Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
Royal Exchange, Manchester. 22 January 2018. "We walk". Thomas, Matthew and Richard walk for exercise, to get outdoors, for fresh air, to have a break from work and family responsibilities but they also walk together, with purpose, as black men. Eclipse Theatre's new play follows these three men as they head out on their regular [...]
HOME, Manchester. 12 - 19 January 2018. In the first seven days of HOME's annual PUSH Festival I managed to see eleven shows in various stages of development. Here are my thoughts on some of the theatre I've seen so far. It's worth noting that quite a few of the things I enjoyed most were [...]
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HOME, Manchester. 17 January 2018. I first saw YESYESNONO's new show [insert slogan here] in development at the Royal Exchange's Co:LAB festival last year and I confess that I found it frustratingly flat. And yet a few months later, at HOME's PUSH Festival, it feels like a different show. I came out of it and [...]
Although many of the big Christmas shows (and pantomimes) keep on going well in to January, there's also some really interesting new theatre to look forward to this month. HOME's PUSH festival is packed with local talent and generates lots of interest but that doesn't mean there isn't also great stuff on elsewhere in Greater [...]
This year I've been lucky enough to see lots of great theatre in Manchester as well as in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Sheffield and York. The following are my favourite Manchester shows of 2017. I've restricted my choices to productions that were either premiered in the city or could only be seen here. What I've [...]
HOME, Manchester. 14 December 2017. For their festive show HOME ditch the fairy at the top of a tree and give us 'Agent of Social Change' Busty Beatz holding forth from the summit of a full-on hive of activism. The Hot Brown Honey hive dominates the stage, a compact structure packed with blindingly bright lights. [...]
Contact, Manchester. 14 December 2017. One minute you're an ordinary audience member getting ready to see a show the next you're being enlisted as a secret toy soldier to save the Spirit of Christmas. It's all a bit of a merry mix-up. Secret agent Nut Cracker has mistaken us for her undercover colleagues but conveniently [...]
Royal Exchange, Manchester. 6 & 8 December 2017. Director Michael Buffong shuffles Frank Loesser’s musical along Broadway and uptown to 135th Street. His all-black cast brings Damon Runyon's tales of gamblers, salvationists, chancers and dreamers right in to the beating heart of the Harlem Renaissance. The stage is all hustle and bustle, drugstore doorways, sharp [...]
53two, Manchester. 5 December 2017. On the other side of a brick wall, eight characters are waiting. All we know about them are a few lines on a piece of A4. Clues, glimpses, pointers. Angry and volatile. Jolly hockey sticks. Glory boy. Down on her luck. Searching for a little security. No pitch from the actors, just [...]
The Lowry, Salford. 17 November 2017. Until this month, my only recent experience of opera was a slight obsession with a recording of John Adams' 'Doctor Atomic' and seeing members of Opera North’s Chorus perform in a production of Sondheim's 'Into The Woods' at West Yorkshire Playhouse last year. Apparently the involvement of the Chorus [...]
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