Pantomime is always a huge amount of fun for any creative team to work on and this year’s festive offering from the team at Oldham Coliseum is a sparkling example of this. Mother Goose offers all of the traditional pantomime fun – with audience interaction at its core, all your favourite current chart hits and hilariously messy slapstick – there is much for little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy this Christmas at Oldham Coliseum.
POMONA – Manchester
UPSTAGED RATING: Alastair McDowall’s Pomona was first performed in the round at the Orange Tree Theatre in 2014 before transferring to the National Theatre in 2015. Now, it plays in the main stage at Manchester’s Royal Exchange which is a…
THE POSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE HOUSE – Touring
Being a huge fan of Sheffield based experimental theatre company Forced Entertainment – I was very keen to find out more about their first production for young people, The Possible Impossible House.
NOSFERATU – Touring
The Proper Job Theatre Company arrived at The Lowry Theatre in Salford with their spine-chilling Nosferatu just in time for All Hallows’ Eve. Their latest touring production, Nosferatu is written by acclaimed poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan and takes its inspiration from the 1922 German Expressionist film of the same name and the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
THE ORESTEIA – Manchester
It’s pretty apt that the newest theatre in Manchester brings one of the first great works of theatre to its stage. The Oresteia, a Greek tragedy, is a trilogy which first saw the light of day back in 458 BC when it was performed in Athens at the Festival of the god Dionysus. This festival involved pitting poet against poet – a much grander version of the poetry slam competitions that we have today – needless to say Aeschylus’ The Oresteia was triumphant, taking home first-place.
WE WANT YOU TO WATCH – Touring
What would the world be like if we could annihilate pornography? How different would our world be if we could ban online porn and just start again? It’s an interesting debate and the subject of Rash Dash Theatre Company’s current production, We Want You To Watch.
NEWS: Orange Tree revives Shaw and Holman, premieres The Rolling Stone
The new spring season for the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, south London, features plays by Robert Holman, Chris Urch, Brad Birch and Bernard Shaw, directed by Ellen McDougall, Alice Hamilton, Mel Hillyard and Artistic Director Paul Miller. Artistic Director Paul Miller announces the January to June 2016 season at the Orange Tree. It follows a year of award-winning theatre …
THE CHAIR – Royal Exchange, Manchester
There is the eerie flickering of candlelight and the faint sound of Edwardian music hall as we walk into Manchester’s Royal Exchange Studio and take our seats. Barber Owain Sawyers (Gary Lagden) is tending to his client – he’s comfortable with using a cut-throat razor as he spruces up his latest victim customer and it soon becomes apparent that Sawyers doesn’t shy away from a spot of dentistry either…
My Conference diary: A striking similarity to the Edinburgh Fringe
I wish I could have been in Manchester last week for the Conservative Party annual conference. Not because I’ve suddenly gone “true Blue” and definitely not because I wanted to spit at those who are. I joined the Labour Party the day after this year’s General Election and, despite (not because of) Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership […]
GOLEM – HOME, Manchester
I was thrilled to attend HOME in Manchester last night to watch the weird and wonderful production, GOLEM by theatre company 1927 Productions. Following rave reviews at the Young Vic and then the West End, I was eager to find out what the Northern audience would make of this unique piece of theatre which fuses animation, live performance, music and claymation.
THE CRUCIBLE – Royal Exchange, Manchester
Inspired by the Salem witch hunts of the seventeenth century, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible offered a commentary on McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee when it first premiered in 1953 on Broadway. Now, playing at Manchester’s Royal Exchange it is remarkable how much these themes still resonate loudly within our society today. Aside from modern-day witch hunts on social media for the latest shamed celebrity or the fear of terrorism and National Security, The Crucible also raises ideas surrounding the cuts to Legal Aid and those perceived as vulnerable, having to represent themselves in court.
Summertime Theatre – What’s on for Families in Manchester through August
Looking for things to do, plays to see and creative activities for the family over the summer? Look no further – I’ve compiled a comprehensive and diverse list of the best plays, music and arty stuff happening for children through…
HEALTH UNDER FIRE – Greater Manchester Fringe Festival
Health Under Fire is a fast-paced comedy. It could be described as Monty Python meets An Inspector Calls or somewhere in the realm of the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker spoof comedy films of the 1980s; think Airplane and The Naked Gun and you’re almost there.
The #MIF2015 is so last week…Everyone is talking about the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival
Greater Manchester Fringe Festival is taking place across 19 different venues in Greater Manchester throughout the month of July. There really is something for everyone – comedy, revivals, new writing, spoken word , dance and exhibitions. I managed to talk…
THE MERCURY COMPLEX – Greater Manchester Fringe Festival
When you were young and somebody asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, how did you answer? The Mercury Complex takes just that as a starting point – the basis of Lindsay Bennett’s one-woman show is that, when she was five years of age, she was so amazed by Queen’s performance at Live Aid on her 21” Hitachi television, she declared ‘When I grow up, I want to be Freddie Mercury’.
ALIENS LOVE UNDERPANTS – Touring & West End
This best-selling children’s book Aliens Love Underpants, written by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort, is pretty much staple bedtime reading in our house. Now the hilarious family favourite, presented by Big Wooden Horse and Nick Brooke Limited, has been adapted for the stage by Adam Bampton-Smith. Apparently, aliens love underpants of every size, shape and colour, but they can’t get their extraterrestrial fingers on any underpants in space so they have to obtain them by other means…
4 x 4 EPHEMERAL ARCHITECTURES – Touring
4 x 4 Ephemeral Architectures invites two beautiful, but integrally different, art forms to share a stage for the first time. Directed by internationally renowned juggler Sean Gandini and with choreography by Royal Ballet dancer Ludovic Ondiviela, Gandini Juggling return to The Lowry to collaborate with classical ballet dancers.
WONDER.LAND – Manchester & London
Wonder.land is a brand new musical, directed by Rufus Norris, that is being performed as part of the Manchester International Festival. Taking its inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Alice in Wonderland, the new musical tells the story of Aly, a young teen who battles with bullies at school and struggles to find happiness at home with her mother and baby brother ‘cabbage pants’ Charlie. Aly is unable to look to her father for support either, as although he loves her dearly, he is addicted to online gambling.
FLICKER & THE FLYING BOOKS – Theatre at the Manchester Children’s Book Festival
Although younger audiences are often the harshest critics, enjoyable and engaging children’s theatre does not need lavish sets, costumes or gimmicks. Flicker and the Flying Books, a new production presented by the Royal Exchange, with props made out of paper, had all of the young, curious theatre-goers joining in with the performers, following simple movements, laughing and clapping. All going to prove that interaction, music and familiarity are key when trying to put on a show for 3 – 8 year olds.
DREAMERS – Oldham Coliseum
Oldham Coliseum is proud to present the world premiere of Dreamers, a new musical set in the 1990’s written by Cathy Crabb and Lindsay Williams. The narrative is set around Oldham’s legendary nightclub Dreamers – the only indie club in town, famed for its music, the variety of the people who went there and the bouncer who kept everyone under control. If you were around Oldham in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s – you probably have a few stories to tell about Dreamers too and this production is certainly loaded with witty humour, warmth and nostalgia, giving the Oldham audience a cheerful trip down memory lane.