Writer: Roland Schimmelpfennig Translator: David Tushingham Director: Alice Malin Designer: Lizzie Clachan Reviewer: Ron Simpson Roland Schimmelpfennig is apparently one of Germany’s most performed playwrights at the moment, which says a fair bit for the discrimination of the German theatre-going public. Even if it is never easy to assess how a translation might differ from the original, David Tushingham’s version ...
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Writer: Becky Prestwich Director: Adam Quayle Designer: Katie Scott Reviewer: Ron Simpson When Richard Wagner came up with the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, the total all-embracing work of art, he probably didn’t anticipate mixing in fish suppers, a trivia quiz and a silly-hat competition with a touching little comedy/drama of first love, lost love and the impermanence of youth. Adam ...
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Writer: Charles Dickens Adaptor: Nick Lane Music/Lyrics: Simon Slater Director: Paul Robinson Designer: Helen Coyston Reviewer: Ron Simpson A (Scarborough) Christmas Carol stirs up thoughts about the point when a play turns from being “by Charles Dickens adapted by Nick Lane” into “a new play by Nick Lane based on the story by Charles Dickens”. Despite amending the title Nick ...
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Writer & Director: Alan Ayckbourn Designer: Kevin Jenkins Lighting: Jason Taylor Composer: Simon Slater Reviewer: Ron Simpson Ingenious, mischievous and ultimately humane, A Brief History of Women is proof that, in his 58th year of writing plays, Alan Ayckbourn is still able to find new ways of entertaining us for two hours and making us think a bit as well. ...
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Writer: Amelia Bullmore Director: Lotte Wakeham Designer: Frankie Bradshaw Lighting: Jason Taylor Sound: Paul Stear Reviewer: Ron Simpson Di and Viv and Rose is what it says – it’s about Di and Viv and Rose. They are the only three characters: Amelia Bullmore cleverly makes us know others without actually seeing them. Rose's irritatingly generous stepfather or one of her ...
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Writer: Alan Ayckbourn Director: Alan Ayckbourn Designer: Kevin Jenkins Lighting: Jason Taylor Reviewer: Ron Simpson The Stephen Joseph Theatre makes this production something of a hostage to fortune by prominently displaying Robin Herford’s assessment of Taking Steps as the funniest play in the English language. Alan Ayckbourn’s new production of his 1979 farce doesn’t quite live up to that which ...
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Writers: Jim Cartwright Director: Paul Robinson Designer: Tim Meacock Composer/Musical Director: Simon Slater Reviewer: Rob Atkinson When a production receives a spontaneous standing ovation, as The Rise and Fall of Little Voice so deservedly did at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, then the mere words of a review can only restate the obvious: here was a resounding success based on a ...
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Writer: Alan Ayckbourn Director: Alan Ayckbourn Designer: Kevin Jenkins Reviewer: Ron Simpson The welcome news at Scarborough is that the lunch-time plays in the Bistro have returned. Nowhere does better than the Stephen Joseph in supplying a varied summer programme for the theatrically inclined holiday-maker. At the moment a total of four premieres, including a children’s play, are running alongside ...
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