Carmel ThomasonI 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...
There is no doubt that the casting of Lesley Garrett as Elle in La Voix Humaine is the main box office draw for Opera North’s double bill of operatic heartache. It is almost a decade since the popular soprano took a stage operatic role, and...
There are always people who will try to profit from any situation, but whether anyone can truly gain from another’s misfortune is a question that hangs heavily over this anti-war play. When we first meet Mother Courage, she has driven her...
It’s almost twenty years since The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert opened in the cinema, and almost as long ago since I saw it. I don’t remember liking it very much at the time, well not enough to watch again. So, you might...