Moses Kabunga‘It’s True, It’s True, It’s True’ is a remarkable portrayal of Artemisia Gentileschi’s experiences during a trail in 17th century Italy. Born in Rome to Orazio Gentileschi and Prudentia Montone, Artemisia was a prodigious painter who, as it now...
Martin ThomassonFlo, the most junior of doctors, wearing her scrubs, already weary, stressed, overloaded with information and feeling out of her depth, excluded from case conferences by her white-coated seniors, is in need of a night’s rest, to take it all in, to...
Liz RatcliffeThe Lowry saw the transformation into the present day of a truly great female character in Cordelia Lynn’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler. This play asks what we inherit, what we endure and how we carry our history. Holly Race...
“I hope you have not become robots but humanised” (or in Cocteau’s native tongue “J’espère que vous n’êtes pas devenu des robots mais humanisé”) comes the call from the grave. This was Jean Cocteau’s message filmed in 1962 – a...
Carmel ThomasonIt has been called Shakespeare’s problematic comedy and, even if the only information you had about it was the title, it’s not hard to see why. The idea of calling a woman a shrew is bad enough, without adding the idea of taming her into the story...
Georgina WellsA word of warning: if you’ve got a flight booked anytime soon, I wouldn’t recommend going to see the accident did not take place. YESYESNONO’s show – acclaimed at the Edinburgh Fringe and now on at HOME as part of Orbit Festival – uses the premise...
Kimberley Sykes is clearly on a mission to take control of theatre in the northwest. Her production of Maxine Peake’s Beryl has just opened at Bolton’s Octagon theatre, and now here she is, directing the RSC’s touring production of As You Like It...
Lorraine Worsley-CarterReceiving a programme presented as a school exercise book truly set the scene for Emma Rice’s second production with her Wise Children theatre company. Malory Towers. Photo by Steve Tanner As we file into the auditorium, we are minded that we are...
Yorkshire cyclist, Beryl Burton (1937-1996), has a strong claim to being the greatest sporting hero Great Britain has ever produced and yet, as Kimberley Sykes’s production of Maxine Peake’s biographical piece makes us painfully aware, she remains...
Every now and again an event comes along that stops you dead in your tracks. It either shifts your perception of what you thought was true; or reminds you that you’ve taken something for granted for too long. On this night, in Manchester, that event...