Dave PorterIt is hard to imagine anything more stirring than an ill-fated love match torn apart between two warring families set to the backdrop of Prokofiev’s dynamic Dance of the Knights. The sheer power of the score, with its dark, pulsing rhythms and...
Carmel ThomasonThe bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter’s Square tells you something of the affection with which Mancunians hold the political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women to win the right to vote. Perhaps...
Could theatre get any more welcoming than inviting its audience on stage and handing out free beer? No wonder The Choir of Man has been winning fans in venues across the globe. The original idea from creator, producer and director Nic Doodson was...
“How easily the worlds we build together can be sustained, or quietly undone,” says director Anthony Almeida in the programme notes to his new production of Othello. This new co-production between HOME, Northern Stage, the Citizens Theatre, and in...
Steve TimmsYou may not be familiar with the 80’s genre known as ‘sophisti-pop’, though everyone remembers bands like The Blow Monkeys, Swing Out Sister, ABC, The Style Council, and Prefab Sprout. What united these apparently disparate artists was a winning...
If art is a weapon, then the corollary of such a statement is that it is also a weapon which can be used against the artist. Such was the case with Ai Weiwei who was imprisoned by the Chinese authorities for 81 days 15 years ago. He recreates the...
Manchester based HER Productions has been doing modish Shakespeare adaptations since 2017, and this is their ninth. Co directed by Kayleigh Hawkins and Stuart Crowther, the 2026 tour of Twelfth Night is a bold, day-glo, all female and non binary...
Jason Manford has become the golden ticket of the Opera House in recent years as the venue’s regular pantomime lead. And his latest vehicle ‘Something Rotten’ looks set to be as popular, if not more so, than Manchester’s festive favourite. There is...
Madcap doesn’t quite convey the orchestrated madness which awaits the audience in this show. Conducted at a breathtakingly frenetic pace, you have to be on your toes to keep up with not just the pace of the action but the array...
Martin ThomassonCouncil estates can be tough places to live. I know. I grew up on one. The people were burdened by poverty, ground down by hard, underpaid work (or by the lack of work). Opportunity for some better life always seemed to lie out of reach, retreating...