Tag Archives: New Wolsey Theatre

Writer/Director: Peter Rowe Reviewer: Molly Richardson  Our Blue Heaven is a new musical written and directed by Peter Rowe focusing on Ipswich Town Football Clubs historic FA Cup victory on 6 May 1978.  At first glance, the world of theatre and sport colliding may sound a bizarre and niche match, but in fact you’ll find it’s rather brilliant. The story focuses on ...

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: Diane Samuels Director: Anne Simon Reviewer: Molly Richardson Kindertransportsounds joyful, like kindergarten or Kinder Surprise eggs; but the reality is the polar opposite, for this was the term used when thousands of children were sent away from their families in Germany ahead of the Second World War in order to escape the Nazi regime. The story begins in Hamburg, ...

Writer: Timberlake Wertenbaker  Director: Fiona Buffini Reviewer: Molly Richardson  Inspired by true stories and based on Thomas Kenally’s novel The Playmaker, Our Country’s Good transports the audience to 1787 for a powerful comedic drama about the harsh realities that convicts and slaves faced in the 1700s. After sailing over 700 of them to Australia, they are kept as prisoners with ...

Writer: Ronald Harwood   Director: Peter Rowe Reviewer: Molly Richardson Quartet tells of four retired and aging opera singers, who have taken residence in a care home. First, we meet trio Cecily (Wendi Peters), Reggie (Jeff Rawle) and Wilfred (Paul Nicholas), who are unearthing the mystery of who the new ‘star’ resident is to be – there are mixed reactions ...

Writer: Graham Linehan Director: Peter Rowe Reviewer: Paul Couch While the original Ealing comedy upon which it’s based was produced in 1955, a passing reference to the start of the Suez Crisis places Peter Rowe’s production of Graham Linehan’s 2011 adaptation of The Ladykillers a year later than that in 1956. Mrs Wilberforce, an elderly and eccentric widow, lives alone in ...

Director: Kerry Michael Music & Lyrics: Pete Townsend Musical Director: Robert Hyman Reviewer: Jim Gillespie When Pete Townsend first created the “deaf, dumb and blind” hero, Tommy, he probably intended his disabilities to be symbolic. In the hands of New Wolsey Theatre and Ramps on the Moon, they are far more than this, as a cast and creative team which ...

Writer and Co-director: Lucy Grace Co-director: Dan Hutton Reviewer: Glen Pearce Even as adults, anyone who read CS Lewis’ Narnia books as a child can’t help but wonder where their own magical kingdom lies. We all now there is a time when we have to stop believing in magical realms but in the stress of everyday life, we can still ...