Tag Archives: Philip Franks

Writer: Richard O’Brien Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Dan English It’s at the moment when the audience all rises to do the Time Warp that you realise that this production continues to pull long after its first run, as The Rocky Horror Show reaches Dartford as part of its UK tour. Newly engaged, and fantastically naive, Brad and Janet stumble across ...

Book, Music and Lyrics: Richard O’Brien Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys There are few other shows so beloved or so enduring as the Rocky Horror Show. It’s a summer Monday evening and the theatre is packed from floor to rafters with fans clad in their best Columbia, Magenta, Rocky, Brad, Janet and even a few Frank N. Furter costumes for the ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Abbie Rippon ‘Why must a play be such a performance?’ argues Neil, the writer of Caliban’s Day. The cast are rehearsing for an upcoming production which explores the life of WH Auden and his collaborations with Benjamin Britten, and The Habit of Art is the play within which this play falls. Confused yet? Don’t be. ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Neil has meticulously researched his latest play, Caliban’s Day, in which he imagines a meeting between poet W. H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten in 1973, shortly before the death of each and at the time Britten was writing Death in Venice. Today, the director can’t make it so the rehearsal ...

Writer: Alan Bennet Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: James Eves To be able to tell a captivating story for the theatre is one thing, it requires a lot of character, skill and time. Therefore, to be able to create two stories for the same play that run alongside one another at the same time, deserves twice the admiration. To put it ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Alice Fowler Which is more powerful, music or words? The poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten debate this point in Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art and, unsurprisingly, agree to differ. Bennett stages an imagined meeting between the two great men in 1972, rekindling an old friendship at a point when both ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Michael Hootman The Habit of Art sees Alan Bennett stake his claim to the same theatrical territory inhabited by Tom Stoppard. Habit is very much a play of ideas. Or, to put it more bluntly, a play of too many ideas. It’s a play-within-a-play which examines the very idea of theatrical devices whilst ...

Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art, a play within a play based on a fictional meeting between poet W.H Auden and composer Benjamin Britten, premiered at the National Theatre back in November 2009 with the production going on to tour in the Autumn of 2010. This year, the Original Theatre Company and York Theatre Royal will present the first ever ...