Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
Review of I Wish at HOME, Manchester. It’s a momentous occasion for “actual fairy godmother” Effie - she’s about to grant her grumblefillionth wish. Flicking through her magic memory book, she recollects some of the big dreams she has made come true over the years. Peering at us over her diamante Dame Edna-style spectacles, Le [...]
Review of WRESTLELADSWRESTLE at HOME, Manchester. “I’m Jennifer Jackson… and tonight I’m going to show you how to remove someone from a house party.” And she’s not messing around - with the help of Simon Carroll Jones (playing a “drunk uncle”), she does just that. It’s one of several moments in WRESTLELADSWRESTLE where Jennifer Jackson [...]
Review of Too Much World At Once at HOME, Manchester. At the heart of Too Much World At Once is a family struggling to communicate with one another, in a world edging ever closer to catastrophe. It is Noble’s fifteenth birthday, and he’s wrestling with his feelings. He is missing his older sister Cleo who [...]
Review of Song From Far Away at HOME, Manchester. Willem, a financial trader in New York, has his working day interrupted by a voicemail. It's his mother, telling him that his brother Pauli had died. After complaining that the news has come at “a very inconvenient time”, he packs his bags, boards a flight, and [...]
Review of The House with Chicken Legs at HOME, Manchester. “The best parties are where all the guests are dead!” proclaims Marinka’s grandmother Baba – and with all the music, dancing, home-cooked food, and free-flowing drink, they certainly look like a good night out. Except Baba is a Yaga, a Guardian of The Gate between [...]
HOME, Manchester. Online as part of Homemakers. Daylight is in short supply at this time of the year. Back in June, on Saturday 20th, there was an abundance of it. 16 hours and 38 minutes to be exact. The longest day and then the shortest night - the Summer Solstice. In my mind, it’s associated [...]
HOME, Manchester. There can't be many shows that can lay claim to transforming an ancient Mesopotamian ruler into an unlikely ear-worm but cult cabaret duo Bourgeois & Maurice's first foray into full length musical theatre has left King Gilgamesh's name lodged on random repeat in my head now for five days and counting. Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh. [...]
HOME, Manchester. PUSH Festival 2020. Katie isn't contagious, she isn't permanently attached to her wheelchair, and she doesn't sleep in it. That she has to clarify this might seem incredible but responding to ridiculous and insensitive questions has become a regular occurrence for Katie Staples ever since she took possession of a set of wheels. [...]
HOME, Manchester. PUSH Festival 2020. When archaeologist Nuala unearths a skeleton, she finds herself increasingly drawn to the person it once was. That neat collection of bones buried face down in the ground so many years ago are all that is left of a small frail girl. As she pieces together details about who she [...]
HOME, Manchester. PUSH Festival 2020. Bost-Uni Plues? I peg your bardon! Ugly Bucket Theatre explain the misheard origins of that title later in their show but you won't need a degree in linguistics to guess what it's all about. Using accounts of real-life experiences, three cheerful clowns launch themselves into an effervescent, knockabout exploration of [...]
Circles & Stalls 