Martin ThomassonJust before the curtain goes up on this latest revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s 1993 production of Puccini’s La Bohème, Howard steps forward to remind us what a marvellous gift to the region Opera North is – providing employment for over 130...
If you don’t exit Hofesh Schechter’s new show, “Theatre of Dreams” feeling like you’ve really put in a shift, then my guess is you’re a professional dancer or some other form of highly tuned athlete. Mere mortals will depart drained but, I hope...
To begin at the ending. The audience loved it. Sadler’s Wells’ take on the 1979 film, based on The Who’s 1973 album, Quadrophenia, choreographed by Paul Roberts and directed by Rob Ashford, has a comfortable majority of us on our feet. By “us” I...
Theatrical experiences are rarely all good or all bad. Sometimes a reviewer wants to rave about certain aspects of a production, while other features leave him cold. So it is for me with this physical theatre adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s 1891...
“England is not a trick question – I promise you.” So says Gareth Southgate in the National Theatre’s brilliantly entertaining production of James Graham’s take on Southgate’s time managing the England men’s football team. Southgate (played...
It is 1997. A train leaves Scotland bound for London. On board, John Josana, a journalist, is reading a book about Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for many years). The train is crowded. A tall man with a backpack takes the seat...
If I were to begin this review by telling you the stars of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s revival of Cinderella are John Macfarlane’s design and David Finn’s lighting (here honoured and adapted by Peter Teigen), you might infer that I was being...
On 4 August, 2011, a 29-year-old black man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, London. Duggan’s death sparked a series of riots, beginning in Tottenham, spreading across London and on to other cities in England. From where he was...
The staging is simple: four straight-backed chairs, a backdrop for projections and, overhead, two rows of clothing hung on lines (theatre is a place for costumes and dressing-up, but also, we are reminded, the theatre we are here to pay our respects...
Immersive art shows have a chequered reputation, but Lightroom’s collaboration with David Hockney is something of a triumph. Perhaps it is that Hockney often works in light (quite literally, given his now famous iPad “paintings”). Or perhaps it is...