Central Reviews

Conductor: Michael Seal  Reviewer: Selwyn Knight While this concert from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is advertised as The Music of Harry Potter; in fact, it’s rather more. The atmosphere is set as lots of youngsters attend dressed as wizards, witches or even Harry himself. And our host is Tommy Pearson who remains in character (and cloak) as ...

Writer: David Greig, from the book by Joe Simpson Director: Tom Morris Reviewer: James Garrington What do you do when you’re faced with a decision between life and death? Would you condemn your friend to almost certain death, or hold on to the limit of your endurance even though that would probably result in you both dying? Touching the Void ...

Writer: Diane Samuels Director: Fiona Buffini Reviewer: Dave Smith The Kindertransport was an organised effort to rescue Jewish children from the increasingly hostile atmosphere in Germany in the months leading up to the outbreak of World War II. The reception these refugees received was not always as welcoming as we might hope it would have been given the circumstances; the ...

Writer: Leo Butler Directors: Paul Hunter and Stephen Harper Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Sometimes you’ll finish watching a production and ask yourself. ‘What were they on when they wrote that?’ – no need for that question after Told By An Idiot’s All You Need is LSD – as playwright, Leo Butler told the Guardian, while interviewing Professor David Nutt for this ...

Writers: Ian Hislop & Nick Newman Director: Caroline Leslie Reviewer: Selwyn Knight 1916. Ypres. A unit of the Sherwood Foresters, led by mining engineer Captain Frederick John Roberts, is looking to salvage timber or metal with which to shore up the trenches. They come across an abandoned printing press and, in a flash of eccentric British brilliance, Roberts, an engineer ...

Writer and Director: Rachael Savage Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Joy is 83. She loves to dance, has a wicked sense of humour, knows what she wants … and is suffering from dementia. Her daughter is struggling to care for her. Danny, Joy’s grandson, a typical teen, hangs around street corners with his mates, watches the football and enjoys the occasional spliff. Then one ...

Choreographers: David Bintley and Juanjo Arqués Music: Stephen Montague and Kate Whitley Reviewer: Daljinder Johal Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Fire and Fury consists of two complementary but contrasting dances on power and politics, which intriguingly make us look to the past and future of ballet and much more. The first, The King Dances with choreographer David Bintley, is freely based on Le Ballet ...

Writer: Dougal Irvine, from the book by Riaz Khan Director: Nikolai Foster Reviewer: James Garrington Football in the late 1970s and 1980s started to hit the news more often because of what was happening off the pitch rather than on it. Increasingly people went to matches specifically to fight, with seemingly little or no interest in the actual game and ...