Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
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 Road at Oldham Coliseum. Road, Jim Cartwright’s scabrous slice of 1980s Lancashire life still has the power to knock you sideways. It comes on strong with promises of a riotous night out, all good times and laughs. Only to repeatedly dissolve into the dark dead ends of Thatcher’s Britain – no jobs, no [...]
Review of We Should Definitely Have More Dancing at Oldham Coliseum. Actor Clara Darcy’s real-life experience with brain cancer forms the basis of We Should Definitely Have More Dancing. Darcy co-wrote the play with Ian Kershaw, and she takes to the stage to play herself. She’s joined by fellow performers Shamia Chalabi and Suzanna Hamilton [...]
Review of The Jungle Book at Oldham Coliseum. Although the stories may be well-known, the setting for Jessica Swale’s adaptation of The Jungle Book is refreshingly unexpected. Instead of dense undergrowth, a graffiti-swathed urban playground provides a world of ramps, ropes and climbing frames for Rudyard Kipling’s characters to jump, slide and swing their way [...]
Oldham Coliseum. It’s 1954 and, as the audience arrives for the opening night of Macbeth, the Coliseum staff are slightly on edge. The last time the ‘Scottish play’ was staged in the building one of the cast suffered a fatal accident. Fingers are crossed that all will go well tonight. The good news is that [...]
Oldham Coliseum. When a video of seventeen-year-old Jack having sex with his girlfriend appears online, his parents struggle to cope with the implications. His exams are looming, and the bright future they'd mapped out for him seems in peril. As Di and David try to protect their son from the fallout, and make sense of [...]
This year I saw over 240 pieces of theatre. From those, I've chosen my 10 favourite Manchester shows of 2019. As in previous years, I've focused on productions that either premiered in Greater Manchester or could only be seen here. So I've not included any shows that were passing through on tour or that were [...]
Oldham Coliseum. 16 November 2019. A booming giant-voiced announcement signals the start of the show, "Fee Fi Fo Fum, put your phone away and sit on your bum". Mobile ringtones wouldn't have been a worry for the cast of Oldham Coliseum's first pantomime way back in 1887. Times have changed but over 130 years later [...]
24 September 2019. 53two at Oldham Coliseum. Sixty-three-year old Shirley Parkin has lived at 10 Brook Street in Salford all her life. She now finds herself surrounded by streets of empty properties awaiting redevelopment. With metal shutters over the doors and windows, they're all 'tinned up'. In an attempt to deter any scavenging scallies, next [...]
31 May 2019. The Ambassador, Bradford. That Andrea Dunbar's life and work continue to fascinate is unsurprising. Even today, theatres aren't exactly awash with the words of working-class women writers, and the lives and places that Dunbar chronicled remain a rare sight on stage. In Adelle Stripe's excellent fictionalized account of her life, Dunbar refers [...]
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