Tag Archives: Blue Orange Theatre

Writer: Eric Gracey from the novel by Mary Shelley Director: Mark Webster Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Most would claim to at least have heard of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein, about the man who thinks he can play God, creating a living, breathing human. In just short of an hour, Blue Orange Arts presents the story from the monster’s viewpoint with ...

Book, Music and Lyrics: Dennis T. Giacino Director: Jez Luckins Reviewer: Selwyn Knight After being nominated for numerous off-Broadway awards, Disenchanted! has been licensed for worldwide performance and now enjoys its Birmingham première from Third from the Right Productions. …. and they all lived happily ever after. The stock ending to fairytales after the Prince finds his true love and they are ...

Writer: Jon Brittain Director: Andrew Whittle Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Possibly the most widely misunderstood segment of the LBGTQI community is the trans-sexual community; those whose bodies don’t match their own understanding of their gender can find their motives questioned and to be open to misunderstanding, ridicule or even abuse. Jon Brittain’s Rotterdam examines the impact of an individual being transgender ...

Writer and director: Darren Haywood Reviewer: Selwyn Knight There are few undisputed facts about the death of Marilyn Monroe: it took place on Saturday, 4 August, 1962 at her home; present in the house was her housekeeper, Eunice Murray; prior to her death she had had her friend, Pat Newcomb staying as a house guest and had a home visit ...

Writer: Eric Gracey from the book by Charles Dickens Director: Jennifer Rigby Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol over a six-week period in 1843. Affected by the conditions in which he saw children work, it was a polemic against the impact of the Industrial Revolution. His story of a miserable miserly moneylender motivated solely to increase his ...

Writer: Joe Orton Director: Ian Craddock Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Joe Orton’s black comedy, Entertaining Mr Sloane, premiered in London in 1964 and has had several revivals since. It tells a story of sexual manipulation, though who is being manipulated and by whom becomes less clear as the play progresses. Kath (Elaine Ward) is a middle-aged lady living with her father, ...

Writer: John Godber Director: Oliver Hume Reviewer:  Selwyn Knight Since its inception in 1994, over 4000 people have become millionaires courtesy of the National Lottery. Many of us enter each week dreaming of what we might do with such life-changing sums. But history also tells us that money doesn’t necessarily bring happiness. Lucky Sods, originally set in the early days ...

Writer: Noël Coward Director: Oliver Hume Reviewer:  Selwyn Knight Famously written in four days as a vehicle for Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, Private Lives must have been quite shocking to 1930s audiences, dealing, as it does, quite explicitly with marital infidelity. Elyot and Amanda had a stormy and violent marriage and after three years divorced. Now five years later, ...