Monday, 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 05:30PMFriday, April 1, 2011
Dukes, LancasterJim Cartwright's 1992 comedy has matured into an enjoyable period piece – just how much so becomes apparent in the first scene when Mari, a noisy northern housewife, is bes…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:45PMThursday, March 31, 2011
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeThe old way is often the best. This summer, the New Vic is returning to first principles with a proper rep company appearing in a rotating season of pl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:08PMSunday, March 27, 2011
Workers once came from all over the world to work in Lumb Lane. Now the defunct Bradford mill is being used to stage their storiesLumb Lane was, for a long time, Bradford's most notorious ad…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMWednesday, March 23, 2011
Britain's stages are about to be invaded by drunks. What's the secret to playing a tipsy character? And who is drama's biggest boozer?Drama frequently holds up a mirror to our drinking …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:31PMGuildhall, DerbyMartin Luther King's pursuit of a dream must have meant that he suffered a fair few nightmares as well. Katori Hall's two-hander, which won last year's Olivier award for best…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:42PMSunday, March 20, 2011
Kirkstall Abbey, LeedsIt was billed as the wedding of the year: a gothic abbey, 12,000 guests and an outside broadcast operation sufficient to make Wills and Kate's arrangements seem li…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:14PMFriday, March 18, 2011
Everyman, LiverpoolThe final new play at the soon-to-be-transformed Everyman features an everyman undergoing a process of transformation. Divorcee Frank nervously awaits his date with Cindy,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:15PMThursday, March 17, 2011
Octagon, BoltonArthur Miller's drama is a classic tale of a house divided,or in this case, the contents of an old house that has to be cleared. The Franz brothers have ceased to communi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMMonday, March 14, 2011
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsTranslating Lorca is one of the sternest challenges a theatrical practitioner can face. Not only do you need to find an equivalent for the intense, symbolicall…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:12PMWednesday, March 9, 2011
Northern Stage, NewcastleThere is a lot not to like about Hamlet. It is very long, incredibly intense and not a bit funny. But for those who cannot face four morbid hours in Elsinore, there …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:45PMThursday, March 3, 2011
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeIt is a curious production of Hamlet that calls for the use of a swanee whistle, but then Northern Broadsides is a curious kind of company. Though its commitment…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMWednesday, February 23, 2011
Theatre Royal, YorkThe Touring Consortium was established in 1996 to produce curriculum-based drama, during which period it has presented To Kill a Mockingbird no less than three times. Thou…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMSunday, February 20, 2011
Contact, ManchesterMind the Gap is a company that specialises in giving performers with and without learning disabilities an equal platform. Though the balance between doing good work and pr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:45PMThursday, February 17, 2011
Hull TruckLucinda Coxon's bleak, chattering-class comedy follows a self-absorbed series of dinner parties at which the characters discuss the sitcom Will and Grace and the nagging emptiness …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:08PMWednesday, February 16, 2011
Live, NewcastleSam is a theatrical charlatan who makes his living transmitting psychic messages to gullible audiences – though he lacks the clairvoyant powers to perceive that if he fails …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:20PMThursday, February 10, 2011
Derby theatreAny staging of The Merchant of Venice worth its salt must contain an instance in which the racial hatred becomes so appalling it is impossible to watch. That moments occurs in t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:16PMSunday, February 6, 2011
Belgrade, CoventryAt the beginning of the 1980s, Coventry's car-manufacturing industry had collapsed, race riots spilled out on to the streets, and the Specials were at the top of the charts…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:58PMFriday, February 4, 2011
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeWilliam Inge's drama famously inspired the 1956 film starring Marilyn Monroe, though sightings of it on stage have been rare until within the last year, when Pit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30PMTuesday, February 1, 2011
Dukes, LancasterThe Dukes' new writing policy covers all aspects of the local economy. Recent seasons have included plays about fell-walking and Pendle witches; now Zosia Wand provides a dra…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:05PMMonday, January 10, 2011
Unity, LiverpoolThe Red Shoes never stop dancing, nor do they cease to inspire imaginative adaptations. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger filmed it as an allegory on the perils of vanity…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:15PMTuesday, January 4, 2011
Nottingham PlayhouseAusterity has no place in pantoland, thank goodness, and you can depend on Kenneth Alan Taylor's Nottingham pantomimes (of which this is the 27th) to provide a mirror ver…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:29PMTuesday, December 21, 2010
Northern Stage, NewcastleNo matter how elaborate a present you give a little one this Christmas, they will more than likely be just as happy playing with the packaging. So it makes perfect s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:45PMMonday, December 20, 2010
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsLeeds's Grade I-listed market hall is one of the oldest and largest in Europe, with a colourful history of traders including Cheap Jack, purveyor of miracle pi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30PMThursday, December 16, 2010
Stephen Joseph, ScarboroughIt is believed that, as the author of some of the most wildly imaginative but erratically spelled fairytales ever written, Hans Christian Andersen may have suffere…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:15PMMonday, December 13, 2010
Theatre Royal, YorkBerwick Kaler is the giant redwood of pantomime dames: no one will be able to tell for certain how long he has been around until they slice his frock open and count the pe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30PMSunday, December 12, 2010
Baptist Street, PenygroesIt is hard to avoid the conclusion that the recent severe weather is down to climate change. Yet there is now evidence that the inclement conditions can actually be …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:15PMFriday, December 10, 2010
Liverpool PlayhouseIt is always helpful when the title of a show gives a reasonable idea of what to expect, and though it is true that there are no wise men in Peepolykus's Christmas extrava…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:30PMThursday, December 9, 2010
Seven Arts centre, LeedsBoff Whalley will always be best known as the leader of Chumbawamba, the punk band that drenched the former deputy prime minister, John Prescott. But he also has a pr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:44PMWednesday, December 8, 2010
Northern Stage, NewcastleTwenty years since it was first produced at the National theatre, Alan Bennett's stage adaptation of The Wind in the Willows has become a classic in its own right. I…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:01PMTuesday, December 7, 2010
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsAudiences are not exactly left wanting for Dickensian entertainments at this time of year, and though most are appropriately festive, one begins to sympathise …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30PM 
