Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was the first ‘classic book’ gifted to me at a Christmas long ago. It was therefore, with slight trepidation that I entered Theatre One at HOME Manchester last evening. I was pleased when film-maker Greta Gerwig...
With the Emma Rice adaptation of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter this Christmas, the Royal Exchange has become an oaken art deco music box, playing songs of love’s young dream, heartbreak, hope and the sass and sadness of a brief and beautiful...
Joyous, informative, inspiring. This is a show not just for mothers and daughters, but for fathers and sons (who also, of course, need to know about fantastically great women). Kate Pankhurst’s book, adapted for the stage by Chris Bush, is threaded...
Fe Fi Fo Fum, I smell a winning pantomime run. The Opera House team knows we could all do with more fun and laughter this Christmas, and Crossroads Pantomimes has delivered the perfect gift. Jason Manford opens the show as hero Jack with the type of...
What happened to 3D films? There was a time when nearly every big movie came in two versions. But much in the manner of My Space, 3D disappeared almost overnight; indicative of how dispensable it was in the eyes of film fans (there is still the...
Every director must start somewhere, and for Mo Lai Yan Chi the beginning starts with her own ‘8 years in the making movie’ about family, forgiveness, and forgetting. Band Four looks on the outset to be just another typical film about people’s...
As the first real frost of winter sets in, it feels like even the weather has aligned to create the perfect setting for the enchanting return of Edward Scissorhands. In this dance version, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventure’s company takes the 1990 Tim...
Seeta Patel is surely the UK’s prime proponent of Bharatanatyam, the classical south Asian dance form. Whilst it is still the case that this form is less well known in this country than Kathak, that is in the process of changing, due in large part...
Following its 2020 online festive show, Humbug and 2021 Christmas show, Not So Ugly Sisters, Wrongsemble Theatre Company return to Waterside, Sale with a musical re-imagining of Snow Queen. Writer and director, Elvi Piper tells us about staging a...
La rondine (The swallow) brings Opera North’s autumn tour to a glamourous close at The Lowry. It is the third production from the company performed at Salford this week as part of its Green Season. This means all aspects of the shows have been...