Carmel ThomasonThe Chelsea Hotel in New York had a legendary history with a run of guests any five-star hotel would fight over today, although their antics behind closed doors probably less so. In its time it was a hub of artistic talent, housing a stream of...
Matthew Bourne’s imaginative re-interpretation of Swan Lake has wowed audiences for the past 18 years, and this latest tour is no less spectacular. Indeed, the show, with a young Prince being snapped by the paparazzi falling out of nightclubs, seems...
Nothing beats opera for dealing with extremes of emotion, and as themes go they don’t come much darker than the child abuse and murder at the centre of Peter Grimes. Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts’ Grimes is, on first appearance, an imposing, monstrous...
I must say upfront that Opera della Luna is one of my favourite theatre companies, for the sheer energy, fun and joy its productions bring to the stage. So, the show last night could have gone one of two ways, either I’d be biased and love it...
Bill Kenwright’s production of Evita returns to Manchester for the third time in almost as many years. With repeated runs it is easy for shows to look tired and pared back. But remarkably with this production the new tour has upped its game...
The Manchester International Festival has made its mark by commissioning bold, new pieces of work that often blur the boundaries of different art forms. In this sense its staging of one of Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies, Macbeth appears at...
Louise is a dynamo of energy. Her mind is a whirr, her heart beats loudly and she doesn’t sleep. She lives in a frenetic, fantastical world where her bed becomes a wardrobe, coats become seductive strangers, stools dance and lamps tilt their bulbs...
What is enough? That is the question at the heart of the two new 45 minute plays by Northern playwrights, Cathy Crabb and Emma Adams, which make up, The Enough Project. For each person the answer will be different, and the contrasting yet...
The word ‘lost’, when used to describe the human condition, is rarely straightforward. And in this latest work from aerial dance company Ockham’s Razor we are presented with a number of short interactions that lend themselves to a variety of...
Jim Cartright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice isn’t seen nearly as often as it deserves, most probably because of the ambition of the script in what it demands from its actors. Twenty years on from its first performance the playwright has got...