Carmel ThomasonNo-one knows the true number of children and young people under the age of 18, who have responsibilities for looking after a parent or sibling. Official UK figures put the number somewhere around 160,000 but if it’s true, as some think, that the...
Long before Harry Potter was imagined Roald Dahl captured the appeal of young wizardry in George’s Marvellous Medicine. This year marks 100 years since the birth of the much-loved children’s author and as part of the centenary celebrations...
There are few things in life we know to be true, and one is that there is nothing as complex as families. They have been at the heart of good drama for centuries, and in this new play Andrew Bovell takes us into their darkest secrets and most...
The rising popularity of Cirque du Soleil has upped the ante for all circus troupes, large and small. Audiences are demanding more from circus entertainment but smaller companies are rising to the challenge with quirky, multi-talented acts, of which...
The rhythms of life aren’t always as comfortable as the phrase might suggest. And so it is with Aditi Mangaldas’ latest work, Inter_rupted which is takes the audience through a range of emotions from exhilaration to an overwhelming urge to stop the...
It’s not yet 10am and already there’s barely a spare seat to be had in Manchester’s Palace Theatre such is the pull of children’s TV favourite, Peppa Pig. I’m here with my four-year-old nephew. The age guide is three plus, but looking around there...
There are few English novels more well-known and loved than Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Although in recent years that probably has more to do with TV and big screen adaptations than with the book itself. This stage adaptation by Simon...
She may be a diminutive 4 feet 11 inches, but when she steps onto the stage Elaine Paige is every inch the star. This series of concerts may be Stripped Back in many ways, but there is certainly no shortage of glamour. Wearing a stunning knee...
Britain’s Queen of musical theatre, Elaine Paige is back on the road with a brand new show, Stripped Back. I caught up with her ahead of her stop at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. In this show you celebrate contemporary songwriters from the huge...
We often look back on the 1960s as a time of anything goes and sexual revolution. For a small elite it may have been. But for the majority of young people it was probably not unlike the world of Amanda Whittington’s Be My Baby. Here we see...