Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
Welcome to my Circles & Stalls look back at 2024. As in previous years, this is very much a best of Manchester theatre list. So, it doesn’t include any shows that were passing through on tour or that were revivals from elsewhere. It’s exclusively focused on productions that either premiered in Greater Manchester or could [...]
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 [...]
Welcome to my best of Manchester theatre list for 2023! As in previous years, I have focused on productions that either premiered in Greater Manchester or could only be seen here. Which means I’ve not included any shows that were passing through on tour or that were revivals from elsewhere. It may seem an odd [...]
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 [...]
After a break for the last two years, my ‘best of’ list is back! As in previous years, I’ve only focused on productions that either premiered in Greater Manchester or could only be seen here. Which means I’ve not included any shows that were passing through on tour or that were revivals from elsewhere. It [...]
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. [...]
Circles & Stalls 