Tag Archives: Northeast

Based on the book by Barry Reed Adapted for the stage by Margaret May Hobbs Director: Michael Lunney Reviewer: Mark Clegg Based on Barry Reed’s 1980 best-selling novel, this newly adapted version of The Verdict is the first time the story has been dramatized since the 1982 Paul Newman-starring movie. Featuring a failing, drunken lawyer finding a new lease of ...

Writer: Ben Crocker Director: Chris Lawson Musical Director: Matt Marks Choreographer: Natasha Harrison Reviewer: Ron Simpson CAST’s pantomime proceeds along essentially traditional lines, but has one unique feature and one that is certainly slightly unusual. For the third year running, CAST presents the only fully British Sign Language interpreted pantomime, with Naomi Gray, a colourful and spirited presence on the ...

Writers: Ray Spencer MBE and Graeme Thompson Director: Ray Spencer Reviewer: Anna Ambelez Whisht Lads, haad yor gobs aa’ll tell ye aall a panto story… This year The Customs House Pantomime celebrates the 150th anniversary of The Lambton Worm. While the story centres on the worm, writers Ray Spencer MBE and Graeme Thompson give it a new twist. As children, ...

Writers and directors: Neil Armstrong and Paul Hartley Reviewer: Anna Ambelez The Gala uses the central character in Defoe’s classic, Robinson Crusoe and places him in a whole new adventure. We have pirates, high seas, a treasure island, mermaids, a giant parrot and many more ingredients for an original pantomime. The opening scene finds Captain Blackheart (Neil Armstrong) throwing his ...

Writer &Director: Neil Armstrong Reviewer: Mark Clegg At a shabby end of the pier theatre, dark deeds are afoot, murder is on the bill and a dead body will soon appear centre stage. Lionel and Edith Boshe are The Lovebirds, a music hall double act whose marriage is as tired as their routines and whose 25-year relationship has soured to ...

Writer: John Steinbeck Director: Roxana Silbert Reviewer: Mark Clegg John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel Of Mice and Men is one of the cornerstones of American literature. Working on many levels and introducing a memorable cast of characters, it’s little wonder that the story has been filmed several times and that the stage adaptation is often revived. Ignore the fact that the ...

Music: Umberto Giodarno Libretto: Luigi Illica Director: Annabel Arden Conductor: Oliver von Dohnányl Reviewer: Rich Jevons The action, set in revolutionary France, starts at the Château de Coigny where we find servant Gerard secretly in love with the lady of the house, Madeleine. We are introduced to the guests as they enter, including an Abbé who reports with news back ...

Choreographer: Anton Lachky Reviewer: Peter Gray As an eclectic piece of dance-drama, Side Effects succeeds in crossing certain boundaries of expectation. At times repulsive and yet comic, powerfully fragmented motifs of movement are punctuated with brutal extremes of physicality reminiscent of an Artaud-inspired performance. In an explosive mix of the emotional, and sometimes contradictory meanderings of the female protagonist’s mind, ...