Paul ThomasonHow good is your pop knowledge? Do you know which song was the first UK No1 hit for Cliff Richard?Or, can you name the year The Killers released ‘Hot Fuss’? Are you up for the challenge or will you be ‘one year out’? Based on...
Georgina WellsAfter seven months with no live theatre, it felt like a miracle to be part of the audience that gathered outside The Lowry on a dark October evening to watch Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show. Imitating the Dog’s new touring work – created with the...
Martin ThomassonA Scottish film with an opening scene featuring our hero (a working class lad called Davie) running down the street, hotly pursued by an irate adversary, might put you in mind of Danny Boyle’s adaptation of Irving Welsh’s Trainspotting. Trailer The...
To the Stars is an uplifting coming-of-age story from the producers of It Follows and Midnight Special. Martin Thomasson reviews: Small town Oklahoma at the dawn of the 1960s; no place for a wild child, no place for anybody with dreams they hope...
Moses Kabunga“Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” – this is the mantra writ large on a daily basis. Little did George Romero’s understated B-Movie offering or Animating the Dog’s stage adaptation know that the viral nightmare-ish events that are foretold...
The night of Opera North’s performance of The Turn of the Screw at The Lowry was a dark and stormy one, fitting weather conditions for the Benjamin Britten opera based on Henry James’ ghostly short story. The set up is, to an extent, familiar: a...
Lorraine Worsley-CarterIt’s Figaro’s wedding day – or is it? Poor, honest to the core, Figaro, is as a happy man, as any prospective groom would expect to be on his wedding day. That is, until he realises his master, Count Almaviva, to whom he is deeply loyal, holds...
Crongton Knights is a modern-day quest story akin to The Wizard of Oz but with all the innocence and Hollywood Technicolour removed. It’s based on the second book of the trilogy of YA stories written by Alex Wheatle, MBE. And follows a group of...
Augmented is an intimate one woman play, written and performed by Sophie Woolley, about her experience of hearing loss during her 20s. Trailer It opens in a near future; Sophie sports a blonde bob and is dressed head-to-toe in silver. As she begins...
Steve TimmsDon De Lillo’s mid-80’s novel ‘White Noise’ featured a married couple who were as happy as two people can be. Yet both had a distressing secret neither felt brave enough to share with the other; they were terrified of death. Super Duper...