Carmel ThomasonIn many ways Romeo and Juliet, bursting with the passion and energy of youth, feels like the perfect ballet for an innovative company like Sir Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures to stage. And if you think there are no new ideas to be mined from...
Simon A. MorrisonThere has, of course, been much debate about The Factory, not least of which is that it is no longer called The Factory. I have passed this strange, white, contemporary carbuncle developing on the side of a new concrete block on the banks of the...
There is a moment during this performance when projections – astral projections that give you the feeling you are floating in space – when I catch myself thinking … this is wonderful, but I need to focus on Ryuichi Sakamoto. Only… not only am I not...
Martin ThomassonMartin Thomasson reviews the world premiere of Kimber Lee’s award-winning play at The Royal Exchange For much of its two hour running time (no interval), Kimber Lee’s Bruntwood Prize winning, “Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play” is an anger...
As 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...
Dave PorterThe 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...
Many will fondly remember the 1989 film Steel Magnolias. At the time, its star-studded line-up read like the Who’s Who of women in Hollywood – Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah, and Olympia Dukakis. It seemed...
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly continues to pull the crowds; partly, of course, because of the maestro’s music, but also because it is a simple, truthful story, based (albeit at some creative distance) upon real life events. The entire opera is set at...
When writer and director Isobel McArthur was commissioned to produce an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, it came with a word of warning: make sure it connects with a Glasgow audience. The advice must have worked not only for a...
Paul ThomasonAuthor Neil Gaiman‘s work has been successfully brought to both the big screen (with the animation Coraline) and the small screen (Good Omens) and now this Joel Horwood adaptation of his fantasy novel of the same name arrives on the huge Lyric...