Tag Archives: Coventry

Writer: Jennifer Farmer (City Final),   Directors: Leon Phillips, Naomi Wood, Paul O’Donnell, Reena Jaisiah, Claire Proctor, Natalie Russo (City Final), Oliver Scott (Retold) Choreographer: Olver Scott (Retold) Reviewer: Selwyn Knight The 1950s was a big decade in Coventry’s history. Much of the city, including its historic St Michael’s Cathedral, most of its industrial capacity and over 4000 homes, was flattened in ...

Writer: Philip Goulding from the book by Compton MacKenzie Director: Kevin Shaw Reviewer: Selwyn Knight The programme notes for Whisky Galore tell us about a troupe of strolling players, The Osiris Players, which was an all-female theatre group touring adaptations of the classics to schools and other community spaces. Formed in the mid-1920s, the women-only rule might have been caused ...

Writer: William Shakespeare, adapted by Andy Barrow Director: Andy Barrow Reviewer: James Garrington Since it was established 29 years ago, Oddsocks has become famous for its unusual and comic versions of the classic Shakespeare plays – often to some acclaim. This year, alongside a rerun of last year’s Romeo and Juliet, we have a new production of The Tempest. It ...

Writers: Terry Deary and Neal Foster Director: Neal Foster Reviewer: Nicole Craft “Whoa…look at the setup!”; The first words uttered by a younger member of this reviewer’s party as we enter the auditorium. It’s not the most staggering stage-set ever witnessed, but the two medieval tents and the array of costumes already present, hanging from two elaborate hat stands, are ...

Writer: Nic Harvey Music: Rob Green Director: Adam Lenson Reviewer: Nicole Craft How do you behave when somebody you love, or didn’t love all that much, or actually utterly loathed on occasion but now can’t possibly say that or you might as well be Satan, dies? There are books and ‘stages’ to tell you how you should feel, when you ...

Royal and Derngate and The Core at Corby Chief Executive, Martin Sutherland, will leave his role and head up the Coventry City of Culture 2021 team, it was announced today, 16 May 2018.  Having joined the Royal & Derngate, who have phenomenal respect both regionally and nationally, ten years ago, Sutherland has been an integral part in overseeing the development ...

Librettist: Glyn Maxwell Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Director: Valentina Ceschi Reviewer: James Garrington Opera Up Close may have moved on from their roots performing in tiny pub theatres, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve distanced themselves from their audience. They pride themselves on producing accessible new versions of classic opera, and The Magic Flute is certainly no exception. Forget any ideas you ...

Writer: Ken Bentley, from the book by Charles Dickens  Director: Sophie Boyce-Couzens Reviewer: James Garrington Great Expectations is undoubtedly a great classic of English literature, one of the most popular and well-known Dickens novels that has been studied at school and loved by many. It is also quite long – though far from the longest Dickens wrote – and includes a ...