Tag Archives: South East

Writer: Graham Linehan Director: Peter Rowe Reviewer: Michael Grove  Forget Alec Guinness. Forget Tom Hanks. This is an ingenious stage version of William Rose’s classic Ealing comedy, penned by Graham (Father Ted) Linehan and first seen in 2011. Despite its cinematic origins, it is at heart a good old-fashioned farce, lacking only the manic inevitability of the best of that ...

Choreography: David Nixon Music: Sally Beamish Reviewer: Lu Greer Northern Ballet’s latest re-imagining of a classic story sees them take on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid; the story of a naive young mermaid who, after the briefest of glimpses at life above the waves, falls for the human world and particularly for one man in it. As the curtain rises there is ...

Writer: Graham Linehan Director: Peter Rowe Reviewer: Paul Couch While the original Ealing comedy upon which it’s based was produced in 1955, a passing reference to the start of the Suez Crisis places Peter Rowe’s production of Graham Linehan’s 2011 adaptation of The Ladykillers a year later than that in 1956. Mrs Wilberforce, an elderly and eccentric widow, lives alone in ...

Writer: J M Barrie Directors: Daniel Buckroyd, Matthew Cullum Reviewer: Michael Gray A magical, enchanting Peter Pan to follow James and the Giant Peach and The Wind in the Willows onto the Mercury stage in the long vacation slot. Not just another attempt at the increasingly popular summertime panto, but an adaptation, by Daniel Buckroyd and Matthew Cullum (who also ...

Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Book: Hugh Wheeler Director: Paul Foster Reviewer: David Jobson Now in its 50th year, the Watermill Theatre returns to, arguably, one of the finest musical composers of all time, Stephen Sondheim. Their production of Sweeney Todd went on to London and Broadway, with a cast that combined the roles of both actor and musician. Once again ...

Book: Joseph Stein Music: Jerry Bock Lyrics: Sheldon Harnick Director: Daniel Evans Reviewer: Bill Avenell It is a nice touch of Chichester to provide a real live fiddler on the roof of the Festival Theatre to welcome the audience at last night’s show. The said fiddler, a very accomplished Darius Luke Thompson, was forced from his lofty perch by the ...

Writer: David Greig Director: Dan Sherer Reviewer: Michael Gray First seen in 2013, and inspired at least in part by the Anders Breivik massacre of the year before, David Greig’s powerful piece has been revived many times since. Dan Sherer’s production in the Mercury Studio is intensely visceral, its impact enhanced by the intimacy of the staging. James Cotterill’s set ...

Writers and performers: Griffin & Jones Reviewer: Glen Pearce In a crowded marketplace, it takes something special to make magicians stand out from the crowd. For every show-stopping Derren Brown there is a plethora of wannabe slight of hand artists that merge into one. Not so Griffin and Jones, self confessed pioneers of slapdash magic. While the duo may eschew ...