Tag Archives: Northern Broadsides

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Conrad Nelson Designer: Lis Evans Musical Director: Rebekah Hughes Reviewer: Ron Simpson If you’re going to update Shakespeare, then it needs thinking through – costumes and hair-styles are not enough – and Northern Broadsides’ transference of Much Ado about Nothing to somewhere in England at the end of World War Two is a complete and highly ...

Actor, musician and director, Conrad Nelson has been associated with Halifax based theatre company, Northern Broadsides for over 20 years. The Company, founded by acting legend and professional northerner, Barrie Rutter, is a unique theatre company with a truly authentic northern voice. Its work is characterised by a high degree of theatrical inventiveness and robust performances from Northern actors who ...

Writer: Dario Fo Adapter: Deborah McAndrew Based on a translation by: Jon Laskin and Michael Aquilante Director: Conrad Nelson Designer: Jessica Worrall Reviewer: Ron Simpson Farce, in more than one sense, is a funny business. The 19th and 20th Century English and French farce tradition depended most often on outwardly respectable, probably middle-class characters embroiled in a situation that became incrementally ...

A new adaptation of Dario Fo’s Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!, a co-production between Northern Broadsides and York Theatre Royal, opens at York Theatre Royal in October. The Reviews Hub's Richard Hall caught up with writer Deborah McAndrew to talk about her experience of adapting this popular play and also her career as one of Britain’s most successful female playwrights. Finding fame ...

Writer: Charles Dickens Adaptation: Deborah McAndrew Director: Conrad Nelson Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood Charles Dickens wrote the novel Hard Times in 1854. Set in Coketown, the North of England, he outlined the society at the time and criticised the social and economic conditions.  Northern Broadsides brings Deborah McAndrew’s colourful stage adaptation to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, as part of a UK ...

Writer: Charles Dickens Adapter: Deborah McAndrew Director/Composer: Conrad Nelson Designer: Dawn Allsopp Musical Director: Rebekah Hughes Reviewer: Ron Simpson Northern Broadsides’ return to the Viaduct Theatre for the first time since the departure of Barrie Rutter, finds the company absolutely at the top of its game. Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Dickens’ Hard Times is as theatrically expansive as Conrad Nelson’s ...

Writer:  Blake Morrison | Adapted from Alain- René Lesage’s Turcaret Director: Barrie Rutter Reviewer: Daryl Holden It’s a huge gamble for Northern Broadsides to want to take a work from 18th Century France and set it in 1920’s Yorkshire. That’s why it’s no surprise when it doesn’t pay off. Don’t expect much from this story. This so-called “comedy” comprises the ...

Writer: Blake Morrison, adapted from Alain-René Lesage’s Turcaret Music: Conrad Nelson Director: Barrie Rutter Choreographer: Beverley Norris-Edmunds Reviewer: Sue Collier This Northern Broadsides production is set in 1920’s Yorkshire. We are introduced to the once grand but now sparsely furnished and dilapidated home of the manipulative widow Rose. Rose is considering the merits of two men. Should she choose the ...