Tag Archives: Tony Bartholomew

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: 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 ...

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. ...

Writer: Ben Brown Director: Mark Stratton Producer: Sheila Carter Set/Lighting: Graham Kirk Costumes: Christine Wall Reviewer: Ron Simpson As well as being (according to at least one poll) the most popular English poet of his generation, Philip Larkin was an enigmatic and somewhat controversial figure. His poetry suggested that his was a withdrawn existence, sexually deprived, terrified of death. After ...

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 ...

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 ...

Writer: Torben Betts Director: Henry Bell Designer: Lucy Weller Reviewer: Ron Simpson Torben Betts’ new play is firmly in a glorious Scarborough tradition. Those with long memories will recall the shock with which theatre-goers realised that those delightful Ayckbourn farces weren’t delightful at all, but had a full set of teeth and used them freely. The National Joke is mid-period ...

Writer: Mike Kenny Director: Henry Bell Designer: Lucy Weller Reviewer: Ron Simpson Mike Kenny is an expert at approaching children’s stories from an unusual angle, telling them from an oblique viewpoint, often that of invented characters who play a rôle in the traditional story. In this respect his version of Hansel &Gretel is less original than many of his other ...