South East Reviews

  Writer and Director: Jane Deane Reviewer: Glen Pearce The guardians of our national morals often assume children have no stomach for gore or horror but as the Brothers Grimm knew all too well in their collected tales, the young mind has plenty capacity for imagination and, if told well, can comprehend and process a surprising amount. Even the most ...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini Director: Blanche McIntyre Conductor: Michael Rosewell Reviewer: Lu Greer Tosca, structured as a through-composed work to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Guiseppe Giacosa, tells a story of tragic love in 1800 Italy. With a historical grounding in the French Revolutionary Wars, the opera follows the story or an escaped political prisoner and the fates of ...

Writer and Performer: Katie Bonna Reviewer: Paul Couch “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” So says the ...

Writer and performer: Kieran Hodgson Reviewer: Glen Pearce A grating, raspy, just so slightly out of tune violin rendition of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is a shaky start, but don’t be fooled, Kieran Hodgson is anything but a rusty violinist. Maestro, his one-man narrative through teenage geekdom to early 20s relationships turns out to not only to be an ode ...

By PAUL COUCH The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich,  has today [1 June 2017]  announced that submissions are open for next year’s Testing Ground commission, where successful projects will be showcased at PULSE Festival 2018. The theatre supports and showcases new work and new ideas from contemporary theatre-makers through the PULSE artist development programme. Last year, they introduced Testing Ground, a ...

Devisers: In Bed With My Brother Reviewer: Sophie Huggins Stepping into the Komedia space is as though stepping into a funky coloured, party scented, beat pumping time machine, whizzing back to a year synonymous with 80s culture, when strikes were rife, when the Berlin Wall came down and when Maggie Thatcher reigned: 1989. Taking it back is a troublesome trio ...

Writer: Jane Austen Adaptor: Tim Luscombe Director: Colin Blumenau Reviewer: Steve Turner Translating such a work from the page to the stage is no easy task but it is one that adaptor Tim Luscombe clearly excels in. Following earlier successes with other Austen works, he turns his attention to the story of Emma Woodhouse. As he admits in the programme ...

Performers: Helen Fox, Codge Crawford, Steven Carruthers Reviewer: James Napleton A story of rivalry and hardship in 1930s Mississippi, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton is a provocative play performed to good effect in this Fox and Hound Company performance. This one-act play runs to only around 40 minutes but offers a powerful insight into brutality and abuse focused upon the ...