Tag Archives: Michael Hodgson

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Erica Whyman Reviewer: Stephen Bates In an age of polarised views and deep social divisions, most of us will have little problem in relating to the premise that underpins William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, the divide that director Erica Whyman most strives to bridge in this Royal Shakespeare Company production, first seen in Stratford upon ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Polly Findlay Reviewer: Katy Roberts Macbeth, both the play and the titular character, is obsessed with time, and this theme looms large throughout Polly Findlay’s modern-dress production of Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy. From the moment the digital clock sparks into life at the back of the stage, one becomes acutely aware that Macbeth and his wife are ...

Writer: Bryony Lavery, from the book by Robert Louis Stevenson Director: Phillip Breen Reviewer: Selwyn Knight As Robert Louis Stevenson said of Treasure Island, “it [is] a story for boys … women were excluded”, and its cast of characters certainly bears that out. But history also tells us that 18th-century women did do physical work and were even pirates. It ...

Writer: Ted Lewis Adaptor: Torben Betts Director : Lorne Campbell Reviewer: Jim Gillespie Newcastle Noir is now a well-established crime writing festival. Back in the early 1970’s the term was applied to the iconic film starring Michael Caine in a pulp fiction classic set in post-industrial Tyneside. Jimmy Nail meets Claude Chabrol in a Sarah Lund jumper… Sort of. This ...

Writer: Joseph Heller Director: Rachel Chavkin Reviewer:Andy Moseley This should have been so good. An iconic novel brought to the UK stage for the first time, with an adaptation by the author and a production by one of the most creative and talented companies in the country. So why, in spite of all the promise, does it only merit three ...

Writer: Joseph Heller Director: Rachel Chavkin Reviewer: Fergus Morgan On the initial publication of Joseph Heller’s satirical masterpiecein 1961, the New York Herald Tribune hailed Catch-22 as ‘a wild, moving, shocking, hilarious, raging, exhilarating, giant roller-coaster of a book’. Much of the same could be said of Heller’s own stage adaptation, currently on tour with Northern Stage at the Oxford ...

Writer: Alistair McDowall Director: Caroline Steinbeis Reviewer: Tracey Lowe [rating:4.5] ‘Brilliant Adventures’ was the recipient of the prestigious Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2011, and Manchester is lucky to the home of the play’s premiere. Straight from the beginning, it is clear to see why this play is award-winning, instantly creating an intriguing world filled with a variety of interesting ...