Sunday, July 10, 2011
Lowry, SalfordMost performers try to avoid dying a death on stage: performance artist Marina Abramović approached director Robert Wilson with a request that he produce hers.has been making …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:01PMThursday, July 7, 2011
It's not about small woodland creatures, and it's definitely not about Terry Wogan. Alfred Hickling joins in with the Cornish Floral DanceIn May 1911 a young violinist and composer of light…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMRoyal Exchange, ManchesterNotice is served that this may not be your average As You Like It by the appearance of a busker strumming an electric guitar in what appears to be a cross between a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:15PMOpera House, ManchesterMichael Billington recently lamented in these pages that, whereas musicals used to be inspired by books, movies and real events, now they are frequently adapted from a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:00PMArts cuts spell curtains for the Dukes theatre's alfresco events in Lancaster, but Chester's new open-air arena ensures the show goes on, rain or shineIt's the height of summer, which can on…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:32AMSunday, July 3, 2011
Media City, Salford QuaysThe last Punchdrunk production for the Manchester international festival had terrified audiences fleeing from a chainsaw-wielding maniac. This time it's a lot scarie…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:49PMSunday, June 26, 2011
Royal Exchange, ManchesterIn bald summary, Bunny is an intimate monologue by Shameless, Skins and Cast-offs writer Jack Thorne about an anxious teen who takes her knickers off in a stra…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:01PMThursday, June 23, 2011
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeThe seed of this JM Barrie upstairs-downstairs drama was planted by Arthur Conan Doyle's observation that "if a king and an able seaman were to be wrecked togeth…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:17PMSunday, June 19, 2011
Coliseum, OldhamSince the death of her trawlerman husband, Margaret has developed obsessive rituals, including unplugging all unused electrical items, replacing lids, and closing cupboards i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:56AMTuesday, June 14, 2011
Octagon, BoltonStephen Sondheim's musical shocker borrows from the Grand Guignol narrative of Victorian penny dreadfuls and the cathartic arc of Jacobean revenge drama. Elizabeth Newman's pr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:11PMFriday, June 10, 2011
Theatre Royal, YorkGerald Durrell said that growing up in Corfu with his family was "like living in one of the more flamboyant, slapstick comic operas". Witnessing this new stage adaptation,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:58AMMonday, June 6, 2011
Stephen Joseph, ScarboroughThe late Pam Gems wrote to fulfil a specific need: "When I came to the theatre in the 1970s I saw straight away that there were no parts for women, so I had a caus…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:34PMTuesday, May 31, 2011
Theatre-by-the-Lake, KeswickKeswick's Theatre-by-the-Lake was awarded a 22% increase in the Arts Council's spending review, yet the opening of the summer season was one of those evenings in …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:45PMSunday, May 29, 2011
Royal Exchange, ManchesterFew things signify New York quite so succinctly as a cast-iron fire hydrant. And nothing suggests a rough, unkempt outer borough of New York more than a hydrant sta…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PMThursday, May 26, 2011
Crucible, SheffieldNot much was revealed about the domestic life of Mrs Doyle, the garrulously insistent housekeeper from the comedy series Father Ted. It was rumoured she might have had a s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:46PMThursday, May 19, 2011
Live, NewcastleIt is election-night tradition that Sunderland South is first to declare its result. In 2005, the country's swiftest counters broke their own record, leaving Chris Mullin, the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:00PMWednesday, May 18, 2011
Octagon, BoltonThere's a joke that goes like this: two behavioural psychologists are in bed together and one says to the other: "That was good for you, how was it for me?"David Lodge's play …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:24PMFriday, May 13, 2011
Everyman, LiverpoolWilly Russell once praised the Everyman theatre in Liverpool as "a place where you could go and see an exciting new musical or a really good Shakespeare while sitting on a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:26PMWest Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsFirst published in 1633, John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore was the last of the Renaissance revenge dramas, effectively closing the coffin lid on one of the m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:43PMWednesday, May 11, 2011
Theatre Royal, YorkYork Theatre Royal has become, temporarily at least, York theatre-in-the-round for a season of plays. It is rare to see Arthur Miller's epic dissection of the Salem witch …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:35PMThursday, May 5, 2011
Derby theatreThe 1960s are so firmly associated with sexual liberation that it's easy to forget the generation of unmarried mothers who never had it so bad. Illegitimate children were often …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMWednesday, May 4, 2011
ARC, StocktonIn his analysis of north-south misunderstanding, Pies and Prejudice, the Wigan-born broadcaster Stuart Maconie recalls how he first moved to London and was puzzled by his produc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:37PMHe's familiar as an epic folklorist and the stern moralist of Ghosts and The Wild Duck – but two new productions introduce us to Ibsen's little-known lighter sideIbsen seems to be a playwr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:44PMTuesday, April 26, 2011
Hull TruckIt is said that charity begins at home. For Alan Bennett, it began at the bottom of his drive with a custard yellow van inhabited by an irascible eccentric who refused to budge for…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:47PMSunday, April 24, 2011
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeTwo shows in, and already the New Vic's repertory season is reaping the benefits of a permanent ensemble. Actors with relatively little to do in the Rivals now a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:44PMTuesday, April 19, 2011
Royal Exchange, ManchesterIt seems sadly to be the case that, for women actors of a certain age, the parts begin to dry up. Brad Fraser's solution has been to write five substantial parts an…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMMonday, April 18, 2011
Oldham ColiseumOldham Coliseum's recent 19% increase in Arts Council funding seems to offer a vote of confidence in old-fashioned, popular entertainment presented in an auditorium that has b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:33PMThursday, April 14, 2011
Lakeside Arts Centre, NottinghamIt is almost 20 years since the first appearance of the play that, as Michael Billington wrote, "enflamed passions and divided partners". When it was new, Dav…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:14PMMonday, April 11, 2011
Octagon, BoltonWhat is the difference between a woman and a traction engine? According to Fred Dibnah, the steeplejack and steam enthusiast, "you can belt an engine with a hammer and they sa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:31PMThursday, April 7, 2011
Belgrade, CoventryAny production of Chekhov seems to carry a certain number of given factors: there will be silver birches, there will be samovars, there will be parasols. The open…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:07PMMonday, April 4, 2011
Drummonds Mill, BradfordPresented by Freedom Studios, The Mill is an example of the increasingly prevalent format of what might be termed woodwork theatre: whereby the audience is invited to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:30PM 
