Live theatre, NewcastleA trio of actors try to provide answers for teenagers’ anxieties in Paper Birds’ razor-sharp show One teenager wants to know when you’re ready to have a baby. A…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMNew Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme Actors swap multiple characters to share stories and trade blows as pints are pulled and relationships dissected in Jim Cartwright’s bittersweet comic drama T…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMSummerhall, Edinburgh Annual festival of visual theatre delivers a busy mix of puppetry, silent comedy, modern dance and the hard to define When you’re used to performing to four people, a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AMThe city’s theatre is emotional, indignant and polemical finds our critic on a whirlwind trip through a dozen shows The sparky young performers on stage thank us for coming out tonight. Th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMUig Community Centre, Isle of LewisJulia Taudevin’s show about the Gaelic tradition of singing for the dead takes us on a dizzying spin through space and time It’s based on keening ritua…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AMNTGent, Ghent, BelgiumAn acting family play the members of a family about to take their own lives in this unnerving and heartbreaking celebration of the ordinary It is a dark winter’s nigh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PMVarious venues, EdinburghCharlotte Runcie and Irvine Welsh are among the writers exploring Scotland’s maritime history in these evocative installations A litany of names is projected on th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMTraverse, EdinburghDouglas Maxwell’s two-hander teases and cajoles us with questions about how we see ourselves Jimmy says he doesn’t want to be a story. An asylum seeker in Glasgow, he …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24AMPlayhouse, LiverpoolThe hard-working cast bring enough enthusiasm and gusto to this musical adaptation to disguise its weak score The word “believe” has been projected in big letters up …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PMTramway, GlasgowTreating Carlo Collodi’s allegory with the seriousness it deserves, this sincere and playful production draws a vulnerable boy into the tale’s darkest corners Don’t be …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMNorthern Stage, NewcastleSpectacle trumps subtlety as Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of lost innocence is stifled by a topical plot and noisy percussion You can see the temptation. You’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36PMHull TruckMaking Wendy younger gives a different dynamic to Deborah McAndrew’s engaging adaptation, with Baker Mukasa’s spontaneous Peter She’s a theatrical sort, is Vanessa Schofield…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AMTraverse, EdinburghFrom a man sneezing out frog-like creatures to a husband restored to life with the phlegm of a beggar, these supernatural fables are uncanny Being human is a risk. You nev…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24PMLeeds PlayhouseDorothy turns eco-warrior, seeking justice in an unjust world, in this visually exciting production of the children’s classic Check out the internet theory that Greta Thunbe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48PMCurve, LeicesterThe classic musical gets a bold makeover in this stylish and intimate production directed by Nikolai Foster It’s not every show that comes with an endorsement from the loca…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMDundee RepThe Scottish comic-strip transfers to the stage in a witty show addressing cultural anxieties about belonging, driven by a rock, gospel and bhangra score It would be a stretch to c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMNew Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-LymeSisters Danielle and Nichole Bird create a dreamlike mirror image in a superbly staged production, alive with music, wit and spectacle It was written as …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:12AMColiseum, OldhamWhat used to be one boy’s coming-of-age struggle with a tyrannous ogre is now a free-for-all Boisterous, full-throttled and cheery it may be, but it’s hard to locate the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33PMPaisley Arts CentreA shipyard electrician and his wife suffer the debilitating effects of a preventable, man-made disease in Frances Poet’s play In 1898, factory inspector Lucy Deane Strea…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42PMByker Community Centre, NewcastleThis explosive, techno-soundtracked assault on the military machine cuts between war-zone combatants and anxious families in the weapons industry Two men loo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42PMTraverse, EdinburghAnna Russell-Martin gives a magnetic performance as Anais, the 15-year-old resident of a care home, who dreams of reinventing herself Anna Russell-Martin doesn’t crack a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterLucy Ellinson stars as a lean, mean and moody Macbeth in Christopher Haydon’s noisy, dystopian production, with Ony Uhiara as a high-spirited wife Let’s number …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:03AMNorthern Stage, NewcastleArts employee Rosa Postlethwaite sets out to satirise the corporate machinery of modern theatre – but deadpan irony gets it in the way Do you remember a time befor…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMA hip-hop history lesson, a dizzy Dahl musical and a continent-hopping barbershop … we pick the finest new works of theatre since 2000 Jez Butterworth: the sage behind our No1 Continue rea…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18PMRoyal Lyceum, EdinburghDavid Greig follows Tarkovsky and Soderbergh with this bold, rewarding take on Stanisław Lem’s novel about a sentient planet speaking to its visitors If a sentient …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:12AMDerby theatreSarah Brigham’s revival of Richard Bean’s brilliant and chaotic comedy hoodwinks the audience into its games, but lacks the original’s taste for danger Such was the air of…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMNew Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeWith modern-day parallels and an excellent ensemble, this play about two powerful women tests the limits of intolerance and compassion How refreshing to be plung…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36PMDundee RepPeter Arnott’s brilliant vignettes about a 1879 railway bridge disaster imagine the lives and hopes of passengers stalked by death Peter Arnott has written enough plays to know y…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:03AMPitlochry Festival theatre, Port Na CraigRarely has theatre seemed so much part of the public sphere as in this electrifying adaptation of the Elizabeth Gaskell novel There is a thrilling tr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:36PMThe festival is over for another year but plenty of its theatre, comedy and dance hits have announced dates around the UK CollapsibleBreffni Holahan gives a searing performance as Essie in M…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54AMScottish Storytelling Centre, EdinburghDrawing on her dual Scottish and Kenyan heritage, Mara Menzies weaves together an exquisite set of stories about the power of language to liberate and …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:12PM
