The company’s latest production the Midnight Bell, which premiered in 2021, comes to Salford for the first time as part of a UK tour. And while it might not have such an immediately well-known story, this show has all the emotion, spectacle and top quality dance fans of Bourne have come to expect.

The title is taken from one of Patrick Hamilton’s early novels, but this is not a straightforward adaptation. Instead, Bourne has taken inspiration from Hamilton’s wider body of work to create a piece that captures the essence of the 1930’s London captured in his writing.

In this respect, it doesn’t matter if you are familiar with Hamiliton’s work or not, because rather than retell one story Bourne chooses characters and scenarios from several novels and weaves them together with characters and scenarios of his own creation, into a series of vignettes linked by the Midnight Bell pub. Through these snapshots we are drawn into the relationships and dreams of the pub’s regulars and employees.

Credit here goes to the whole team, choreographer, designers and cast for an utterly absorbing experience that draws us into this world of 1930s Soho and Fitzrovia with its array of distinctly complex characters and relationships. Although there is no linear narrative the storytelling is captivating through its atmospheric evocation and detailed characterisations. Lez Brotherston’s sets fill the breadth and depth of the Lowry’s huge Lyric stage, switching scenes with a seamless filmic quality. Terry Davies musical score adds to the feel of silent movie nostaligia, including some songs from the 1930s, which the dancers mime to.

Here the cast are described as actor/dancers, and rightly so – this piece works because we both recognise and believe the situations being played out. The wide age range of characters allows scope for both the company’s most experienced dancers like Dominic North to perform alongside rising stars like Hannah Kremer – a real treat for audiences who have followed the company for years.

The themes of loneliness and search for connection that grew out of the Covid pandemic from which the production emerged still weigh heavy. But Dominic North tops and tails the evening with such lightness he provides the beer goggles to the bleakness of the romantic characterisations. And as the audience we have the best people watching seat in the bar, where it seems the search for love and connection in the 1930s was no less elusive than today, and certainly no less fascinating.

Matthew Bourne’s the Midnight Bell is at Lowry, Salford from 1-5 July 2025. Age guidance 14+

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He’s watched a good bit of theatre over the years, but I don’t think I’ve seen him so completely captivated and mesmerised for a long time. As we left, he told me he thought the production was “outstanding” and “top-notch”.
I couldn’t agree more.

Alane Menken’s brilliant music was delivered with aplomb. The solo performances were great, and the many layered harmonies in the crowd scenes were an absolute joy.
The sepia-toned, pared back set and projections were beautifully evocative, with aged pages of books adorning the sky, walls, furniture, and gas lamps which transported us back to Dickensian times viewed through the eyes of the joyless Scrooge. It worked as the perfect backdrop and helped highlight the subtle costume detail, such as the barely perceptible touch of sparkle in the scarves of the characters who embody love and life.

Now about Scrooge…..while there was much that was very traditional about this production, Scrooge wasn’t one of them.

Directors Joseph Houston and William Whelton took the decision to have their Scrooge as a woman after reading about females in history who became infamous because of their miserliness. I was intrigued to see how this would work with such an iconic, traditionally male role.

Claire Moore’s “Evelina Scrooge” was great..as horribly heartless as we’ve all come to expect of Scrooge and with a giddy glee on Christmas morning that the great Alastair Sim would have been proud of. And her transformation was as seamless as the revolutions of the hands on the giant clock projected onto the set.

The directors chose this version of the famous Dickens’ story because of its “splash of Broadway pizzazz and dusting of Sondheim-esque storytelling.” It worked brilliantly.
One of our favourite comic scenes was when the charity collectors from the “Hope Foundation” asked the stingy Scrooge for a donation. The barbershop style harmonies were brilliant and the shocked faces of the collectors when she turned them down were hilarious.

It feels unfair to pick and choose from such a great show packed with amazing talent, but space it tight.

James Hume gave us a cheeky, larger than life cabaret style Christmas Present/Mother Goose, who together with his Moulin Rouge-style cabaret chorus line, literally lit up the stage in a sparkly play within a play scene. The baffled face of Scrooge as she was pushed to look out on to the audience was a picture.

And Barry Keenan’s Marley was just the right side of scary with his arresting Beetlejuice style hair and make-up.

The young cast members did a brilliant job too and there were some lovely poignant and humorous moments thanks to these up-and-coming stars.
A Christmas Carol is one of my favourite stories, and I’m quite precious about how it’s treated, but this Hope Mill Theatre production was an absolute triumph.

Hope Mill Theatre has won lots of awards since it began back in 2015 and it’s easy to see why. Normally performances take place in the Grade II listed former textile mill in Ancoats. This is the first show to be created and produced for another venue, with plans for more.
Aside from all the charity does to support young and up-and-coming talent, the quality of the stagecraft is such that we’d be happy to watch one of their productions anywhere they decide to take it.

A Christmas Carol: The Musical a Hope Mill Theatre Production is at Lowry, Salford from 14 December 2024 to 5 January 2025 Age guidance 6+

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What can audiences expect when they come to see Murder on the Orient Express on stage?

Bob: “It’s funny, it’s exciting and it’s adventurous, and it’ll also make you think. When I did ‘And Then There Were None’ people left going ‘It’s a lot to think about’ or ‘I need to talk about what happened and all of the characters’.”

Michael: “But hopefully if we get the speed right and the pace right, people won’t be able to think fast enough during the show itself. It will be a night of intrigue with a great denouement”.

How would you describe your characters’ relationship?

Bob: “Monsieur Bouc is the man who runs the train, he’s very passionate about it and his best friend is Hercule Poirot, so he’s very supportive towards him. Poirot is a genius and Bouc isn’t, so he’s often a sounding board and there’s a little bit of Sherlock-Watson in it. Sometimes Bouc pushes back and he questions thing, then at other times he just watches as Poirot weaves his magic and goes ‘How extraordinary!’ There is a great bond between the two of them”.

Michael: “There are some very interesting scenes going on around Poirot in which he just observes and I think he’s quite a lonely person. In order to be on top of his game, in order to take care of his little grey cells, he has to distance or isolate himself from being too involved with people – so that he can objectively see what their characteristics are, what their behaviorisms are and what they’re up to full-stop, really. But yes, he and Monsieur Bouc are old friends and in fact we’ve made up a bit of a backstory for them, where they fought together in the First World War and Bouc saved Poirot’s life after he was invalided out to England and ended up in Torquay – as the type of Belgian refugee that Agatha Christie would have seen during her childhood there”.

Michael, Poirot has been portrayed by many actors over the years. How are you making the character your own?

Michael: “When you play a role it will naturally become your own but I carry the memory of everybody that I’ve watched play him with me. I don’t try to compete with them and I like to acknowledge what they’ve done. I’ve really enjoyed all their performances but I think David Suchet in particular has dominated the national consciousness because he did it for about 20 years on television, so when people say ‘Poirot’ they automatically think of his appearance, his persona and his acting of the role. To veer far away from that would not be right but because it is a stage production there is more expression involved and there is slightly more passion involved. We cannot be dependent on the television close-up, we have to project ourselves, and there is also room for losing your temper and getting exasperated, as well as being utterly charming”.

You have a great rapport. Have you worked together before?

Bob: “It’s our third time. Previously we were in Hamlet together. The first time, he was Hamlet and I was Rosencrantz, then I was Horatio to his Hamlet. Both times it was blissful and the second time was a longer tour so we shared digs. What’s lovely about it as well is that there is a sort of element of Hamlet-Horatio in the Poirot and Bouc relationship, and there are a lot of references to Hamlet in this play”.

Michael: “Ken Ludwig, who’s adapted it, is a fantastic writer and he’s also a passionate Shakespeare fan, so he’s puts in quotes from Hamlet throughout the play. Then with Bob, it’s very difficult not to enjoy working with him. He’s a big-hearted man and actually I think he’s the heart of the engine of the company as a result. It’s a pleasure to be working with him again”.

What do you think makes Christie such a revered storyteller?

Bob: “She’s the best at what she does. If you are in the mood for a murder mystery, she takes it to another level. It’s not just that she’s great at the narrative, telling the story and finding the gold within it, she’s also very good at painting characters. She maybe isn’t a Dickens but she’s not far off in terms of the characters she creates. Also she’s very good in terms of the psychology of people in extremis, so when people are pushed to the edge she’s so accurate about human nature. I think that’s why people keeping come back to her stories, because there is an authenticity to what she does”.

What do you think makes Murder on the Orient Express a particularly compelling story?

Michael: “This is one of her all-time greats. Her writing is very dependable. You have a world created for you, which you can observe from the audience and still feel non-threatened by but yet you’re intrigued by the terrible goings on in other people’s lives, which is the function of theatre a lot of the time anyway. The engine of the play, the plot by Agatha Christie, is a very good one”.

Are there still surprises for people who know whodunnit from the novel and previous adaptations?

Michael: “There are, yes. The way it’s staged, there are plenty of diversions and there are enough red herrings”.

Bob: “Our director Lucy Bailey has done a lot of Agatha Christies and she’s got a real handle on it. She pushes the stories into unexpected areas and it’s thrilling. She brings in elements that maybe aren’t there on the page, and I think that’s exciting for an audience”.

How is it working with Lucy?

Bob: “I love her. It’s my second time now, after ‘And Then There Were None’, and I love her energy. I love her imagination and where she takes you with it. There’s no sort of sitting back on it. She always pushes it and pushes it, and I love that about her”.

Michael: “Agreed. She’s got great ideas, she’s got great equanimity, and she’s very interesting and very inspiring. She’s got a vision for it and it’s very easy to follow her. I’m really enjoying the process”.

The play is set in the 1930s, so is it pure escapism or does it have themes that speak to contemporary audiences?

Michael: “There is a small speech, without giving away too much, which relates the time of the 1930s to us now. The play is set in pre-Nazi Germany and it’s on the doorstep of the characters’ consciousness, even on the train. There’s a certain sense of similar foreboding now for many, many people with the various flashpoints going on in the world and within our own country, so it has resonance”.

Bob: “With And Then There Were None it was very much British. This is more European, which is very interesting because – and I’m not going to get too political – hopefully we’ve kind of for the moment sorted ourselves out in this country. But things are very febrile at the moment in Europe.

“In the 30s it was Hitler’s Germany and the Third Reich and that shook everything up, and the play touches on that sense of foreboding a bit. There is a sense that something’s going to happen, particularly through Poirot’s psyche, and when you come and see the play you can also see parallels between what’s happening now and what happened then”.

Bob, your wife Rebecca Charles is also in the show [as Grace Ohlsson]. When did you last act together?

Bob: “Well, we met on a show in 1993, Cyrano de Bergerac in the West End, and then for the next seven years a lot of what we did was together. I thought ‘This is great, this is going to be how it’s going to be’, but the last time we worked together was in 2000, so it’s been quite a long time. When I was in Holby City, I tried desperately to get her on as my ex-wife but they said she was too lovely for the part”.

What have been you career highlights on film and TV?

Michael: “I enjoyed my little bit in Belfast with Kenneth Branagh just a couple of years ago and I enjoyed doing Henry V for Kenneth Branagh as well, playing the Dauphin. I also enjoyed doing a TV series for Anthony Minghella called What If It’s Raining on Channel 4, which was the precursor to the film Truly, Madly, Deeply, which was another enjoyable job. I’m very proud of Starlings, which was part of the Screen Two anthology series on BBC2. It was about a young lad whose biscuit factory closed down, so he becomes a butler. [Laughs] As you do”.

Bob: “I was in Holby City for 12 years, so that was a huge part of my life and I just loved doing it. I did an Ab Fab, which was exciting, and I really enjoyed doing Shakespeare in Love and learned a lot from that experience. They’re the big stand-outs for me”.

And what have been your favourite stage jobs over the years?

Bob: “I was in the all-male Shakespeare company Propeller off and on for five years, and when I wasn’t doing that I was in a six-and-a-half-hour version of Nicholas Nickleby. With Propeller I got to play parts I’d dreamt of doing at The Old Vic and I loved being part of an ensemble”.

Michael: “Doing Hamlet a couple of times was great and playing Prince Hal in Henry IV parts 1 and 2 at Stratford was good fun. I worked a couple of times at the Royal Court and I’m always proud of that. Their slogan was ‘The right to fail’ which immediately took away that thing of ‘We’ve got to be successful and everything’s got to be perfect’.”

The tour calls at The Lowry, Salford. Does it have any significance for you?

Bob: “We both did Hamlet there. I did Nicholas Nickleby there too and loads of things with the Propellor theatre company in the smaller space”.

Michael: “I’ve got some friends in Media City but also at the Royal Exchange where I did All My Sons with John Thaw in the lead back in the 80s. I have very strong associations with Manchester and it’s one of the most creative cities in the country”.

Bob: “Musically, Manchester is one of the greatest places. I’m a huge Joy Division fan, New Order and also The Smiths. Salford is obviously central to The Queen is Dead by The Smiths because they’re there on the inside at the Salford Lads and Girls Club”.

Murder on the Orient Express is at The Lowry, Salford from 6 to 14 September 2024 and running through to 3 May 2025.

Read our interview with Agatha Christie’s grandson Mathew Prichard.

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What starts as a simple, circular, white piece of fabric draped upon The Lowry’s warehouse floor, grows over time into an intimate, albeit borderline claustrophobic, viewing tent in which the audience gleefully gathers in shared anticipation. Growing in size over the hour, the surrounding fabric rises higher and higher as the artists take greater risks whilst also managing to strengthen the audiences’ intrigue and reverence.

Originally from Chicago, the Aloft Circus Arts troupe consists of seven; Shanya Swanson (Tour manager and director) and six astonishing acrobats; Rachel Nesnevich, Zoe Sheppard, Linnea Ridolfi, Hayley Larson, Heather Dart, and Sarah Tapper. Performing as far back as 2005, the group continues to sell out shows in America, and the UK, with shows consisting of juggling, ariel arts, and acrobatics; to name a few.

What was created as “an antidote to the horrors of the daily news cycle”, the 60-minute-long performance pairs audience input with mesmerising stunts. Now the artists themselves may not consider the acts to be worthy of the title ‘stunts’, but all in attendance would undoubtedly agree that the acts did at times evoke real moments of shock and awe. Certainly not your typical night out at the theatre, but for good reason.

The audience is asked to put their faith in one another as much as the performers, with attendees being invited intermittently to partake in responsibilities that would make even the Fonzies’ palms sweaty, such as holding a metal pole tightly in place whilst a performer raises themselves 8 feet in the air upon it; with no safety net or soft ground beneath them. Direct involvement is not required from all to enjoy the show but only heightens the overall experience for those lucky few who are asked.

The highlight (no pun intended) perhaps had to be ‘The duo sling’ act performed by Hayley and Linnea, which had the two artists swinging melodically and gracefully high above the audience’s heads. More so remarkable due to its unusual perspective; as we were invited to lay on our backs, and gaze up at the unravelling of fabric restraints and deadly aerobatics from an unseen angle mere meters above our heads.

The whole performance was paired perfectly with music to match its calming but occasionally unpredictable temperament. The simple yet striking set design only added to the overall aesthetics of intimacy and fantasy. Throughout, lyrics such as ‘Good girls can fly’ and ‘You are safe here’ practically floated through what little space there was between the artist high above and the spectators down below.

Unlike anything you are likely to have seen before, Brave Space manages to squeeze together aspects of contemporary dance, circus-centric acts, and audience participation, culminating in an impulsive congregation in the tiniest of tents.

Brave Space is at The Lowry, Salford from 18-20 July 2024.

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Alleyne Dance has previously won the award ‘Black Female icons of Lewisham’ as well as ‘Best Independent Company’ at the National Dance awards. Using a combination of West African, Hip hop, Caribbean styles in their work, Alleyne Dance manages to create a unique medley of dance. The organisation must be commended on picking an emotive and real-world topic for this production.

Opening with haunting music and dim lighting, a silhouette is visible, bound by ropes. All displayed through swift movement, the person is torn apart from a fellow figure on stage, capturing the audience’s attention immediately.

This production consists of six main dancers, two of whom are the Alleyne twins who bring impressive fluidity. Alongside these six are the Alleyne interns and a local community cast who periodically appear on stage. Sadé, performing in blue, forms a particularly strong connection with the audience, making the complex choreography look easy.

Remaining open to interpretation throughout, the show focuses on conveying mood and emotions rather than telling a singular story. A theme of separation and loss is prevalent, where several dancers moving in unison to loud music often reduces to a single performer in silence.

Minimal scenery on stage doesn’t stop the production from showing a shift in mood or location. Through purely lighting and sound, the audience is taken from a dangerous warlike setting to a dark, solemn seashore where bodies lay strewn. This all-too-real depiction is sobering. Erratic movements and eery music make the experience uncomfortable where necessary and leave some ambiguous scenes. Arguably, the production could have benefitted from more clarity in places as there are parts of this show left very open ended.

The major success of this show is the way the mood is emulated. Despite the ambiguity, the audience, no doubt, can feel the tone of dance and sympathise with those on stage. For much of the performance, the dark stage reflects the negative mental headspace of the migrants and internal battle. Only on a few occasions, does the theatre brighten and the expressions of the dancers change. These moments come in times of friendship and reunification which are acted through the dance.

The integration of the migrants into communities is represented in later scenes in which almost the entirety of the dancers are on stage. The mood is lifted and the style more hopeful, yet the struggles are in no way forgotten. With the dancers in perfect sync, they seem to communicate through beats made from stamping and clapping. The merging of the different groups is executed well, with clear hesitancy shown through body language.

This dance production is a credit to the Alleyne company as it so convincingly depicted conflict and emotion in impressive dance form.

Alleyne Dance Far From Home is at The Lowry, Salford from 26 to 27 March 2024.

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Almost 40 years-on Kureishi has returned to his romantic comedy-drama and adapted it for the stage with powerful effect, keeping true to the original story and setting, following two lovers in their attempts to navigate an interracial, gay relationship in 80’s Britain during the Thatcher government.

The play premiered at Leicester Curve in 2019 and this revival, which comes to The Lowry this week, sees several of the original 8-strong cast reprise their roles including Kammy Darweish as Omar’s enterprising Thatcherite uncle Nasser, Paddy Daly as right-wing thug Genghis and Hareet Deol as Salim, Nasser’s right-hand man. Fans of Steven Frear’s film will also recognise the original Omar, Gordon Warnecke, in the role of Omar’s wise but world-weary Papa.

Here centre stage are Sam Mitchell as Johnny, a white working-class young man caught up in the wrong crowd, and Lucca Chadwick-Patel as his school friend Omar, a young Pakistani Briton. The play takes its name from the run-down laundrette that innocent Omar is instructed by his family to take on, which subsequently leads him to reunite with his old flame.

Despite the business been given to Omar to ‘transform’, everybody is under the impression that the laundrette is a dead-end project. Omar and Johnny reconnect on a romantic level while working on it together, and soon the business is unrecognisable. Both characters come from challenging yet contrary backgrounds, with Johnny being urged by his far-right nationalist friends to turn against Omar’s Pakistani family.

Tackling some heavy topics, this play manages to find the perfect balance between harsh reality and witty humour. With some playful innuendos and teasing between characters, it offers a form of comic relief for the crowd, which went down very well with Tuesday’s audience.

Johnny’s dark past is delved into by love interest Omar, causing some turbulence along the way. Both characters are lacking a sense of belonging in their opposing social groups and cultures, meaning that their relationship is forced to stay secret.

The whole cast offer a compelling narrative that has the entire audience hooked. Kammy Darweish gives a stand-out performance as Omar’s brutal business-focused uncle, Nassar, encapsulating the proud and egocentric character with vigour.

Nassar’s daughter, Tania (Sharan Phull), offers a breath of fresh air, straying from her family’s traditional values and taking on an accepting and feminist point of view. The character shows a deep admiration for gay icon Freddie Mercury who shattered stereotypes at this time. Nassar is keen for his daughter to marry Omar, yet Tania is keen to escape from her father’s clutches. Sharan Phull does a great job highlighting Tania’s undeniable confidence and charisma whilst still showing her vulnerability at times.

The play concludes with many questions left unanswered and issues ongoing, which leaves the audience wanting more. It is safe to say that the ending is not the one many would have wanted due to its lack of clarity. However, it can be argued that ending the play in this manner is actually the most appropriate way to do so, seeing as the issues that the characters faced, are still ongoing today and unfortunately, cannot be easily eradicated.

This play is incredibly thought provoking and really shows how ahead-of-its-time this story was when first written. While there is no doubt many of these societal problems still exist, seeing some of the discriminative norms in the 80s shows how far UK attitudes have come, which offers an element of hope.

My Beautiful Laundrette is at The Lowry, Salford from 19 – 23 March 2023.

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“It’s dynamic, it takes you on a journey, we make you laugh, and we make you cry, then we make you shocked and have a moment of wonder.”

Carnesky is a pioneer in British performance art, her award winning career has spanned over two decades, her live performances have been appreciated and lauded by critics and audiences alike worldwide. As well as her live performances she has long been involved in the education and tutelage of young people who wish to be in the industry. She currently works as a Programme Director for a Contemporary and Popular Performance course at Rose Bruford College and is on the road with her latest production ‘SHOWWOMEN’ which sees her collaborate with Veronica Thompson (Fancy Chance), Livia Kojo Alour and Lucifire.

“We’re not making a play with characters where we’re playing other people. We’re playing ourselves, and then exploring through our skills, and through the stories of people in the past themes about what it is to be a woman,” Marisa tells me. Her work has long centred around themes of womanhood, from her first full-length solo show, ‘Jewess Tattooess’ to her more recent offering ‘Dr Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman’ but this looks to be the jewel in her crown as she tackles the subject in the very industry she had such a hand in growing.

“We kind of created this culture, the whole generation of us coming out of the 90’s brought this kind of visual cabaret and movement based cabaret into the mainstream.

“When I graduated, there wasn’t really much of a cabaret scene in the UK at the time, there wasn’t the culture that we have now, the burlesque and circus culture. There wasn’t a lot of places where you could do visual performing if you weren’t a stand-up comic. Trying to make a living was really hard, I was performing in nightclubs and then working a little bit in theatre freelancing.”

These times speak to a true passion for her craft as she persevered without the promise of a stable income in a market that was small at best, the familiar tale of the artist struggling to stay afloat doing what they truly love is as relevant as ever and as with many of these stories, adaptability is paramount. Marisa tells me this a trait that she shares with most of her counterparts, “I think people don’t realise that we all move between genres. We all kind of found our way doing a bit of theatre, doing a bit cabaret, doing a bit of Burlesque, a bit of comedy, a bit of teaching. It all crosses over, you have to be a jack of many trades.”

As well as adaptability this is a culture that promotes diversity, camaraderie and community and this is reflected in the team that has helped SHOWWOMEN come to life, “I have my biological family, but my circus family, my performance family are also really important to me. In a way they’re family too, the women in this show, we’ve been working together for nearly 20 years in festivals and different shows, we didn’t meet yesterday, we have shared stories, and we look out for each other.” Marisa believes that this level of collaboration between women could be a reflection of something much bigger. “Under patriarchy, traditionally we’re lead in a culture which is often about division. And perhaps matriarchy would be more about inclusion, a more collaborative sense of spectacle.

“If P.T. Barnum was a spectacular patriarch, then what would a spectacular matriarch be? Who would she be and what would she bring to the culture and to the community?”

The idea behind SHOWWOMEN seems to be about controlling the narrative, asking questions, and trying to come up with answers for them. There is a desire to flip the script, it is that sentiment that the name for the show itself is derived from. “We’re kind of saying that that nobody is a show girl if they’re over 18. The phrase is used to sexualise women into this identity of the girl, and I mean a lot of performers love it, there’s a kind of romance to the show girl, but we’re saying as we move into our 40s and 50s, we might need to change the script,” Marisa tells me passionately. “We’re show women, we’re actually now the ones running the businesses, we can do all these extraordinary skills and performances for as long as we want to. And yes, we might still be sexual, but in a more self-possessed way, where it’s less about us being in a line-up of identical bodies and It’s more about us having a voice, being great theatre makers or having great abilities to make spectacular performances.”

This piece looks to serve as more than mere entertainment and this shouldn’t come as a surprise as the brainchild of someone who is not a mere entertainer. The show has its inspirations in Marisa’s punk, anarchic spirit, and political performance art of the past. So often in her work the questions arise of why couldn’t I and why shouldn’t I marry, under the umbrella of what if I do? There’s the hope that the answer points to a level of social change and the questions raised in this piece are no different. “In my mother’s generation you kind of disappeared as you got older,” Marisa adds. “This is about saying, what is the midlife woman? What does she do on stage and what does she represent? I think it’s really important that women with physicality are still out there being physical in midlife. Let’s find out what that’s like, let’s give it a go, because I’m not getting off the stage. Why should I?”

Showwomen is at The Lowry on 16 March 2024. Age guidance 16+

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The company comes to The Lowry, Salford with a triple bill of contemporary works by some of the world’s leading Spanish and Latin American choreographers – and artistic director Inês Bogéa is keen to share São Paulo’s electric energy.

Founded in 2008, São Paulo Dance Company has produced more than 100 classical and contemporary works, toured nearly 20 countries and performed to more than 900,000 people. And now local audiences can enjoy their expertise.

“São Paulo is a dance company with a very special Brazilian accent,” Inês says. “We have the passion for dance, we have the energy of Brazil and we love to share that with audiences around the world.”

Inés, who was the founding director when the company was created by the Brazilian state government 15 years ago, says music and dance are integral to life in her country.

“Movement and the sensation of dance is so much a part of our culture, we celebrate life through dance,” she says. “We dance around the kitchen when we are cooking, we dance at a party with our friends, we dance because we are happy and we also dance when sometimes we are sad.

“We have a temperature which is hot, we have sun for most parts of the year, and I think this affects our emotions.”

The tour features a triple bill – Anthem by Spanish choreographer Goyo Montero, Gnawa by Spain’s Nacho Duato and Agora by Cassi Abranches, who was born in São Paulo and has recently choreographed part of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet.

“The three works talk about rituals in different ways,” says Inês. “Anthem looks at how we are connected through a common purpose that leads us to recognise ourselves as the same group. Gnawa talks about the rituals of people who live in the North of Africa and their connections with the natural world. And in Agora we are talking about time, memories and the reverberation of Brazilian dance.”

The tour of 14 towns and cities is presented by Dance Consortium, a group of 19 venues across the UK and Ireland who have come together to bring leading contemporary dance companies from across the globe to local audiences.

“I hope that on this tour the audiences enjoy themselves and feel connected with the energy, emotions and beauty of the dancers,” Inês says. “An audience is a very important part of a performance.

“We are looking forward to showing audiences a little bit of our culture and, through the dance, we will all feel the energy of Brazil.”

Sao Paulo Dance Company is at The Lowry, Salford on 12 and 13 March 2024.

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Kate Pankhurst’s book, adapted for the stage by Chris Bush, is threaded along the tale of 11-year-old Jade, who turns up late for a school trip (not her fault, of course), takes a wrong turn and finds herself in a section of the local museum currently closed to the public.

The set is simple but effective. At stage level, props morph into scenery, while three musicians (Nicola T. Chang – percussion and keys; Isis Dunthorne – drums; Audra Cramer – MD and keys) sit on high.

Jade’s unscheduled trespass into the upcoming exhibition of ‘Fantastically Great Women’, triggers a life-changing series of encounters with some of the female titans of history.

First up (very snazzily attired, courtesy of Joanna Scotcher’s fertile design imaginings) is American aviator, Amelia Earhart.

“Where do you want to go?” she asks Jade (meaning in life, not just the museum); a tough question for an 11-year-old, worried about her parents’ upcoming divorce and fretting that no one ever listens to her.

With help from another outstanding American (cross-channel swimmer, Gertrude Ederle) and an upbeat song, Amelia sets about helping Jade believe in herself. Suddenly, Jade has big (and possibly slightly unrealistic) plans:

“I’ll do it all before I’m 12!”

Clearly, Jade has more to learn. Fortunately, there is no shortage of fantastically great women to help her work things out.

Next up, kitted out as a drum majorette, is local hero (and distant relative of the author) Emmeline Pankhurst. Emmeline tells Jade that, “well-behaved women rarely make history.” No doubt all the young women in the audience were taking note…

While these remarkable women emphasise action – “Deeds not words” – they repeatedly preach solidarity and cooperation:

“It’s not just about where you go, but about who you take along with you.”

There’s a fun number featuring fantastic Marys – Mary Seacole (nineteenth century Jamaican nurse), Mary Anning (youthful discoverer of dinosaur fossils), and “Mary,” well, Marie Curie (Polish/French physicist and chemist, double Nobel Prize winner).

While men are occasional ridiculed (usually for their outrageous beliefs about women’s limitations) it’s handled with a light touch. Credit is also given where it is due – for example, Pierre Curie’s refusal to accept a Nobel Prize unless his wife, Marie, was also granted one.

“Nobody changes the world alone.”

Historical accuracy is rightly paramount in “Fantastically Great Women,” so there is an acknowledgement that not all these women had a happy ending, while noting that the end of a life need not mean the end of a story. To bring this home, there’s a moving episode in which Jade sits between civil rights activist Rosa Parks and youthful diarist Anne Frank, victim of the Nazis.

We close with a suitably rousing finale, reminding us that, “there is no such thing as an ordinary woman” and that, “everyone here is fantastic!”

Most of the six-strong cast play multiple roles and revel in it. The staging (directed by Amy Hodge and choreographed by Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe) is tireless, bright and witty. The songs (music by Miranda Cooper and Jennifer Decilveo, and lyrics by Chris Bush and Miranda Cooper) carry the young audience along enthusiastically.

Georgia Grant-Anderson makes a plausible and likeable eleven-year-old in the key role of Jade (we want her to change the world AND get a puppy). Jennifer Caldwell brings Emmeline Pankhurst home with rabble-rousing passion, and there is a show-stopping number from Elena Breschi as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, which tears up the boards (and features a barnstorming drum-break, led by Nicola T. Chang).

As a rule, reviewers will shift heaven and earth to avoid falling into traps, cunningly laid by theatre promotions folk, but this time, there’s no avoiding it:

This is a fantastically great show!

Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World is at The Lowry, Salford from 5 December 2023 to 7 January 2024.

The post Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

In this dance version, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventure’s company takes the 1990 Tim Burton film and distils the true-heart of its story on stage, complete with quirky characters, comedy, romance, and magic.

In many ways the stage adaptation feels cinematic, in its widescreen filling of the Lyric’s huge stage with energy and action. At times there is so much going on, it’s hard to know where to look. Les Brotherton’s enormous and detailed sets draw us into the candy-coloured world of Hope Springs. We move from gothic castle to suburban town, teenage bedroom to poolside country club in moves so slick they feel as natural as a scene change on screen. Terry Davies original composition adapted from Danny Elfman’s romantic film score also feels very much like a soundtrack that guides our emotions on this rollercoaster of a journey.

There is no shortage of theatrical special effects too, which only adds to the awe and wonder of how a dancer, here Liam Mower, can move so deftly with a series of foot-long blades on the ends of his fingers.

Edward Scissorhand’s creation is a Pinocchio-type tale. After losing his son, an old man starts to build Edward; but before he can finish his creation, youths in Halloween masks ransack the ghostly house leaving the old man dead and young Edward left with scissors for hands.

Sounds dark and like all good fairy tales, in places it is. But it is the contrast between appearance and reality, uniqueness and uniformity, the bullishness of the teenage gangs and Edward’s vulnerable innocence that make for such an emotional journey that needs no words to explain.

Mower is dazzling as Scissorhands, bringing a tender depth and wit to the part that brings full dimension to his character, and he is excellently supported in the precision of movement and character of each one of the cast.

It’s been 9 years since the show’s last major revival in 2014 and long-standing New Adventures’ fans will recognise a previous Scissorhands, Dominic North in the role of Bill Boggs; while Kerry Biggin, who created the role of Kim Boggs in the original 2005 version, now dances mum Peg Boggs.

It’s easy to see why both company and cast have returned to it. Edward Scissorhands is a timeless story of how society often treats those it perceives as different, and this beautiful staging is a delight from start to finish.

Edward Scissorhands – Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures is at The Lowry from 28 November to 2 December 2023 before continuing on tour.

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