Tag Archives: Bill Champion

Writer and Director:  Alan Ayckbourn Reviewer: Steve Turner Thirty years on from receiving the Evening Standard ‘Best Comedy’ award, this  Ayckbourn has lost none of the humour that gained it the award, however, the reason for the laughter has changed. Where 30 years ago the idea that one might be bugged by the constant ringing of mobile phones and video ...

Writer: Alan Ayckbourn Director: Alan Ayckbourn Designer: Kevin Jenkins Reviewer: Ron Simpson Though No Knowing is far from Alan Ayckbourn at his best, it could well have an extended shelf-life as a pleasant simply-staged season’s end or festive season diversion as it is here. The cast of four get their reward for participating in the taxing Henceforward... by enjoying a ...

Writer: Alan Ayckbourn Director: Alan Ayckbourn Set Designer: Roger Glossop Costume Designer: Rebecca Cartwright Reviewer: Ron Simpson Henceforward... has almost too many ideas for its own good – and they fit together somewhat uneasily at times. On its West End transfer in 1987, it won the Evening Standard Best Comedy Award. Yet, earlier in the year Alan Ayckbourn had planned ...

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Daniel Evans Musical Director: Caroline Humphris Reviewer: Glen Pearce   You can’t choose your family the saying goes but, for Tim Firth, the family makes the perfect subject for a musical. In doing so he turns the everyday into what may just be one of the finest new British musicals for many a year. The plot ...

Writer: Tim Firth Music and Lyrics: Tim Firth Director: Daniel Evans Reviewer: Jamie Gaskin   Tim Firth offers us an entertaining family – which is quite different from family entertainment. Not particularly in adult themes (although auntie Sian's love-life is quite spicy) but in the depth of emotions shown by its members. You cannot dismiss this asOutnumberedwith music. The sadness ...

Writer, Music &Lyrics: Tim Firth Director: Daniel Evans Reviewer: Fiona Hannon This was a special evening for Sheffield Theatres as they proudly unveiled the results of The Lyceum Theatre’s nine week refurbishment programme. This grand Grade II* listed theatre now twinkling with new lights, new cables, new carpets, new upholstery and 1000 litres of fresh new paint, glowed as a ...

Writer and Director: Alan Ayckbourn Reviewer: Stephen Bates [rating:3.5] 76 plays and still going strong. Just how strong is the most pleasant surprise of Alan Ayckbourn's new romantic comedy. Not for the first time, he delves into the world of the future, but his characters and his dialogue remain very much rooted in his familiar territory of Middle England. The ...

Writer/Director: Alan Ayckbourn Reviewer: Bill Avenell [rating: 4] There were a large number of students in a packed house at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and this gave a slightly different atmosphere to the normally rather reserved reception from the middle class heartland that Alan Ayckbourn has analysed and made fun of throughout his career. One can only wish they to ...