Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester. 15 & 21 November 2017. Manchester's musical mill is warming up another revival for a surely inevitable transfer to London. This time they're hosting the European premiere of 'Little Women - The Musical'. The musical version of Louisa May Alcott’s novel, premiered on Broadway back in 2005, views the lives of [...]
HOME, Manchester. 9 November 2017. Before Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' even gets going, characters are already mourning the loss of their youth, looks and opportunities. All gone, gone, gone. Walter Meierjohann's finely judged production creates a household awash with feelings of regret and dissatisfaction, its inhabitants searching desperately for signs of hope. A sense of place is [...]
Royal Exchange, Manchester. 7 November 2017. Punks, queers, anarchists and firestarters. Derek Jarman's 1978 film 'Jubilee' is reimagined 40 years on by director Chris Goode for both the stage and a new generation. This Millennial 'Jubilee' clings pretty tightly to the messy narrative of the original. At her request, Queen Elizabeth (1.0) is taken on [...]
Royal Exchange. Manchester. 10 November 2017. "Hello from the children of planet Earth". Well, in this case, those that live on Preston Road... Ian Kershaw's new play, premiered at the Royal Exchange, is a very human piece of storytelling. Peopled with a neighbourhood's worth of characters all brought to life by a solo performer. It's [...]
The Lowry, Salford. 27 October 2017. In ‘Superposition’ Chanje Kunda embarks on a voyage of self-discovery through scientific theory, lap dancing and personal reflection. Pondering her place in the universe, the laws of attraction and even her identity as a woman Kunda seeks insights from a particle physicist, a professor of philosophy and her son. [...]
Contact, Manchester. 24 October 2017. Once upon a time... cabaret artist Le Gateau Chocolat was inspired to make a show for "families, children and the young at heart". Its name was 'Duckie'. It's the story of a little duckling who can't seem to be the duck his parents want him to be. He can't even [...]
Royal Exchange, Manchester. 20 October 2017. Kat is a young woman, who has decided she must sacrifice herself for a greater cause. She never specifies what she is protesting about or the change she is seeking to achieve. Nor do we see how she reaches that threshold. When we meet her she is ready to [...]
The Lowry, Salford. 18 October 2017. Under glass, in the dark, spotlit, on display and moving. Clod Ensemble exhibit seven performers within glass jars and display cases. On their previous visit to The Lowry, the company took us on a journey around the vast spaces of the main theatre with 'An Anatomie in Four Quarters' [...]
53two, Manchester. 17 October 2017. Anna Jordan's 'Stay Happy, Keep Smiling' is a collection of shattered fragments - six lives upended following a terrorist atrocity. It opens with everyone on stage, almost frozen to the spot. Scraps of stories, jumbled feelings, they make little sense. Witnesses to something deeply shocking, they are still processing what [...]
13 October 2017. Waterside Theatre. Manchester. A Sleepwalk Collective production with the participation of Theatre and Performance. It's autumn outside in Manchester but in an unnamed provincial town in Russia it is spring. Olga and Irina remember their father's funeral a year before and yearn for the Moscow of their memories. As the two sisters' [...]
Circles & Stalls 