Thursday, 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 08:50AMWednesday, September 14, 2016
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughNow three decades old, this play about a desperate father in a voyeuristic world may have lost some of its cutting edge, but its wistful tone is as strong …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:03AMSaturday, September 10, 2016
Crucible, SheffieldThe cast offer a high-spirited depiction of male camaraderie in this play about the Sheffield blitz of 1940, but the show most impresses as a portrait of a cityKieran Know…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24PMWednesday, September 7, 2016
Theatre-by-the-Lake, KeswickJez Butterworth followed the advice of his hero in writing this curio, which is ultimately just a step on the road to JerusalemJez Butterworth credited Harold Pin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:30PMSunday, August 28, 2016
As she stars in her second revival of A Taste of Honey, Rebecca Ryan talks about the enduring appeal of Delaney's contradictory Jo – and how growing up on Manchester's Chatsworth estate as…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30PMMonday, August 15, 2016
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughMelanie witnesses a murder plot over dinner – or is she hallucinating? Audiences enjoying a light meal enter the twilight zone in this appetising two-par…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:40AMThursday, August 4, 2016
Grosvenor Park theatre, Chester Proteus and Valentine are demob-happy backpackers swapping sleepy Verona for metropolitan Milan in Alex Clifton’s spirited open-air productionIn Tom Stoppar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:42AMWednesday, August 3, 2016
York Theatre Royal Conan Doyle’s hero stalks the moors in the company of travelling music-hall turns in an appealing family show that requires deductive powers to keep track of who’s who…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMTuesday, August 2, 2016
The Royle Family star was jailed after the national construction workers’ strike of 1972. As a satirical show about the ‘Shrewsbury 24’ arrives in Shropshire, he looks back on the cont…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:27AMSunday, July 31, 2016
Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough The musicals of John Kander and Fred Ebb have brought us showstopping songs and great characters, from bored housewives to ageing shoplifters – all of w…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:22AMThursday, July 28, 2016
Grosvenor Park Open Air theatre, Chester A spirited ensemble make Shakespeare’s comic journey into the forest a gleeful enterprise, even in the company of his least funny foolTouchstone mu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AMFriday, July 22, 2016
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughRudyard Kipling’s famous bedtime tales are brought to life with a sink plunger, vacuum cleaner and, apparently, no actorsRudyard Kipling dreamed up the f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:46AMWednesday, July 20, 2016
Grosvenor Park theatre, Chester Clive King’s classic tale of a boy’s friendship with a mysterious caveman is retold with panache, poignancy and rousing percussion in this absorbing adapt…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:20AMWednesday, July 13, 2016
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughA seemingly second-rate improv troupe zips through dated scenarios – expecting full audience participation – in Ayckbourn’s ridiculously funny spoof …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:32AMThursday, July 7, 2016
Live Theatre, Newcastle upon TyneDavid Almond’s story of a teenager encouraged to write about his troubled thoughts is a darkly compelling triumphNewcastle’s most enterprising theatre ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:37AMWednesday, July 6, 2016
Royal Exchange, ManchesterElliot Levey and Tracy-Ann Oberman star in an adaptation of Howard Jacobson’s rollicking novel about table tennis and onanismLike all great comic novels, Howard J…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:49AMTuesday, June 28, 2016
Crucible, SheffieldHow far would you go to keep your job? An employee finds her sex life is a matter for the HR department in this sleek-looking dramaMike Bartlett’s play, which began life…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:58AMMonday, June 27, 2016
Theatr Clwyd, Mold With a chequerboard lawn, Italianate follies and an audience on garden chairs, Shakespeare’s play is given a Portmeirion-style designTamara Harvey has stated that she wa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:22AMSunday, June 19, 2016
Jonathan Miller is notching up his eighth Lear. How did he persuade Barrie Rutter to play the king? By telling him it’s a comedyShortly before rehearsals commence on King Lear, Jonathan Mi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:38AMThursday, June 16, 2016
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughThe satire is a little shaky but this neatly acted production finds Torben Betts once more smuggling left-leaning, state-of-the-nation analysis into his co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMTuesday, June 14, 2016
Twenty years after the Manchester bombing, the immersive theatre show On Corporation Street looks at those caught in the chaos – from the man having a haircut to the couple getting married…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:21PMSunday, June 12, 2016
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsThe puppetry alone is enough to recommend this magical take on Stephen Sondheim’s musical, but Opera North choristers are the real ace up the sleeveThe West …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:10AMThursday, June 9, 2016
Scarcroft Allotments, YorkMikron have concocted a jolly tribute to the Quaker families who changed society with cocoa – and a satire acknowleding the crusade’s corporate endIf ever you s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AMThursday, June 2, 2016
York MinsterPhilip McGinley stands out as a soulful, tormented Christ in this staging of the 13th-century pageant that makes its ecological prophecy harrowingly clearIn the year 2000, the Yo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:10AMFriday, May 27, 2016
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsFeaturing just a pair of characters, the teenage and adult Billy, this is one of the most modest – but best – stagings of the novelAmong the tributes follo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:44AMWednesday, May 25, 2016
Royal Exchange, ManchesterTime runs backwards in Hattie Naylor’s exceptional adaptation of the best-selling novel about women condemned to their own personal circles of hell in 1940s Londo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AMTuesday, May 24, 2016
Crucible, SheffieldWith its ravishing sets and fine comic performances, the story of a charlady’s quest to acquire a frock is a perfect fillip for a new age of austerityMrs ’Arris Goes t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:40AMFriday, May 20, 2016
Theatre Royal, YorkHumans are reliant on a vast video-conferencing network in an uncanny tale featuring aerial contortions and a score by Ultravox founder John FoxxFor a writer associated wi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:44AMThursday, May 19, 2016
Birmingham RepA film star and her make-up artist debate nude scenes, paparazzi and awards ceremonies in this revealing play from Stan’s CafeIt is a well-established fact that if you want t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:46AMMonday, May 16, 2016
Manchester ArenaFeaturing a musical mashup of Gary Glitter, Rolf Harris and Jim’ll Fix It, this show finds Peter Kay and co as off-colour as everPhoenix Nights fans have been waiting since…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:22PMWednesday, May 11, 2016
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeThis revival of Cicely Hamilton’s 1908 play about a downtrodden shopworker has an admirable lightness of touch An actor, activist and contemporary of George Be…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:52AM 
