Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Octagon, BoltonJessica Baglow is radiant as the gobby but intellectually insatiable hairdresser who spars with her boozy Open University lecturerIf one thing has altered in the 37 years sinc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12AMSaturday, January 21, 2017
Royal Exchange, ManchesterAnna Jordan’s prize-winning play about two teenagers living alone in a filthy flat is difficult to watch yet easy to loveAnna Jordan’s Bruntwood prize-winning p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:36AMMonday, January 16, 2017
The Liverpudlian folk-singer has written the drama she always wanted to write, drawing upon her grandfather’s shocking experiences of war at seaOver the past 10 years, Lizzie Nunnery has p…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06AMSaturday, December 31, 2016
Opera House, ManchesterCBeebies’ resident clown shares his origin myth at a Manchester international festival appearance that is seriously sillySo who is the hottest ticket at this year’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:33AMWednesday, December 21, 2016
41 Monkgate, York F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel comes to life in the Guild of Misrule’s fancy-dress interpretation, though you may be too busy playing spin the bottle to hear the whole stor…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AMCrucible, Sheffield Powered by Anna-Jane Casey’s explosive central turn, this version of Irving Berlin’s musical wisely tones down the misogyny and racismThe American election result is …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:33AMTuesday, December 20, 2016
Curve, LeicesterDavid Wood sensibly doesn’t try to overextend what is one of Dahl’s most concise works, but he does keep the audience – especially the bearded members – on their toes…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMFriday, December 16, 2016
Lyceum, SheffieldThere's tragedy at the core of French's roly-poly persona – yet the place she finds herself in appears to be a good oneIt's extraordinary to consider that Dawn French has …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48PMWednesday, December 14, 2016
Liverpool PlayhouseThis celebration of the 19th-century Star theatre is neither boring nor educational – just as Ken Dodd advised its writer, Michael Wynne Liverpool’s theatres seem to b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:04AMTuesday, December 13, 2016
Theatre Royal, YorkBerwick Kaler is back for his 38th pantomime, which bursts with traditional surreal humour and features a Suzi Quatro cameoWe all need a bit of light escapism around this …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AMMonday, December 12, 2016
Live theatre, NewcastleFirst-time writer Nina Berry’s deftly original and intelligent two-hander about Christmas wishes and quantum mechanics displays astonishing confidencePantomime seaso…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AMFriday, December 9, 2016
Royal Exchange, ManchesterA luckless New York dancer takes scraps from a rich man’s table in a terrific-looking and sounding revival of the 60s show written by Neil SimonHas there ever bee…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AMWednesday, December 7, 2016
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughIn two Christmas stocking-fillers, Knowing Her and Knowing Him, a couple celebrating 40 years of marriage discover the deep freeze in their relationshipIt�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:02AMTuesday, December 6, 2016
Birmingham RepLong John Silver swaggers perilously close to child abuse while his parrot pecks out dissenters’ eyes in this darkened voyage through Stevenson’s taleRobert Louis Stevenson…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:18AMMonday, December 5, 2016
Curve, LeicesterNikolai Foster’s production returns to the musical’s roots, restoring rarely heard tunes and replacing the sanitised film’s California beaches with Chicago’s mean str…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:02AMNottingham PlayhouseKenneth Alan Taylor delivers dancing bunnies, vintage show tunes and 19 kilos of glitter for a perfect balance of old and newYou know you’re in panto land when it sudde…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:02AMWednesday, November 30, 2016
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeTheresa Heskins whisks Andersen’s fairytale back to its Danish roots, adding a snow flurry of hygge and revealing its debt to DickensAt the end of a year in wh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AMTuesday, November 29, 2016
Northern Stage, Newcastle Mark Calvert’s charming revival robs Roald Dahl’s story of its dramatic climax but makes up for it with a swinging score and plenty of New York sass If you had …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:31AMThursday, November 24, 2016
Home, ManchesterSeemingly located in the only fjord in range of Weatherfield, Polly Findlay’s powerful revival features some fine performancesWhen Ibsen’s Ghosts was first produced in Lo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:02AMWednesday, November 16, 2016
Live theatre, NewcastleThe radical thinker’s appetite for hypnotism leads to a delightful debunking of Victorian pseudoscienceThe radical Victorian thinker Harriet Martineau was a woman ah…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:18AMTuesday, November 8, 2016
Nottingham PlayhouseIn an inspired updating, Fiona Buffini relocates Thomas Middleton’s play about the abuse of power to a 1970s celebrity world of tight trousers and chest-wigsThomas Midd…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AMSunday, November 6, 2016
Royal Exchange, ManchesterThis charismatic portrayal of a giant intellect trapped by his inability to lie brings a fresh aspect of tragedy to the Alan Turing biography industryWhen Hugh Whit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:12AMThursday, October 27, 2016
Wild Woods, BradfordThe gloomy basement of an abandoned Marks & Spencer hosts a sci-fi piece that comments on the current immigration crisisFreedom Studios is a Bradford theatre company …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:24AMWednesday, October 26, 2016
Octagon, Bolton David Thacker’s third stab at Shakespeare’s late play reveals deep contemplation of its themes, with Leontes’s agony soothed by heart-stopping tendernessThe wildly disp…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:57AMFriday, October 14, 2016
Hull Truck theatreJanet Plater’s play about the factory vessel that went missing in 1974 breaks like a wave of grief in a perfect stormIn theatrical terms, Hull’s tenure as UK city of cu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:56AMWednesday, October 12, 2016
Live theatre, Newcastle Tom Wells’ play about three chronically uncool school-leavers who form a band treads a perfect line between gauche charm and whimsyFrom the unlikely theatrical hots…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:37AMYork Theatre RoyalThe children’s favourite is brought thrillingly up to date with a string of fairy lights, a handful of glitter and a healthy dose of imagination‘I would definitely not …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:03AMTuesday, October 11, 2016
Everyman, LiverpoolNick Bagnall relocates Shakespeare’s early comedy to a mind-altering mecca for mods, but the high decibels sometimes overwhelm the poetryNick Bagnall is developing a rep…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:02AMSunday, October 2, 2016
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsAnthony Shaffer’s meta-thriller is not so much an “ultimate game of cat-and-mouse” as an old mog prodding at its toy before settling down for a snoozeAnt…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:46PMThursday, September 29, 2016
Northern Stage, NewcastleA pair of belting performances power this energetic tale of two fans’ desperate attempts to get into Newcastle UnitedWhen Jonathan Tulloch’s novel about the effo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:06AMThursday, September 15, 2016
York Theatre RoyalNorthern Broadsides offer a surprisingly genial take on the tale of three couples whose silver wedding party descends into confusion When Barrie Rutter launched Northern Br…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:50AM 
