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...
Steve TimmsEverybody loves an underdog success, and they don’t come much bigger than cross dressing musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Loosely inspired by the life of Jamie Campbell (subject of a BBC documentary, still on the I-Player), this fast paced...
Martin ThomassonAccording to dramaturg, Lolita Chakrabarti’s programme note, Message in a Bottle, (the Sadler’s Wells dance show, based on the music of Sting) tells the story of one family, living in ‘a village in a country far away’ whose lives are torn apart by...
Carmel ThomasonAs Strictly Ballroom the Musical quicksteps into The Lowry on its first ever UK tour, it begs the question: what took it so long? It’s more than 30 years since Baz Luhrmann’s film version dazzled critics and audiences alike. And the ongoing TV...
Starring in the UK’s first ever tour of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom is a childhood dream come true, Kevin Clifton and Faye Brookes tell Quays Life: When Kevin Clifton was 10 years old he watched the film of Strictly Ballroom and, as...
The football metaphor was just too good to pass over, I suppose. And so it goes with Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial. As we enter the plush auditorium of The Lowry the crowing chants of a Saturday afternoon crowd can be heard pulsing from...
Roy Williams’ play, Sucker Punch tells the story of two young black teenagers against a backdrop of Thatcherite politics and the simmering racial tensions in the 1980s. Director, Nathan Powell tells Claire Lishman how the tale struck a chord with...
Georgina WellsAs part of the Festival of Korean Dance 2023 – produced in partnership with The Lowry and several other UK venues – the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company bring a double bill to the Quays Theatre. Kontemporary Korea – Korea...
In a time of innovation and reinvention for Birmingham Royal Ballet – with recent announcements of a Black Sabbath ballet and BRB2, a new touring company comprised of ballet graduates – it’s good to see that the company are intent on performing the...
Crowded Room’s Edith reconstructs the 1922 trial of Edith Thompson, one of the last women to be executed in the UK. Directed by Madelaine Moore, written by Harriet Madeley and developed with women at HMP Styal, this production uses court transcripts...