Tag Archives: Joyce Branagh

Writer: Melanie Blake Adaptation: Melanie Blake & Fiona Looney Director: Joyce Branagh Reviewer: Matt Forrest There is a trend in popular music these days for bands of yesteryear to come out of the woodwork for a couple of big paydays and then disappear like thieves in the night. Of course, they make a huge wedge of cash at the end ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Joyce Branagh Costume Designer: Sara Perks Set Designer: Max Dorey  Composer: Eamonn O’Dwyer Reviewer: Ron Simpson “More matter for a May morning…” – or, better yet, for a Summer afternoon or evening! It’s difficult to imagine a more joyous three hours of Shakespeare for an open-air production in what is bound to be a glorious summer ...

Writer: Jenny May Morgan Director: Joyce Branagh Reviewer: Jo Beggs Erotic novelist Pamela DeMenthe has been struggling to finish “that tricky 29thnovel” but now she’s hit on the perfect twist and she’s here to launch the book (only 39.99!) to her adoring fans. eVULVAlution is a time-travelling erotic romp set in prehistoric Hull, a great follow up to her previous novels ...

Writer: Andrew Pollard Director: Joyce Branagh Musical Director: Rebekah Hughes Assistant Director: Rachel Gee Designer: Mark Walters at Glitter Pantomimes Reviewer: Ron Simpson Aladdin follows the always successful formula of the Lawrence Batley Theatre – and indeed several other theatres in the area: an essentially traditional approach, though with regional variation, a talented and hard-working ensemble of maybe seven or ...

Writers: Richard Weston and Laurence Thompson Director: Richard Weston Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Of the many tragedies of the First World War, few elicit a greater sense of its futility than the men who died in the days before the Armistice, poet Wilfred Owen was among them. As the UK looks to the centenary commemorations next weekend, Richard Weston’s new film ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Kayleigh Hawkins Reviewer: Matthew Forrest It is 24 years since my first introduction to the works of William Shakespeare; ironically enough it was this very play that first brought me to ‘The Bard’. It was an especially malevolent English teacher that forced me to read the part of Romeo during the balcony scene:  a quite unremarkable ...

Writer: Andrew Pollard Director: Joyce Branagh Musical Director: Rebekah Hughes Choreographer: Rachel Gee Designer: Mark Walters Reviewer: Ron Simpson The Lawrence Batley Theatre’s Jack and the Beanstalk is billed as “a traditional family pantomime” which is fair enough. Audiences in the middle-sized theatres in this area – Wakefield, Harrogate, Huddersfield, etc. – know that they are in safe hands come ...

Writer: Kevin Fegan Director: Joyce Branagh Designer: Olivia de Monceau Music: Rebekah Hughes Reviewer: Ron Simpson This project began life with Kevin Fegan’s residency with the Batley Bulldogs rugby league team. He decided to focus on the club’s highly successful girls’ under-16 team for his play and even accompanied them on their ground-breaking tour of Australia in 2015. The result ...