Tag Archives: Northampton

Book and Lyrics: Kit Buchan Music: Jim Barne Director: Tim Jackson Reviewer: James Garrington It may still be November but already the Christmas-themed productions are starting to appear. This one is from the pens of Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, winners of the 2018 Stiles & Drewe Mentorship Award – and it’s a delight. The Season is a new musical, ...

Writer: Henry Filloux-Bennett Director: Jonnie Riordan Reviewer: Katy Roberts Based on Nigel Slater’s award-winning biography Toast – The Story of A Boy’s Hunger, and following a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a London transfer to The Other Palace, Toast tells the story of Slater’s childhood in suburban 1960s England, brought to life through the tastes, smells, sights, ...

Writer: August Wilson Director: Nancy Medina Reviewer: James Garrington Two Trains Running is part of American playwright August Wilson’s classic Pittsburgh Cycle, which records the lives of African American people over the course of the last century. Ten plays spread across the decades – and here we find ourselves in 1969. The area is becoming increasingly run-down and as it does ...

Writer: Anthony McCarten Director: James Dacre Reviewer: James Garrington A world-premiere, The Pope is the latest production to come out of the Made in Northampton stable – and like many of its predecessors it is a spellbinding piece of theatre. It is based on a true story, the story of two men and what is arguably the most powerful job in ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: John Haidar Reviewer: James Garrington All too often productions which label themselves “innovative” and “revelatory” turn out to be anything but that – simply a recycling of old ideas with a relatively minor tweak here and there. While, as they say, there’s nothing new in theatre, this production of Richard III by Headlong could certainly never be ...

Writer: Mike Poulton, based on the play by Henrik Ibsen Director: Lucy Bailey Reviewer: Katy Roberts When it was first published in 1882, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts caused immediate controversy and attracted fierce condemnation from critics and the public alike. Now staged in the Royal and Derngate’s intimate Royal Theatre as part of their 2019 Made in Northampton season, this new ...

Writers: Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, based on the book by Paula Hawkins Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer: James Garrington Rachel Watson’s life is a mess. Divorced, she’s living surrounded by rubbish, a large number of empty bottles, and blank periods in her memory. She longs for a different life – a life of love and happy-ever-after, of a partner and ...

Writer: Barney Norris, from the book by Kazuo Ishiguro Director: Christopher Haydon Reviewer: James Garrington The Remains of the Day is, without doubt, an extraordinary piece of theatre. This world premiere production is based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s masterpiece, and it is done extremely well. Like the book, it contains a great many themes and strands, sometimes interwoven and sometimes standing alone and ...