Martin ThomassonTheatrical experiences are rarely all good or all bad. Sometimes a reviewer wants to rave about certain aspects of a production, while other features leave him cold. So it is for me with this physical theatre adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s 1891...
Dave PorterIf you’re not a fan of audience participation, this show is probably best avoided. The cast mingle with the audience queuing up outside the theatre to get in and once inside anyone sat in the first few rows is seen as fair game for some friendly...
On 4 August, 2011, a 29-year-old black man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, London. Duggan’s death sparked a series of riots, beginning in Tottenham, spreading across London and on to other cities in England. From where he was...
The staging is simple: four straight-backed chairs, a backdrop for projections and, overhead, two rows of clothing hung on lines (theatre is a place for costumes and dressing-up, but also, we are reminded, the theatre we are here to pay our respects...
Carmel ThomasonA story as well-known as, ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ has a lot to live up to in a stage-show retelling. Many will know it from the classic 1947 movie starring Natalie Wood, in which Santa Claus finds himself in court on Christmas Eve having to justify...
Two of Us, the title taken from the opening song on The Beatles’ final album, looks at the friendship behind what is still probably the greatest song writing partnership of all time – John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The story has been adapted for...
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...
Lorraine Worsley-CarterLouisa 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...
Questions concerning who should be permitted to write about certain topics and, more pointedly, which actors should be allowed to play certain roles have become increasingly vexed in recent times. I don’t wish to poke my finger into wounds that are...
War in Europe, the far right in the streets with their dog whistles, and a sharp rise in anti-Semitism: it’s not hard to see parallels between the inter-war period and today’s political landscape, where Putin invades a neighbouring country on the...