Tag Archives: Jessica Clark

Writer: Iman Qureshi Director:  Hannah Hauer-King Reviewer:  Richard Maguire The Funeral Director is this year’s winner of the 2018 Papatango New Writing Prize, an award that guarantees the winner a full production of their play, and a £6,000 commission for another one. The setting, a Muslim funeral home, is definitely a novel location for London theatre, but Iman Qureshi’s story is, ...

Writer: Frank Skinner Director: Polina Kalinina Reviewer: Stephen Bates Established for many years as a top comedian and television game show host and with a recent UK (perhaps excluding Scotland) number one hit in the pop charts, it seems that Frank Skinner is close to having it all. That said, there have to be some worries for him if the ...

Writer: Jon Brittain Director:Donnacadh O’Briain Reviewer: Stephen Bates “Rotterdam is anywhere. Anywhere alone…” goes the Beautiful South song. To the three British expats in Jon Brittain’s play, first seen at Theatre 503 in 2015, the Dutch port city is a place where things are moved in and out and now they are all looking for the exit. Alice came to ...

Writer: Frances Hodgson Burnett Adaptor: Jessica Swale Director: Kate Saxon Reviewer: Stephanie Rowe When Ten year old Mary Lennox is orphaned in India after a terrible earthquake kills her parents, she has to leave behind everything she has ever known. Sent to live in England at her uncle’s gloomy mansion on the wild Yorkshire moors, lonely and confined to only ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Alex Clifton Reviewer: Clare Boswell Chester’s Open Air Theatre has, delightfully, become somewhat of a summer fixture now, residing for the months of July and August in the beautifully picturesque Grosvenor Park. Since it’s opening in 2010, Artistic Director Alex Clifton and his team have prided themselves on delivering top quality performances to the City of ...

Writer: Henrik Ibsen, (translator Don Carleton) Director: David Antrobus Reviewer: Lettie Mckie [rating:5] Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen has been forever immortalised in the minds of the theatre going public by works such as Hedda Gabler and A Doll’s House. These masterpieces are revered all over the world for their strong tragic heroines, modernising ideals and faultless poetic language. This month ...

Writers: St John Hankin, Amiri Baraka Directors: Polina Kalinina, Karima Setohy Reviewer: Lettie Mckie [rating:4] The Director’s Showcase at the Orange Tree is the result of a year long trainee scheme which culminates in this annual production. A prestigious programme which has been running since 1986 this is a rare opportunity for young directors to learn their craft supporting a ...