Carmel ThomasonRNCM Original Voices Festival celebrates new perspectives on music that has filled the concert hall for centuries alongside new orchestral works. Composer James Weatherly-Buss, one of Manchester Camerata 360 Ruth Sutton Fellows for 2023/24, is...
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Sir Peter Wright’s iconic production of The Sleeping Beauty for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Under the direction of Carlos Acosta this sumptuous production is revived to its full extravagance and splendour, living...
Jordon FrancisYou can often gauge how a performance has gone from the level of ovation at the end, but for Cleveland Watkiss it doesn’t take that long to hear audience feedback. Laughter fills the Carole Nash Hall as smiling faces engage with each other to echo a...
Reece DonlanManchester International Film Festival turns 10 this year. Known as ‘an annual celebration of international cinema, showcasing a diverse range of films from established and emerging filmmakers’, the festival hosts directors from all over the globe...
Dave PorterEveryone loves a court room drama – at the moment on TV you can watch televised trials in Scottish courts and listen in on juries in a mocked murder trial. Tie this in with our current obsession with true crime and you can see why resurrecting 12...
Theatre audiences can look forward to some Brazilian sunshine this spring when São Paulo Dance Company tours the UK and Ireland for the first time. The company comes to The Lowry, Salford with a triple bill of contemporary works by some of the...
Olivia HowlettSex, Sorcery, and Suckers… The tagline promises exactly what ‘Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the sea witch’ delivers. The production offers crude jokes, amateur charm, and a proper parody that pokes fun at all those clichés in your typical...
Martin ThomassonIn 1991, the artist, Cornelia Parker enlisted the help of the British army to blow up a garden shed. She and her team then collected the scorched and twisted fragments of the shed and its contents (purposefully curated to echo the horticultural and...
Cathy CrabbIn the Convent of the Three F’s, Mother Superior (Katy Owen) runs a tight ship of fun activities and a safe, if uneasy space. She tells a tail of Bluebeard (Tristan Sturrock), a dark and alluring magician who holds terrible secrets. Three characters...
Reunions rarely work, whether school reunions, band reunions or – this case – resurrection of a much-loved comedy classic. For many people the iconic series Drop the Dead Donkey was synonymous with associated with alternative programming Channel 4...