Tag Archives: Lee Curran

Book and Lyrics: Andy Stanton Music:Jim Fortune Director:Amy Hodge Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Schools out for the summer and theatreland has given itself over to feel-good comedies and family-friendly shows designed to entertain young and old alike. The National Theatre’s big summer production for kids is a musical adaptation of Andy Stanton’s book Mr Gum and the Dancing Beargiven surreal but ...

Music: Hofesh Shechter Choreographer: Hofesh Shechter Reviewer: Jo Beggs A line of dancers appear, backlit on a smoky stage. Their slow, deliberate and immaculately coordinated movement, with the backdrop thudding drumbeat, is both beautiful and unsettling. In the first of a three short acts (The Entrance), eight clowns create tightly synchronised movement, sharply composed tableaux and joyful prancing. Then things ...

Writer and director: David Morton Reviewer: Stephen Bates The prime functions of theatre are said to be to entertain, educate and inform and David Morton’s production of The Wider Earth, first seen in Australia, makes a fairly good stab at ticking all three boxes. The fact that the Natural History Museum has created a space in its Darwin Centre especially ...

Music: Giacomo Puccini Libretto: Giuseppe Giacoso and Luigi Illica Director: Edward Dick Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood Tosca marks the start of Opera North’s autumn season, a special time as the company will have been founded exactly 40 years ago this November.  Tosca is a popular opera that made its very first performance in Rome back in 1900, while Opera North first ...

Concept: Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante Director: Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Hip-hop is having a moment. Increasingly fusion hip-hop is being seen more and more on renowned dance stages, and while Pierre Rigal’s new piece which premiered at Sadler’s Wells was disappointing, fans of the genre have a second chance to see the Olivier-nominated ...

Choreographer: Hofesh Shechter Performers: Shechter II Reviewer: Richard Maguire Hofesh Shechter is definitely the man of the moment; his daring Grand Finale is touring Europe this summer, and, closer to home, he plans to fill the moat of The Tower of London with dancers in July as part of the LIFT Festival. Incredibly, he’s still got the time to revisit his ...

Writer: Tennessee Williams Director: Chelsea Walker Reviewer: Molly Richardson This bold revival of Tennessee Williams’ classic play A Streetcar Named Desire is full of fire. One summer, the anxious boozer, yet fiercely clever seductress and glamour-queen, Blanche DuBois turns up unexpectedly at her sister Stella’s two-roomed house in a state of desperation as she tries to hold her life together. This gives ...

Writer: Simon Longman Director: Vicky Featherstone Reviewer: Sophia Moss Gundog is a bleak, emotionally exhausting tale of poverty, loss and loneliness set in the deafening silence of a decrepit farm in the middle of nowhere. Dealing with heavy themes like dementia, suicide, poverty and the discrepancies between rural and urban life, Gundog will change your perception of the countryside forever. ...