North East & Yorkshire Reviews

Writer: Jon Brittain Composer: Matthew Floyd Jones Director: Alex Mitchell Reviewer: Ron Simpson A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) burst on the scene to enthusiastic reviews and an award or two at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. Now the Hull-based theatre company, Silent Uproar, is taking it on an extensive national tour of mostly one- and two-nighters. Wakefield ...

Orchestra: Orchestra of Opera North Conductor: Antony Hermus Soloist: Boris Giltburg (piano) Reviewer: Ron Simpson The latest in the Orchestra of Opera North’s Kirklees concerts, programmed for late Sunday afternoon, again emphasised the orchestra’s versatility. This concert of Russian works of the late 19th and 20th centuries came in the middle of a run of three operas at Leeds Grand, ...

Based on the book by Roald Dahl Book: Dennis Kelly Music and lyrics: Tim Minchin Resident Director: Phil Bartlett Reviewer: Charlotte Broadbent Matilda the Musical has been dominating the West End since 2010 and has gone on to charm the globe. The show made history in 2012 when all four Matildas won the coveted Olivier award for Best Actress in ...

Writer: Charlotte Keatley Director: Michael Cabot Set and Costumes: Bek Palmer Reviewer: Ron Simpson My Mother Said I Never Should, first staged in Manchester in 1987, is the most widely performed play by a female dramatist – rather surprising for a play that poses challenges for producer, cast and audience alike. However, its subject matter and themes have a wide-ranging ...

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: Neil Gore Song Writer/MD: John Kirkpatrick Director: Louise Townsend Designer: Elizabeth Wright Reviewer: Ron Simpson To an extent we know what to expect of a Townsend Theatre production. With the wonderful exception of the fictional Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, it will be based on a significant moment in the class struggle, usually a key piece of union activity; it will ...

Writer: Debbie Tucker Green Director:  Gbolahan Obisesan Reviewer: Rich Jevons Debbie Tucker Green's Random benefits from a script that combines the everyday with the sensational without giving up its gritty realism and compulsive drama. Yes, there is much tragedy here, but always complemented with the West Indians' nuclear family's sense of normality. Max Johns' set is made up of stacked-up ...