When Queen and Slim meet for a Tinder date they are far from a match made in heaven. She has too much attitude for his liking, and she hates his taste in music and the loud noises he makes while eating. Though not from a privileged background, Queen...
“And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” An Inspector Calls. Photo by Tristram Kenton It’s quite often overlooked that, as well as an...
“To die would be an awfully big adventure,” muses Peter Pan, uttering one of the most famous lines in J.M. Barrie’s story. “Don’t talk daft!” comes the abrupt Lancastrian rebuke from Christina’s Meehan’s mermaid princess. Quite right, too! Peter Pan...
“On a very basic level, all I’ve ever wanted to do is entertain people. That’s what it’s about, and sometimes people forget that.” So says, Sir Matthew Bourne in his impressively well-attended post-show chat. Judging by the turnout for this Tuesday...
Amanda and Mike meet and bond on a plane while watching the the inflight movie – Pride and Prejudice. Mike prefers the book (more nuanced) but Amanda challenges him to watch the film without shedding a tear. Next thing, Mike is moving in with...
Michael Barker-Caven’s able revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s 1993 production of La Bohème for Opera North, gives us a layered and richly rewarding take on Puccini’s classic tale of bohemian Paris. Lloyd’s transposition of this late Victorian tale to the...
In a 1994 article entitled, “Discussing the Undiscussable”, New Yorker critic, Arlene Croce, explained her refusal to review a piece by choreographer, Bill T. Jones by accusing him of presenting ‘victim art’. Jones’s show, Still/Here, employed...
If you remember the 2014 controversy regarding certain Birmingham schools and the so-called ‘Trojan horse’ revelations, you most probably recall it as a conspiracy by certain Muslim governors to take over and radicalise British schools, a conspiracy...
Flo, the most junior of doctors, wearing her scrubs, already weary, stressed, overloaded with information and feeling out of her depth, excluded from case conferences by her white-coated seniors, is in need of a night’s rest, to take it all in, to...
Kimberley Sykes is clearly on a mission to take control of theatre in the northwest. Her production of Maxine Peake’s Beryl has just opened at Bolton’s Octagon theatre, and now here she is, directing the RSC’s touring production of As You Like It...
Martin Thomasson