 2024’s My Fair Lady, a co-production between Opera North and Leeds Playhouse. Bennett’s recent TV appearances include Lockerbie, A Search for Truth, SAS: Rogue Heroes and Bridgerton, whilst his stage work includes A Man for All Seasons, Breaking the Code and numerous Shakespeare productions with the RSC. Several roles will be taken on…

Writer: Mohit Mathur Director: Phil Willmot Mohit Mathur plays the only part – aspiring influencer Uday Kumar – in his pertinent and frequently amusing play about the difference between the UK seen from abroad and witnessed first-hand. It is perhaps not as surprising as the publicity would have us believe: after all we all have experience of Indian call centres and only the most unimaginative could believe that the UK welcomes immigrants with open arms and no red tape. Mathur skilfully portrays the many aspects of the character of Uday who leaves India and the call centre for the glories…