Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
Review of The Engagement Party at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham. It feels good to be heading to Oldham for a night out. The tram ride out from Victoria used to be a regular feature of my cultural life. Then the Coliseum closed, and I’ve not been back to the town centre on an evening since. [...]
Review of Blithe Spirit at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester. Novelist Charles Condomine has invited a local medium and clairvoyant to his home, hoping to gather material for his next book. As they prepare for the séance, he and his latest wife Ruth jadedly exchange jibes about their previous relationships. Although their new maid’s shortcomings are [...]
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 Spend Spend Spend at Royal Exchange, Manchester. After winning £152,000 on the football pools in 1961 (the equivalent of over £4,000,000 today), Viv Nicholson famously declared “I’m going to spend, spend, spend”. True to her word, she and her husband Keith indulged in a giddy blur of expensive cars, jewellery, furs and partying. [...]
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 Frank 4 Sophie 4 Eva at 53two, Manchester. Frank wants sex, Sophie doesn’t. Their marriage is on the rocks, and we’re introduced to them as they arrive for their first session with a relationship therapist. Even though they are both in their 40s, they squabble childishly, and any hope of finding a middle [...]
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 [...]
Review of Husk at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester. Intruders spotted in a garden, a knife glinting in the darkness, unanswered questions, and a gathering storm. Thriller-style hooks draw the audience into Rubert Hill’s knotty tale of a man released from prison, with unresolved business to settle in his hometown. Husk is Hill’s first stage play [...]
Review of 42 Balloons at The Lowry, Salford. On seeing an online video of Larry Walters flying in a lawn chair over Los Angeles held aloft by a load of balloons, Jack Godfrey didn’t just think OMG - his overriding thought was “THIS IS A MUSICAL!” Six years later, Godfrey has written that dream into [...]
Review of A Taste Of Honey at Royal Exchange, Manchester. “Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.” At times, director Emma Baggott’s sure-footed revival of A Taste of Honey feels as if it is summoning up the ghosts of Shelagh Delaney’s Salford. In its opening moments, Nishla Smith’s stylish jazz singer [...]
Circles & Stalls 