Martin ThomassonIt does my Christmas spirit no good at all to be writing a less than warm review about a Maxine Peake project. The star of Dinner Ladies, Silk, and the rightly acclaimed post-Hillsborough docudrama, Anne (plus a glittering array of theatrical...
Carmel ThomasonThe National Theatre’s fantasy adventure, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, arrives at The Lowry promising a magical Christmas. The stage adaptation brings to life the novel by author, Neil Gaiman whose childhood inspired the story. He tells...
Free family festival, Lightwaves, from Quays Culture returns to Salford Quays for a 9th year with another spectacular line-up of immersive installations. Trailer Last year’s festival brought a huge floating earth to Media City. This...
Dave PorterThe ghost of Christmas past(iche) anyone? Writer, Nick Lane and director, Ellie Hurt have taken Dickens’ classic tale and turned it into a seasonal caper full of high jinks and capers. Their stated aim when staging the show at Shakespeare North...
Steve TimmsOne of the sleeper hits of recent years, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out grossed $312.9 million – off a modest budget of $40 million – and has been popular enough to spawn a sequel, the newly released Glass Onion. Proof, if it were needed...
Georgina WellsOutside of Shakespeare, there can be few literary works that have been reimagined more often than A Christmas Carol, and Octagon Theatre Bolton’s musical take is definitely one for families. Kate Ferguson and Susannah Pearse’s adaptation focusses on...
Opera North returns to the myth of Orpheus for a second night at The Lowry, but this time this ancient story takes on a whole new operatic form in a collaboration with South Asian Arts UK. In a ground-breaking exploration of musical styles this new...
If ever grief was captured in a performance, this is it. Opera North’s Orfeo ed Euridice is a dramatic concert performance, where the set and costume design is stripped back, leaving the singers and music to take centre stage. That said, the stage...
The glittering ball that awaits audiences at Hope Mill Theatre this Christmas has been a long-time in the making. Owners, Joseph Houston and William Whelton had this show in their sights for four years, and twice its staging was stalled due to Covid...
This extravagant production of Verdi’s La Traviata arrives at The Lowry at the end of its run for Opera North, and this last week of shows bursts with the energy of a final hurrah. Verdi’s La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) has long been one of the most...