Drama

The Rite of Spring Music: Igor Stravinsky Choreographer: Jeanguy Saintus Gianni Schicchi Music: Giacomo Puccini Director: Christopher Alden Conductor: Garry Walker Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood This production marks the first-ever collaboration between Opera North and Phoenix Dance Company.  Garry Walker conducts both Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in the company of Opera North’s orchestra.  In another first, The ...

Writer: Rob Ward Director: Adam Zane Reviewer: Ron Simpson First of all a grumble at a company that mostly deserves high praise. The notable absence of a cast list, both on the night and/or digitally on the website (at the time of writing this review), is disappointing. No mention of the actors or the tech team are given – and sound ...

Writer: David Greig Director: Cora Bissett Composer: Cora Bissett Reviewer: Ciara L. Murphy "You can't change everything, but you can change something." Glasgow Girls opens at the Abbey Theatre this week amid a sea of ongoing controversy surrounding programming at Ireland's National Theatre. Glasgow Girls is not exactly a typical Abbey production, so does it deserve its place on Ireland's national stage? ...

Writer: Arinzene Kene Director: Natalie Ibu Reviewer: Dominic Corr No good deed goes unpunished, a mantra which regrettably gains merit as we age. What happens when we break away from being good? When someone realises that those who laugh gleefully as we struggle are usually bad. For many, the out-lash of violence during the London Riots was twisted retribution. The ...

Writer: Harley Granville Barker Director: Trevor Nunn Reviewer: Stephen Bates Harley Granville Barker was one of the leading lights of British theatre in the Edwardian era and works of his, such as The Voysey Inheritance and Waste, still appear regularly today. Therefore, it would seem highly unlikely that a play written by him in 1900 would have to wait until ...

Writer: Bertolt Brecht  Composer: Jim Fortune Adptor/Director: Amy Hodge Reviewer: Dave Cunningham Many people argue Mother Courage and Her Children is the best play of the 20thCentury but that doesn’t mean it is easy to watch. Author Bertolt Brecht regarded theatre as a means by which he could communicate his political views and treated niceties like set design, characterisation and even ...

Writer: David Judge Director: Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder Reviewer: Dave Cunningham You have to pay attention during the opening monologue in David Judge’s autobiographical single-person play SparkPlug. Mishear and it may take some time to appreciate that, although Judge is describing his childhood, he is doing so by performing in the role of his adoptive father ; confusingly also named David Judge. ...

Writer: Jordan Waller Director:  Max Gill Reviewer:  Richard Maguire The D Word is Jordan Waller’s slick one-man show about origins and grief. We are never quite sure what the D word is. At first it seems to stand for Dawn, the name of one of his lesbian mothers. But as this one-hour play progresses other words starting with D seem just ...