Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
HOME, Manchester. PUSH Festival 2020. Following its first appearance at PUSH Festival two years ago, PlayBox Takeover (from theatre company Box of Tricks) returns once more to HOME's annual celebration of North West talent. An inspiring way to kickstart PUSH 2020's theatre strand, the day-long programme of workshops and conversations targeting local writers and theatre-makers [...]
HOME, Manchester. 6 December 2019. Offering audiences a chance to explore a "theatrical map of Manchester at Christmas", Monkeywood's new show is a 70 minute-long collection of 14 new micro-plays from locally-based writers. It's a format that the company first showcased to acclaim back in January 2018, although this time the mini Mancunian dramas come [...]
HOME, Manchester. 14 February 2019. "I've got two dads. One's white. One's black". David Judge's new play unflinchingly explores identity, race and family through the lens of his own experiences, as a mixed-race child adopted by a white man. Performed as a monologue by Judge, the story is told from the perspective of Dave, a [...]
HOME, Manchester. 23 & 25 January 2019. The theatre seating is out-of-bounds. Heads of broccoli have been placed at intervals on the floor around the space. Their varying shades of green and yellow stand out within the black box surroundings. The audience gathers among the cruciferous forms. We are on our feet. In the centre [...]
HOME, Manchester. 9th June 2017. Your phone pings. It's a text. "OK... Make eye contact. Instructions to follow". From now on in you are part of the performance. Even people who've been to immersive theatre previously may not be prepared for what Blast Theory and Hydrocracker have created. It's a sign of how much of [...]
HOME, Manchester. 19 May 2017. Kieran Hurley's one man show is an incredible rallying cry foretelling the end of the word. Its seeming simplicity hides a complex narrative and a compelling vision. A big table, laden with lights and a control panel. A chair. He takes a seat and puts a match to a candle [...]
HOME, Manchester 5th May 2017 This review was written for a one-off exercise to the following brief - Write a creative, non-conventional response to Tank. Try pushing yourselves outside your comfort zones and see what happens. Some of this is known. In 1965, Margaret Lovatt lived with a dolphin for 10 weeks as part of [...]
HOME, Manchester 4th May 2017 Rosie Kay's new work MK ULTRA is a fantasy world away from the harsh realities of her last piece the intense and intimate 5 Soldiers. However it shares the same collaborative ethos and immersive approach that makes her work so distinctive. And if the British Army wasn't a big enough [...]
HOME, Manchester 21st April 2017 This review was written for a one-off exercise to the following brief. 'It should be descriptive and analytical - commentary but not a synopsis. And no personality or opinion'. If it's managed to achieve that but you are still interested in my view it is summarised in a very brief [...]
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Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
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Theatre and performance reviews in the Greater Manchester area
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