Tag Archives: Manchester

Composer, Lyricist, Book: Richard Thomas Additional Lyrics & Book: Stewart Lee Director: James Baker Reviewer: Matt Forrest Talk about making a statement and putting yourself on the map! That’s precisely what Northern Ricochet have gone and done with their inaugural production. Choosing to stage Jerry Springer The Opera as your first production takes some balls: it’s a risky strategy, but it’s ...

Writers: James Yeatman and Lauren Mooney Director: James Yeatman Reviewer: Dave Cunningham The challenging nature of There Is a Light That Never Goes Out at The Royal Exchange is made clear in the tag line: Scenes from the Luddite Rebellion.  The play does not attempt to give an exhaustive examination of the disruptive events during the industrial revolution when workers, fearing ...

Creators: Idris Elba & Kwame Kwei-Armah   Director: Kwame Kwei-Armah   Reviewer: Jay Nuttall   An umbrella of questionable ethics has become Tree’s canopy in the lead up to the opening of one of Manchester International Festival’s flagship productions. A high-profile disagreement between creatives and the role they should or should not be credited with has pushed this production into ...

Writer/Director: Dan Mallaghan Reviewer: Sam Lowe The Royal Exchange have done it again. Providing a stage for yet another smart, sensitive and stunning one-act drama as part of their Spring/Summer season. Wrestling the Walrus is unsurprisingly the winner of the 2018 Hodgkiss Award. It’s impeccably and awe-inspiringly acted out by Nik Wood-Jones and Leanne Rowley as Mog and Gracie. 154 ...

Writer: Adelle Stripe Adaptor: Lisa Holdsworth Director: Kash Arshad Reviewer: Sam Lowe Andrea Dunbar was known for writing the plays, Rita, Sue and Bob Too, The Arbor, and Shirley.Dunbar’s written plays about other people; now it’s time for a play to be written about her. This is a production by Freedom Studios. It is a work of fiction; it’s not ...

Writer/Director: Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon Reviewer: Alisha McCracken Toruk - The First Flight, written and directed by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon and inspired by James Cameron’s Avatar, is the latest Cirque du Soleil show to hit the stages of the UK. It tells the story of a natural disaster threatening to destroy the sacred Tree of Souls, and as ...

Creator: Adam Zane and And Mike Lee Director: Adam Zane Reviewer: Marie Smith #BeMoreMartyn trended on Twitter in the hours after the announcement of Martyn Hett’s death at the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017 – and in this play, Hope Theatre Company shows exactly what that phrase means. They asked eight of Martyn’s closest friends to talk all about ...

Writer: Jon Brittain Director: Donnacadh O'Briain Reviewer: Dave Cunningham Although Rotterdam has only recently started to tour, Jon Britain wrote the play some years ago. It would be great to report that the need to be tolerant of the wishes of other people- one of the themesof the play- has now been absorbed into our culture. Unfortunately, the homophobic attack suffered ...