The National Theatre’s Macbeth opens onto a post-apocalyptic world – dark, wet and drowning in ripped plastic. This doesn’t just feel like the aftermath of a bloody civil war, but the end of the earth as we know it. Rae Smith’s set design creates a...
This autumn is a good one for comedian, Geoff Norcott. He’s become a regular correspondent on BBC2’s Mash Report, is making his debut on Mock the Week and has extended his UK tour. So why are some people calling him ‘a dinosaur’? He talks to Quays...
Unimited Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jon Spooner talks to us about his eye-opening new show Future Bodies premiering at Home as part of the Manchester Science Festival, which asks, as we increasingly fuse our brains with technology, at what point...
In a social media driven world people are increasingly divided into more and more unpleasant categories of evil – Snowflake, Nazi, Remoaner, Trot, Libtard, Brextremist, Feminazi, Piers Morgan… But is life really that bad? Marcus Brigstocke is...
The late, Lily Bollinger, a former head of Bollinger Champagne, once said:  “I only drink champagne when I’m happy and when I am sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it when I’m not...
How did Hollywood’s Alec Baldwin find himself in the same casting bracket as Coronation Street’s Curly Watts? It’s a question those who’ve seen the 2012 movie Rock of Ages might well ask on seeing the cast list for the stage musical’s UK tour. It’s...
Ashley Banjo and Diversity enter the circus ring to a soundtrack of The Greatest Show and the 2000-strong crowd goes wild. The atmosphere feels like a pop concert and there are grown women screaming like excited teenagers. In the 250th anniversary...
Following a sell-out London run, the National Theatre’s radical reinterpretation of Macbeth goes on tour, arriving at the Lowry on 29 September 2018. Artistic director, Rufus Norris talks to Quays Life about anarchy, uncertainty and why the heart of...
It’s been a long wait for young Roald Dahl fans in the regions, but after eight years the RSC’s multi-award-winning, Matilda the Musical embarks on its first UK tour. The length of the run – 11 weeks at the Palace Theatre in Manchester – gives some...
After sitting through countless runs of Shakespeare’s history plays, former literary manager of the RSC Jeanie O’Hare worked out that the Bard wrote more lines for Queen Margaret than he did for King Lear. How could this be when most of us have...
Carmel Thomason
Lorraine Worsley-Carter