Tag Archives: Scarborough

Writer/Director: Alan Ayckbourn Designer: Kevin Jenkins Reviewer: Ron Simpson Season’s Greetings is a bit of an oddity in the Ayckbourn canon. Initially performed at the Theatre in the Round in 1980, it was successful enough to be revived the following year, then disappeared from the Scarborough programme for nearly 40 years, despite popularity elsewhere. So the current production, astonishingly, is ...

Writers, music & lyrics: Gary Barlow and Tim Firth Director: Matt Ryan Movement: Lucy Hind Reviewer: Janet Jepson The Women’s Institute was set up in 1915 to bring together women from all walks of life, an organisation that claims to be based on the ideals of fellowship, truth, tolerance and justice. No mention of stripping off and posing naked with ...

Writer: Nick Lane Music/Lyrics: Simon Slater Director: Paul Robinson Associate Director/Choreographer: Erin Carter Designer: Helen Coyston Reviewer: Ron Simpson This is a difficult production to assess. On the one hand, anyone expecting to see Alice in Wonderland will be disappointed. The programme’s claim that is “by Lewis Carroll adapted by Nick Lane” is misleading; it’s by Nick Lane based on ...

Writer: Anna Jordan Director: Neil Bettles Reviewer: Edie Ranvier Scarborough, 1918. And 2013. And – soon. Three men are coming home. George and Frankie are soldiers, George a shell-shocked survivor of the trenches, Frankie a disgraced Afghanistan veteran. Nat is a refugee from a war-ravaged UK a few years hence which feels uncomfortably plausible, returning to look for his missing ...

Writer & Director: Alan Ayckbourn Designer: Michael Holt Reviewer: Ron Simpson Better Off Dead is one of those puzzling Alan Ayckbourn plays that leave one wishing for a second viewing to work out where exactly the focus lies and how seriously to take the proceedings – not that a second viewing would be any hardship, the play is unfailingly entertaining ...

Writer: Christopher York Director: Paul Robinson Designer: Helen Coyston Lighting: Ben Cowens Sound: Simon Slater Reviewer: Ron Simpson Build a Rocket, after a brief run at Scarborough, took itself off to the Edinburgh Fringe for a month and has now returned for ten performances at the McCarthy at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. It has all the zest, exuberance and instant ...

Writer & Director: Alan Ayckbourn Designer: Michael Holt Reviewer: Ron Simpson As so often in recent years, the Summer season at Scarborough means two Ayckbourn plays: one new (Better Off Dead opens in September) and one revival. Joking Apart, initially performed 40 years ago, is variously described in the programme as one of Ayckbourn’s favourite plays and one of the ...

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 ...