Wednesday, December 5, 2012
West Yorkshire PlayhouseThere was general agreement that Danny Boyle succeeded in capturing the quintessence of Britishness for this year's Olympic opening ceremony. Even so, you wonder if i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:12PMTuesday, December 4, 2012
Royal Exchange, ManchesterIt is supposedly the case that you are never more than 10 feet away from a rat. In Carol Ann Duffy's compendium of verminous fables, you are certainly never far fro…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:51AMMonday, December 3, 2012
Octagon, BoltonIn straitened times you expect certain economies to be made, even in Neverland, and stage flying is complex and expensive. Yet it does seem a bit frugal to deny a young audien…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:36AMThursday, November 29, 2012
Royal Court, LiverpoolLiverpool's Royal Court has recently reopened after a £1m facelift. The big news, however, was that gossip-magazine favourite David Gest – no stranger to spending a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:34AMWednesday, November 14, 2012
Playhouse, LiverpoolJoe Ward Munrow's debut play is a concise studio drama for three actors and a huge, invisible elephant that never leaves the room. Simon and David are brothers whose mot…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:28PMFriday, November 9, 2012
Hull TruckNobody writes about Withernsea quite like Tom Wells. Then again, nobody writes about Withernsea – though Well's unassuming domestic comedy about family life in an obscure, East Y…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:51AMMonday, October 29, 2012
Critics rarely see the two most significant performances in a play's run – the first preview and closing night. Seeing both, I saw the West Yorkshire Playhouse's production transformed int…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:11PMThursday, October 25, 2012
Northern Stage, NewcastleReagan is an overworked social worker doing a late shift in his dingy office. It's a bit of a tip, otherwise everything seems fairly normal. Apart from a demonically…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMMonday, October 22, 2012
Theatre Royal, YorkAt the heart of Dickens' novel young Paul Dombey, the sickly heir to a mercantile fortune, disarms his father with a simple question: "What is money after all? What can it…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:07PMFriday, October 19, 2012
A mass-reviewing project focusing on one theatre show is a great idea – but it doesn't half add to the pressure, says director Sarah EsdaileI wasn't aware that my production of Cat on a Ho…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:02AMThursday, October 18, 2012
Theatre Royal, YorkThe Guinea Pig Club was an exclusive drinking society, but it's hard to imagine anyone would actually want to qualify for membership. The entry requirement was that you ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:46AMMonday, October 15, 2012
Octagon, BoltonBill Naughton – author of Alfie and Spring and Port Wine – was Bolton's best-known dramatic export before playwright Jim Cartwright came along. The Octagon has presented a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:59AMFriday, October 12, 2012
Nottingham PlayhouseThey do a good sporting play in Nottingham. In past seasons, the Playhouse has presented the Brian Clough comedy Old Big 'Ead in the Spirit of the Man, and a tribute to t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:59PMFriday, October 5, 2012
A society drowning in bourbon-coloured water, an opulent mansion and improvised jazz are not the easiest of illusions to create on stage, as Alfred Hickling discovers as part of our unique c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:45AMThursday, October 4, 2012
Curve, LeicesterThe news that Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein was to make the leap into theatrical production with a musical version of his 2004 movie aroused a flurry of speculation: th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:25AMTuesday, October 2, 2012
Lowry, SalfordEveryone knows the Maldives are sinking. Everyone, that is, except for Dr Diane Cassell, a climate-change expert at the university of York, who has been studying the islands fo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:10PMWednesday, September 26, 2012
Theatre Royal, YorkCertain performances are destined for a long run, though few are likely to run quite this far. At the heart of this Pilot Theatre production, Elliot Barnes-Worrell no…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:46PMFriday, September 14, 2012
Harrogate theatreWhere there's muck there's brass. And where there's involvement from Northern Broadsides, there will probably be a fairly strong brass contingent as well. Music has always b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AMWednesday, September 12, 2012
The story of the borstal boy who turns to racing has been relocated to last year's riots. Alfred Hickling talks to writer Roy Williams and the star of the 60s film version Tom CourtenayImmed…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:31PMTuesday, September 11, 2012
Crucible, SheffieldWe've come to expect sterling Shakespeare from Daniel Evans at the Crucible. Hamlet (featuring John Simm) and Othello (with Dominic West and Clarke Peters) were notable no…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMThursday, August 16, 2012
Museum Gardens, YorkIn the beginning was the word, and the word was nowt. "I am maker unmade, nowt is but me," declares God in Mike Kenny's adaptation of the medieval religious dramas, compi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:29AMTuesday, August 7, 2012
The York Mystery Plays are back – in a production boasting 500 actors, one ark, a choir, a brass band, 1,200 volunteers, and a very surprising bromanceThere are some bizarre items on the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:10PMThursday, August 2, 2012
Theatre-by-the-Lake, KeswickThe green burial revolution began in Cumbria in the early 1990s, with a plot of pasture outside Carlisle where those concerned about the carbon footprint of coffi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMMillennium Centre, CardiffThe writer Kaite O'Reilly says that she maintains two careers: "the mainstream playwright and the less visible disability artist." Recently, that balance has arguab…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMMonday, July 30, 2012
Theatre-by-the-Lake, KeswickJohn Chapman's venerable farce has not received any professional attention for over two decades, which does not make it immediately obvious why there should be tw…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:15PMSunday, July 29, 2012
Stephen Joseph, ScarboroughJohn Godber and Jane Thornton have one of the least glamorous, but longest-running of theatrical marriages. They've acted together, directed one another and collab…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMFriday, July 27, 2012
Grosvenor Park theatre, ChesterHey ho, the wind and the rain. Chester's charming open-air theatre has entered its third season with the welcome innovation of a canopy over the seating area, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:56PMWednesday, July 25, 2012
Royal Exchange, ManchesterThe Royal Exchange's Truth About Youth festival claims to be about "challenging and changing negative perceptions of young people in the UK". On the face of it, inv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:12PMFriday, July 13, 2012
Alexandra Park, OldhamCurrently without a roof over its head – at least until major refurbishment work is completed in the autumn – Oldham Coliseum has decamped to the park. It sounds a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:41AMWednesday, July 11, 2012
Stephen Joseph, ScarboroughHow many Alan Ayckbourn characters does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer – at least according to Absurd Person Singular – is six: one to attempt suici…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMSunday, June 24, 2012
Playhouse, LiverpoolValentia, a tiny island off the coast of County Kerry, is the kind of place where you make your own entertainment. Sal, a young woman who has returned to her remote Irish…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:15PM 
