Taking on the iconic role of the titular crime-solver in ‘Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts’, Tom Chambers admits to being daunted at the prospect of following in the footsteps of John Thaw from the much-loved TV series. “But it’s a thrilling challenge,” he smiles, “and it’s a delicious treat for anyone who is a fan of Morse, like I was and indeed have been throughout the decades.”

For most theatregoers ‘House of Ghosts’will be a brand-new story full of surprising twists and turns. It was written in 2010 by Alma Cullen, who (along with Anthony Minghella and Danny Boyle) was one of the original writers on the ‘Inspector Morse’ TV show when it premiered in 1987. Cullen’s play enjoyed a small tour and a Radio 4 broadcast, but the UK tour marks the first major production of the first-ever Morse story on stage.

Reunited with director Anthony Banks after ‘Dial M for Murder’, Chambers says: “Morse is such a fantastic brand and we’re both really excited about the fact that the audience is going to see something that the vast majority of them won’t have seen before. And given that Alma was one of the original writers, he’s very much the Inspector Morse that we know and love.”

The ITV show has been hailed by Radio Times as the greatest British crime series of all time and it inspired the equally beloved spin-offs ‘Lewis’ and ‘Endeavour’. In ‘House of Ghosts’ a chilling mystery unfolds when a young actress suddenly dies on stage during a performance and Detective Chief Inspector Morse and his sidekick DS Lewis are called in to investigate, as what begins as a suspicious death inquiry takes a darker turn when they uncover a connection to sinister events in Morse’s own past at Oxford 25 years earlier.      

As for why he’s both thrilled and daunted about heading the cast for the tour, Tom says: “The thrill for me is in the dialogue and the writing, the camaraderie between Morse and Lewis and their relationship – where you have that classic thing of him putting Lewis down but with a sense of irony or jest and sometimes despair.

“So it’s great fun but daunting too, because you know that an audience is going to want to see something in the style of what they’ve seen before. They don’t want to see something that’s completely, shockingly unexpected, although there’s a different kind of energy to the setting because we’re back in 1987 where there are no mobile phones and it’s all analogue.”

Born in Derbyshire, the actor attended the National Youth Music Theatre, studied at the Guildford School of Acting and came to fame as Sam Strachan on ‘Holby City’. His theatre credits include the musicals ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Crazy for You’, as well as the thrillers ‘Murder in the Dark’ and the aforementioned ‘Dial M for Murder’.

Asked why he feels murder mysteries are so popular, especially on stage, Tom muses: “We are curious creatures, aren’t we? We like a puzzle, we like a challenge and the stimulation that goes with it. And in the theatre, of course, everyone is in the same space, in the dark, watching the mystery unfold on stage.”

Now 48, Tom adds with a smile: “I’m not necessarily someone who’s really modern and really cool, and I think Morse is like that too. He’s not necessarily chivalrous, because he can be quite hard at times; he can harsh, very black and white and very honest. He says it how it is, but he does have a sort of gentlemanly manner about him. I like playing that and exploring it.”

Tachia Newall plays Detective Sergeant Lewis and says of the character: “He’s pretty down-to-earth and hard-working. He loves his family and he’s usually thinking about getting home to his wife and kids, but he also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery.”

Is Tachia anything like that? He laughs: “I’m probably quite different because I wouldn’t say that I’m relatively chill. I’m down-to-earth, but I’m a little bit nutty. People will tell you that I’m very excitable.”

The banter between the characters is fun to play. “Lewis is really loyal to Morse and Morse in turn respects his views, even if he gets exasperated by him at times. Morse is from quite an educated background, while Lewis’s accent leads people to believe he’s not that well-educated by comparison.”

Born in Manchester, Tachia grew up watching ‘Inspector Morse’ on TV but is avoiding rewatching episodes now. “With most acting jobs that I do, if there’s been a previous iteration then I tend to stay clear of it until the job’s finished, just because I don’t want to try and emulate anything that’s been done before.”

Best known as Bolton Smilie from ‘Waterloo Road’, Newall is pleased to be reunited with Tom. Their paths crossed when Chambers did a stint on the show in 2009. “I hadn’t seen him since, so it’s good to be back in the room with him. He’s a cracking lad and he’s not changed at all. He’s still got that playful bounce about him.”

Tachia’s theatre credits include ‘Macbeth,’ so is ‘House of Ghosts’ a doddle compared to doing Shakespeare? He laughs. “I wouldn’t say it’s a doddle! This is a complex show, with complex timelines. It’s maybe easier emotionally for me, but it’s still challenging. And I just love being on the stage. With theatre, it changes every night. Just having a live audience in front of you, it brings you to life because anything can go wrong and you’ve got to be on your toes. You’ve got to be able to bring it back around.”

Murder mysteries are popular, he feels, because: “They’re such an escape from everyday life and you get to unpick things. You get to go on this journey with the protagonists, and you get to go ‘So they did it? Amazing!’.”

As for whether he’s make a good DS in real life, Tachia reckons: “Probably not. I think frustration might get the better of me. If I hit a brick wall, I might find it difficult to jump outside the box and view things from a different angle.”

Having helmed ‘Dial M for Murder’ as well as ‘The Girl on the Train’, ‘Gaslight’ and ‘Strangers on a Train’, director Anthony Banks is well-versed in stage thrillers. Summing up the appeal of Morse and Lewis in ‘House of Ghosts’, he says: “They are ordinary people who, by chance or by accident, have found themselves in these jobs as policemen working for Thames Valley police. They’re told to follow the rules, but people love them because they are messy, accident-prone individuals who are just doing a job. They’re not superheroes.

“There are various little asides where they kind of go ‘You know, we could be doing something else’ but I think that’s why people like them so much – because they recognise their faults and they are modest, and they don’t seek approval in the way that some heroes in fiction do.”

When Anthony read Cullen’s play his first thought was that, having worked with Tom on ‘Dial M for Murder’, he’d be the perfect actor to play Morse. “John Thaw is from Manchester and Tom is from the North, so there was that connection, plus he’s around the same age that John was when he started the TV series. Tom has a presence on stage that the audience warms to.”

Then there’s Tachia, about whom the director says: “I met him and immediately thought ‘I’ve found my Lewis’. He’s Mancunian, so he brings a very fresh sound to the character in a slightly working-class and very on-the-nose, straight-down-the-lens kind of way.”

Cullen’s play is interesting, he continues, because: “It’s a feminist piece of writing. Wherever possible she brings into focus what professional life was like for women in Oxford in the 1980s. Very few women held the position of head of department or professor or chair even. These were very changing times and Margaret Thatcher was running the country, but there was a massive amount of work to be done in terms of equality between the sexes. Unfortunately I think there’s still so much work left to be done on that front.”

As to why he feels it’s timely to stage the play now, Banks recalls gifting his father a book about the making of the TV series back in the 80s, in which the author of the Morse books Colin Dexter talked how the world had gone sour, people were going from one crisis to another and the Inspector was just trying to make things a little better.

That memory prompted his decision to revive a play that is set in 1987 and was first performed 15 years ago. “Now here we are, the world has gone a little sour again, we do seem to be moving from one crisis to another, and here’s this guy who wants to make things better. That struck me as a story that audiences would enjoy today.”

Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts is at Lowry, Salford from 7-11 April 2026.

The post The greatest British crime series of all time gets a stage makeover appeared first on Quays Life.

The curtain rises on his bloated corpse, washed up on the shore, half-clothed and tangled in fishing net. There is no orchestral overture. Instead, the audience sit in silence taking in the brutality of the scene before the music interrupts like a crashing wave. The chorus quickly assembly a courtroom made of driftwood, and we are taken back in time to watch Grimes give witness testimony at the inquest of his young apprentice, lost at sea.

This revival of director Phyllida Lloyd’s 2006 award-winning production has been co-directed by Karolina Sofulak and Tim Claydon, maintaining all the cinematic intensity of Lloyd’s original vision.

Visually there are some impressive elements, including rabble-rousing, flame-wielding crowds and an all-encompassing fishing net that fills Lowry’s lyric stage. However, on the whole Anthony Ward’s set is largely bare, with grey backdrops that appear to go on forever, evoking a sense of the deep vastness of the sea.

This sense of deep and at times violent movement is mirrored by Britten’s atmospheric score, and conductor Garry Walker leads the Opera North orchestra in a terrific upswell of music that leaves us feeling we are caught up in the ebbs and flows of the tide.

There is wonderful characterisation throughout by a talented team of principals, ensemble and chorus, led by tenor John Findon as Grimes. His performance draws us into the complexity of this character, almost a child in a huge man’s body who is obsessed with the sea and liable to uncontrolled outbursts of frustration. Even at his most violent Findon finds the humanity in this outsider who is both vulnerable and abusive. The tenderness of his vocals in the arias is spellbinding.

Grimes is a powerful, triumphant revival. The stunned silence of the audience before the eruption of applause is testament to the depth of emotions this production reaches.

Peter Grimes is at Lowry, Salford on 13 March 2026.

The post Opera North’s Peter Grimes: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

Even if it is your first time at the opera, The Marriage of Figaro will be familiar from the very start. Mozart’s opening overture, sometimes known as the ‘unofficial wedding march,’ is instantly recognisable. The story is also an easy way in. It is a comedy of the silliest kind; often farcical with people dressing in ridiculous disguises, hiding in cupboards and escaping through windows.

It is based on Beaumarchais 1778 play, scandalous at the time for its mocking of the upper classes and their entitled ways. Fast forward to 2026 and this new production from director Louisa Muller, set in contemporary England, arrives against a background of the Epstein files which are revealing a seedy world of rich and famous men using and abusing young women for their own entertainment.

This opera being a comedy, here the tone is kept light, with the philandering Count Almaviva (James Newby) attempting to seduce young Susanna (Claire Lees), one of his house staff who is soon to be married to Figaro (Liam James Karai) and being foiled at every turn by his staff’s cunning wit.

Susanna makes an allegiance with the Countess (Gabriella Reyes) to play the Count at his own game, until he is forced to see the folly of his ways. Several amusing sub-plots add to the drama, while the chorus enter and exit the stage in various guises such as tourists wandering through the house and wedding guests.

While on the surface this might all sound a bit thin for a 3 hour plus show, there are no dips in this fast-paced, superbly sung production. Madeleine Boyd’s impressive set immerses us in the sprawling spaces of a country mansion that, like it’s owner, is in need of some updating.

There is some wonderful ensemble singing as well as showstopping arias from the two principal sopranos all underpinned by the energy of the Orchestra of Opera North conducted by Valentine Peleggi.

The strong female hands on all elements of this production give us a fun and fresh look at this centuries old tale, adding a teaser at the end where we see the Countess recognising she can stand on her own so another time, if he doesn’t change his ways, the Count might not be so lucky.  

 The Marriage of Figaro is at Lowry Salford on 12 and 14 March 2026.                           

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When Bourne first announced The Red Shoes, tickets sold-out before its premiere season opened, such was the anticipation for this new work. The show toured again in 2019, but the run was sadly cut short by the 2020 Covid lockdowns. So, this tour feels landmark not just for its decade-long anniversary, but also for the excitement of seeing the production as if for the first time with Ashley Shaw, Dominic North, and Andy Monaghan reprising the principal roles they originated in 2016.

Those unfamiliar with the ballet will likely have some recollection of the story from the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale and Academy award-winning 1948 film starring Moira Shearer. Both versions won legions of fans and Bourne more than nods to this legacy in the cinematic scale of Lez Brotherston’s design, the telling of the fairy tale as a ballet within the ballet, and the nostalgic, post-war setting.

From the opening scene there is a sense of immersion into another world with a proscenium arch drawing us into a silent-movie theatre screen. The arch later revolves to switch the action seamlessly from onstage to backstage, home to theatre. While the ever-surprising set takes us on a journey through a range of other locations from real-world Monte Carlo and Covent Garden to more dream-like black and white sequences reminiscent of Wizard of Oz.

In terms of following a story, the main thread is a simple one – dancer with Ballet Lermontov, Victoria Page (Ashley Shaw) is given red ballet shoes from its impresario Boris Lermontov (Andy Monaghan) who urges her to forgo everything in pursuit of becoming the greatest dancer in the world. Meanwhile her heart is torn when she falls for composer, Julian Craster (Dominic North). The shoes have a life of their own creating an obsessive pull between art and life that eventually dance her to her death. Sound melodramatic? It is. And made all the more so by Terry Davies dramatic score featuring early music of Hollywood composer, Bernard Herrmann, best known for his work on Hitchcock films.

Fans of the film and children’s tale will no doubt be mesmerised by the story all over again, because Bourne has taken all the best bits and injected what the other art forms couldn’t – the real passion of live dance. And what a celebration of dance it is, with so many different styles on show from traditional en-pointe ballet to athletic contemporary split leaps; ballroom to a comical Egyptian walk.

In the programme notes Bourne describes The Red Shoes as ‘A personal love letter to a life spent in theatre and dance’ and that is exactly how it feels to watch. Open your heart and be swept away.

Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures The Red Shoes is at Lowry, Salford from 25 to 29 November 2025. Age Guidance 7+

New Adventures returns to Lowry in June 2026 with The Car Man.

Read our interview with Matthew Bourne.

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Artist and stage designer John Macfarlane has created stunning sets for shows across the globe but there was one story he really wanted to work on – Prokofiev’s ballet Cinderella.
So when former Birmingham Royal Ballet Director David Bintley decided to create a new production of Cinderella for 2010, John was delighted to be given the task.

“Cinderella was the one I wanted to do,” he recalls. “It’s always attracted me because of the music. For such a well-known story, the music is very dark and I think most artists and designers are always more inspired by something dark and magical. With Cinderella there’s so much for you to play with.”

John had worked with BRB in 1990 designing the iconic sets for the company’s production of The Nutcracker – a show which is greatly loved and still wows audiences most Christmases. But this was the first time he had collaborated with David Bintley.

“When David asked me to do Cinderella I was delighted, not just to work on Cinderella but also to work with him. That was the one chance we got to work together.

“I think in a sense the best experiences you have are when the person who is asking you to do something is on the same wavelength as you are. Then the discussion is quite minimal because you both want the same thing. He wanted to bring out the dark side as well and seemed very easy with what I was doing.”

A gift from David to Birmingham to celebrate the 20th anniversary of BRB’s move to the city, Cinderella premiered at Birmingham Hippodrome in November 2010 where it received critical acclaim and thrilled audiences.

With Cinderella being such a familiar story, the production needed to give audiences a tale they recognized but also provide plenty of suspense and surprises.

“My starting point is always ‘don’t make it too pretty.’ None of these big classic ballets are lovely cuddly stories,” John explains.

“The contrast in Cinderella’s circumstances is absolutely critical to the ballet. You have to believe in the first scenes of Cinderella to then see the contrast. There’s very little light music in that first scene with her in the kitchen so it should be like there’s no hope for her.

“If you don’t feel that then you don’t get this lovely moment when suddenly the fire pops out and something clearly magical is going to happen. If something magical doesn’t happen at that point you are going to shortchange your audiences as the audience is going to be coming in asking how is she going to the ball, how will the ball end, how will they do the clock?”

John’s transformation scene from ash girl Cinderella to belle of the ball is indeed magical – not least as the lizards, frogs and mice of the kitchen become her attendants.
“I was going to do lizard footmen whether anyone wanted them or not because I absolutely love designing characters with animal heads,” laughs John. “In Cinderella it is really important that you have this world that the Fairy Godmother builds. She takes the little critters from the kitchen, as Disney and many people before him did, and she turns them into coachmen and pages and all the magical things that take Cinderella to the ball.”

John painstakingly ensured the creatures were accurately portrayed. “It’s like when I did the rats for Nutcracker,” he says. “You have to be anatomically correct and they have to look real so I did about four or five sheets of detailed drawings of lizards.

“As soon as they are beautifully made you believe in them completely – and the quirk in it is that the lizards are wearing baroque costumes with coats and tails and shirt fronts.”
When Cinderella arrives at the ball she brings the magic with her.

“The ballroom is very normal and then she appears and it opens up and it’s the night sky. That was always something I thought would be wonderful,” says John.

“And then of course the clock needed to be this terrifying moment when the whole thing falls apart. You can absolutely hear the clock in the music. That’s the wonderful thing about Prokofiev and also Tchaikovsky – you can always tell where you’re going.

“When you start working on something like Cinderella, you’ve got to really listen to the music. Prokofiev gives you lots of leads before the clock starts that great whirring of the mechanism in the same way that Tchaikovsky gives you lots of leads before Aurora gets her finger pricked in the garden in Sleeping Beauty.”

John has designed numerous works including Swan Lake and Sir Peter Wright’s Giselle for Royal Ballet, War and Peace for Opéra Bastille, Hansel and Gretel and Queen of Spades for Welsh National Opera and a host of productions for New York’s Metropolitan Opera including The Flying Dutchman and Tosca.

“I only really do a show once and I only do ballet and opera because the music is so critical for me. I’m an avid reader and yet I get nothing when I read a script. If it’s an opera or ballet then everything is informed by the music.

“I have this belief that every production from Elektra to Don Giovanni to Tosca, they all have these critical moments, some of them the audience are hugely aware of, some of them are hopefully a huge surprise, but they all have this path through.”

Creating the right setting for the tale also ensures the audience enters the world onstage and becomes captivated by the story.

“All those huge Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky ballets have great stories and as long as you keep the story central it will work. And you hopefully don’t let the audience expectation down.

“So with Cinderella at midnight you’ve got to really show the audience that all this wonderful dream ballroom scene and meeting the prince have suddenly gone at the stroke of the clock. Cinderella is back to square one.”

The production also has plenty of comedy not least in the Stepsisters who are hideously mean but also so outrageous they create their own humour.

“We wanted the Ugly Sisters to be cruel of course and not just slapstick and funny,” says John. “David was brilliant on that with this sort of creepy quirky choreography for them.”
And the production needed to finish not just with a fairy tale happy ending but also with a grand finale which reflected Prokofiev’s great score.

“I think the end of Cinderella is one of the most beautiful pieces of music Prokofiev ever wrote. And so we have the Fairy Godmother and the sun coming up and the stars. There’s a magic to it as they walk into sunset or sunrise.”

Birmingham Royal Ballet Cinderella is at Lowry, Salford from 6-8 March 2025. Following on from the UK tour, the production will then play at Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan in Japan (27 – 29 June).

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It has to be said that Slave is not an easy watch, recounting as it does the abduction of Mende Nazer from her family home in the Nuba mountains of Sudan when she was a young girl in the 1990s. Taken by the Mujahideen, she is subjected to physical and sexual assault and sold into slavery to a ‘devout’ Arab Muslim family where she works unremittingly to look after their children and keep home.

Used and abused in her new domestic setting, Mende loses contact with her beloved family, fearing they have all been killed in the brutal raid on her village.

The first half of the play tracks Mende’s life and idyllic childhood in Sudan, where she hopes to become a doctor and where she is cosseted as the baby of the family. She is abducted along with her best friend and trafficked to Khartoum where she is ‘bought’ by a family and enslaved for the next eight years.

She has now become the ‘property’ of a tyrannical wife and mother who mercilessly beats her for the slightest infringement. Mende is left to eat the scraps off the family table once everyone else has finished eating.

There is some fine ensemble acting in this production by Feelgood Theatre, with notable performances from Yolanda Ovide as Mende, Joseph Jordan as journalist Damien Lewis who brought the country’s attention to Mende’s plight, and Sara Faraj as Rahab, Mende’s ‘master’ in Khartoum.

The second half of the play recounts Mende’s life after she is tracked into the UK to stay with a diplomatic family. Again, she is imprisoned within the family home but manages to make contact with the outside world and makes a dramatic bid for freedom and away from her tormentors. But Mende’s challenges are not over yet and she is confined to a grim asylum centre after applying for refugee status in the UK.

Her application is initially refused because slavery was not at that time recognised as a form of persecution. It is only after Damien mounts a campaign on her behalf, taking in MPs and Lords, that Mende is finally granted the freedom and liberty she has so long craved.

Mende managed to secure her dream of becoming a medic and wrote a book about her journey to freedom, on which this production is based. Later on, we learn that her family survived the raid.

On the opening night, Mende was herself in the audience and made an emotional appearance on stage at the end of the performance, paying tribute to the cast in bringing her story to life so vividly – and the story of countless others around the world who are victims of modern slavery.

Now based in the US and an anti-slavery campaigner, Mende’s remarkable story is one of resilience and courage.

Slave: A Question of Freedom is at The Lowry, Salford from 9-12 October 2024. Age recommendation 10+

The post Slave: A Question of Freedom – Review appeared first on Quays Life.

It starts with the rhythmic banging of a drum resembling a heartbeat as the dancers, huddled together pulse as one. From this life-force the dancers emerge as individuals, all appearing to do their own thing in a burst of energy and fluorescent-coloured costumes. It feels like we are watching a riotous street festival, complete with city soundscapes.

Choreographer Qudus Onikeku says his show aims to capture ‘the energy of Lagos, the vibrancy, the youthfulness, the craziness, the madness, the beauty, the ugliness’. The result feels like we have been thrust into a bustling centre which is almost an assault on the senses, leaving little space to bring our own emotions to the piece.

The rawness of the moves gives a new meaning to the term ‘dirty dancing’ as couples simulate sex on stage before a loud, screaming birth scene. Equally there are some violent outbursts, with a beaten man left writhing on the floor as others discard their clothing over him.

The show fuses Nigeria’s modern-day youthfulness with ancient philosophies of the Yoruba people. It is split into three parts representing the circle of life – birth, death and rebirth. Each section is marked visually with backstage projections, but they run simultaneously with no interval. As such, it is a challenge both for the 10-strong dance troupe and the audience to maintain the burst of energy experienced at the start. But perhaps these lulls are intentional as part of the ebb and flow of life.

Towards the end of the death scene, the energy lifts again with a moving spoken word section where a dancer recites old Yoruba proverbs while being smeared in a silvery, black body paint. The paint absorbs and reflects the stage lighting, creating some psychedelic effects.

Two live on-stage musicians, Simeon Promise Lawrence and Daniel Ifeanyi Anumudu create an absorbing sound-track and bring coherence to the whole piece. There is also a rounded feel to the choreography that returns at the end to the high energy with which it starts – the dancers moving so quickly their legs could be on vibration plates.

It could end here with uplifting exhuberance, but the finale is much quieter, almost inviting contemplation. As the dancers disappear towards the back of the stage there is finally space to absorb what we’ve just experienced – now it is the crowd’s turn to go wild. And they do.

Dance Consortium brings The QDance Company’s Re:INCARNATION to The Lowry, Salford on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 October 2024.

Read our interview with choreographer Qudus Onikeku.

The post QDance Company’s Re:INCARNATION: Dance Review appeared first on Quays Life.

The show features many of Dolly’s iconic hits – Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I Will Always Love You, Here You Come Again and more – tells the story of a diehard fan called Kevin, whose imagined version of the singer gets him through trying times.

What can audiences expect when they come to see the show?

Tricia: “I think every audience member, no matter who they are, will find something very relatable in the character of Kevin (brilliantly portrayed by Stevie Webb). And I think they’ll find the show to be really funny, with lots of laughs, but they’ll also be surprised by how deep and emotional it is. It’s a play with music, with the side benefit of it also sometimes feeling like a Dolly Parton concert”.

What was the original inspiration for the show?

Tricia: “I’ve always loved Dolly and been able to sing like her. It was my dream to someday be able to use this ability in a theatrical way and thought the best way to do it, was to have it be another person’s journey. What developed was a story about an uber-fan’s fantasy friendship with Dolly. I wanted to show Dolly in action, to see her helping another person, versus it being a bio musical about her life”.

What was the collaborative process with Gabriel Barre and Bruce Vilanch, with whom you co-wrote the original script?

Tricia: “This experience has been one of the most harmonious, joyous experiences of my creative career. We each brought something unique to the journey. Gabriel is an expert in creating the theatrical framework and keeping us on track. He’s such a diplomat and truly a great director. I helped conceive of the basic story and I’d share how I think Dolly would say something or how I think she would behave in a situation. And then Bruce is just a comedy genius. He fleshed out the dialogue based on all of our brainstorming sessions with personal insights to Dolly since he wrote for her and the world of stand up comics since he’s also from that world. It’s been a wonderful joint effort”.

And what does Jonathan Harvey, who has worked with you on the UK version, bring to the table?

Tricia: “He is so funny. He’s a great writer, with fine-tuned taste, and the main thing he’s contributed is helping us set it in England because we had to change all of our cultural references. He’s also helped us to understand how things will hit a British audience because British audiences are different than American audiences and your experience during 2020 was a little different than ours”.

How did you set about ‘becoming’ Dolly for the show?

Tricia: “I like to say that I began rehearsing for this role when I was five-years-old, when I first heard Here You Come Again on the radio. I remember that moment vividly. I begged for the record and I memorised every song on it. I’ve always been able to tune my vocal cords to hit her vibrato and to find that cry in her voice and the musicality of her styling. When it came time to doing our show, though, I did not have her speaking voice down. I worked with a very celebrated dialect coach named Erik Singer, who helped Austin Butler prepare to play Elvis. We worked together on cracking her speaking voice and that took a bit more effort. I’ve watched tons of Dolly videos and early interviews to absorb how she does and says things, her mannerisms and everything. I just love to study her”.

How important to you is it not to simply do a Parton impersonation?

Tricia: “Very important. There are wonderful tribute artists out there doing great things to spread the love of Dolly. But in terms of a play or a musical, I don’t think that would be a very satisfying evening in the theatre. I do not think about impersonating her. I’m only thinking about what my objective is in the story and I trust that Dolly’s presence is strong enough in me to let it go”.

What did you feel was important to get right about her as a person as well as a singer?

Tricia: “Dolly is a very practical person. She’s no-nonsense and wise. I wanted to make sure that she stayed grounded and real. While we have very performative moments to the audience, I wanted to show her in a very truthful and down-to-earth way. I also wanted to show Dolly doing very humble things. I envisioned her as the kind of friend who if you’re going through a hard time would help clean up your kitchen and eat a meal with you. She’s not so rich and famous that she’s above doing those little things”.

With so many songs to choose from, how did you and the team decide what to include?

Tricia: “I love the late-70s/early 80s-Dolly, so I came up with a kind of hit list. But I have to give credit to our lawyer Thomas Distler, who’s responsible for making this all happen because he knew Dolly Parton’s lawyer and got the material to her. That’s how we got permission to be able to do the show and the rights to all her music. Tom also said ‘You’ve got to find a way to put Jolene in there’. At first we didn’t have it in the show because it didn’t really fit our storyline, but we found a wonderful way to put it in and I’m really glad that we did”.

Do you have a favourite song to perform in the show?

Tricia: “It’s like picking a favourite child and I love them all for different reasons. But I think my favourite one to perform is Me And Little Andy. It’s just so sad and strange, where Dolly does a little girl voice and it takes this painfully tragic turn. I love performing it and I love the reaction it gets from the audience. If you don’t know the song already don’t listen to it before you come to see the show!Let yourself be surprised because I want you to have the same reaction that Kevin does”.

Like Dolly, you grew up on a farm – albeit an almond farm. Do you have other things in common with her?

Tricia: “Like her, I’m very lucky to have had a happy childhood. I’m from a loving family and now as an adult I recognise how rare that is. My parents gave my brother and I a very wholesome childhood and I think this greatly shaped my outlook on life and helped me to be a positive, optimistic person. I’m also grateful for an understanding of God that brings me a lot of comfort and joy. I credit God with all good things, just as Dolly’s faith is the backbone of her creativity and art. So many of her songs reflect that in a way that’s very universal and easy for people to accept – even people who might not have a belief in God themselves. She’s able to share her faith in a very simple way that people can understand”.

How would you describe your relationship with Dolly’s music?

Tricia: “As a child I spent hours and hours walking around our almond orchard in Modesto, California singing her songs, imagining how life might be as a grown up. Singing along to her made me want to become an actress, because I loved how she told stories and how emotional her songs could be. I can’t express enough how deeply her artistry has influenced my entire life – a love of beauty and a love of storytelling, culminating in what I consider the greatest achievement of my career – creating and being in this show. It’s the honour of a lifetime”.

Why do you think she’s so beloved?

Tricia: “She grew up very poor, made it big and has handled herself with dignity and grace her whole career. Watching interviews with her from the 70s, they’re just crazy. She gets asked the most insulting and sexist questions and she never takes offence. But she never backs down either. She sticks up for herself with great humility and humour. What I also admire is how she uses her wealth and influence to donate to and bring attention to worthy causes, and she has managed to stay true to herself and her beliefs without ever taking sides. She fights for the little guy, uses her power for good and basically is one of the kindest, sweetest human beings ever to walk the earth. I’m just in awe of the life she’s created for herself and all she has given to the world”.

If you got to meet her, what’s the one thing you’d want to ask her?

Tricia: “I met her sister Rachel, who saw our show in Tennessee, but unfortunately Dolly was away shooting music videos for her rock album so she wasn’t able to come along herself. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever met her. I’d die! I would ask her first ‘Can I borrow some of your wigs for our show?’ But if I was having a real heart-to-heart with Dolly I’d want to know ‘How have you been able to navigate your life and career the way that you have?’ She really has never had a misstep”.

As well as a performer, you are also an artist and designer. How do you juggle that with theatre work?

Tricia: “I think when you love to do something you always find the energy and time for it. I’m really passionate about flower pressing and I’ve been doing it my whole life. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to be discovered by some luminaries in the fashion and music industries. I started doing these collaborations that became very successful, such as the Óscar de la Renta collaboration which led to Taylor Swift wearing that pressed flower dress at the Grammys. Then Anna Wintour wore one of ODLR’s designs, which used my art as the pattern, at the Met Gala. It gave me the confidence to create a whole brand using pressed flower imagery in high design and now I’ve created a business. I really hope to make connections in the UK because I have a little following here of passionate flower pressers which I hope to nurture. I also hope to pick and press flowers in the UK and make a body of work inspired by the flowers of this beautiful part of the world”.

Here You Come Again is at The Lowry, Salford from 29 October to 2 November 2024. Age Guidance 11+

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Blue Man Group is a troupe of talented entertainers who appear exactly as their name suggests – a group of blue men. Or, perhaps the concept might be better described as aliens, because the tight blue masks cover their ears, making them look like our idea of creatures from outer-space.

If not quite as rare in these parts as aliens, their tours are rare. It is 15 years since Blue Man Group was last in the UK – so get tickets now if you can. An alternative is to see them live in Las Vegas where they have a residency at the Luxor Hotel.

Blue Man Group has been going since the early ‘90s and is now part of the Cirque du Soleil group. It’s hard to imagine how ground-breaking some of its multimedia performance must have been 30 years ago. We are now used to seeing much more of that within theatre spaces. But even so, the way in which the act is delivered still has a genuine element of surprise.

The act is hard to describe because it isn’t one thing. It is highly stylised comedy, music, art, animation, circus, clowning and theatre all mixed in what can be best summed up as an event which is both unique and uplifting.

The show opens with an act the group has become famous for – paint drumming. It is as it sounds – paint is poured on the drums while they are being played and splashes up to add a vibrant visual element to the sound. And when we say splash – you will need to borrow the ponchos handed out if you’re sitting in the front rows.

Another favourite is Gumballs and Marshmallows – a circus art trick where one throws a gobstopper filled with paint from across the stage and the other catches it in his mouth before spitting it out to create a swirling painting from it.

The whole show is a series of small sketches that are stylistically woven together to make for a very slick, smooth audience experience that moves at pace.

For this tour, a new female character, the rockstar (a phenomenal drummer) is added to the line-up. This leads to one of the most interactive and fun parts of the evening, where the audience is led to a party atmosphere with the whole auditorium bouncing as the audience do stadium gig moves and cheer as one. The atmosphere is one of play, from discovering new sounds from unique instruments made from PVC pipes to laughing at strange curiosities of nature.

At one point I’m covered in streamers; to my right a woman is in fits of laughter as we disentangle ourselves and further to the left a young child in the aisle is swirling paper ribbons around herself until she looks like an Egyptian mummy. Everyone is doing their own thing while being captivated by this Blue Man Group who defy definition – it is a rare experience that all ages can enjoy.

Blue Man Group is at The Lowry, Salford from 2-6 October 2024 before continuing on tour.

The post Blue Man Group – Bluevolution World Tour: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

This time they’ve turned their attention to the Arthurian legends, with three actors (Nick Bunt, Al Dunn and Matt Freeman) taking on multiple roles including King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Sir Lancelot and the Lady in the Lake. And even if you don’t know much about these characters, it won’t stop you getting caught up in the playfulness of the story.

The show opens on a scene of three hapless squires, Edgar, Osbert and Dave singing Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’ while confined to the stocks. The front rows of the audience are then invited to pelt them with rubber fruit, handed out before the start.
It is bonkers, physical humour that has all ages laughing out loud. Things get more ridiculous with the appearance of a removable knitted willy, a bath of beans and a Raymond Blanc inspired Lancelot.

The Arthurian legends are loosely weaved-in through these capers using a play within a play, after the three friends are tasked by King Arthur to stage a performance showcasing stories of Camelot.

Given there are only three actors in the cast (with v. brief appearances from the stage manager) it is some task to keep the audience clear on who is who. Amazingly, thanks to the team’s acting skills and Fi Russell’s clever costume choices, the intricacy of the story only adds to the fun of it.

The show has a cartoonish feel, from the myriad of trap doors to the full-on frying pan in the face. There is a great energy to it, as the cast race around either on stage or making lightning-quick costume changes.

The music is a comical highlight too, from George Michael’s Careless Whisper on the recorder to Merlin the Magician reincarnated as Cher. This irreverence runs through to the history too – don’t expect to come out any the wiser about King Arthur and his round table. But sometimes we all need a reminder to not take ourselves or indeed life too seriously. As such, King Arthur is the perfect family-friendly antidote to our gloomy times.

King Arthur is at The Lowry, Salford from 24-28 September 2024 before continuing on tour. Age recommendation 8+

Read our interview with Le Navet Bete co-founder Al Dunn.

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