It is 1997. A train leaves Scotland bound for London. On board, John Josana, a journalist, is reading a book about Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for many years). The train is crowded. A tall man with a backpack takes the seat...
A brand-new stage version of multi-award-winning Malorie Blackman’s novel Pig Heart Boy comes to Lowry, Salford. Quays Life met the cast to find out more about bringing this important story about organ donation to the stage. Based on Malorie...
Driftwood arrives at Lowry for the end of its tour to a sell-out audience, such is the anticipation of seeing Tim Foley’s latest work. The emotional two-hander is the second play from the Bruntwood Prize winner, whose Electric Rosary was staged at...
‘The Moth’, by Paul Herzberg, was originally filmed as a 10-minute piece to camera, as part of a series of short films from Elysium Theatre Company called ‘The Covid-19 Monologues’. The film was seen around the world, winning several awards...
I’ve never felt drawn to the work of Jane Austen (whose modest output totals six novels), for various reasons. Middle class characters who do little except play the harpsichord, and visit other people’s houses, seems a narrow seam to mine. Rom-coms...
The success of The Crown tells us there is plenty of dramatic opportunity in any story about the late Queen as well as a healthy audience for it. Recently Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) too has been getting more attention from dramatists, being the...
Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman is a dramatic opera steeped in folklore, telling the tale of a cursed sea captain doomed to sail the oceans until he finds redemption through the love of a faithful woman. The story follows the Dutchman, who can...
If I were to begin this review by telling you the stars of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s revival of Cinderella are John Macfarlane’s design and David Finn’s lighting (here honoured and adapted by Peter Teigen), you might infer that I was being...
Acclaimed creative duo, director Annabel Arden and designer Joanna Parker, transform Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman into an urgent story for our times. Ahead of its performance with Opera North at Lowry, Salford here are 5 reasons to let this...
It isn’t horror’s job to be kind to you. It goes to the very extremes of negative emotions. Fear and paranoia are in charge of a horror story, and with Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s Ghost Stories they have a very tight grip. The premise is that...
Martin Thomasson
Carmel Thomason
Steve Timms
Liz Ratcliffe
Cathy Crabb