A Complicite show is event theatre. Previous works such as A Disappearing Number, An Encounter and The Master and Margarita are locked in a pantheon of the great works of my lifetime. So, it’s no surprise to learn that I admired their latest work Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead immeasurably. What I didn’t do, was fall for it.
‘An exquisitely paced production’: REVEALED – Bristol ★★★★
Daniel J Carver’s Revealed at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory has been heralded as the most important work the space has ever presented. Perhaps the pitch pushes this conceit a little far, but what is presented is a cracking three-hander that explores what it means to be a black man in contemporary Britain.
‘The right show in the right place at the right time’: OZ – Bristol
Pins and Needles Productions, in league with Bristol’s Tobacco Factory Theatre makes a reliably bold move by taking something familiar and confounding expectations every step of the way.
‘A rip-roaringly entertaining first show back’: WINNERS – Bristol ★★★★
Taking aim at capitalism, The Wardrobe Ensemble’s Winners rushes through the history of man, big ideas and systems designed to make the ‘special ones’ rich at the expense of all others and the good of the world at large.
Why is theatre so London-centric… even online? 11 must-watch streams from beyond the M25
‘Theatre is everywhere. It is regional. It is rural. It is poor. Now it is in your front room, it can be from anywhere.’
‘Brings clarity to a towering American masterpiece’: WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF – Bristol ★★★★
David Mercatali’s production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf though long finds layer after layer in the lashings of marital discord.
‘Their richest show yet’: THE ODYSSEY – Touring ★★★★
In tackling Homer’s The Odyssey, Bristol favourites Living Spit, known for their anarchic, slapstick takes on history’s great and infamous figures, ascend to the next level of ambition.
‘A mighty fine piece of work’: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING – Bristol ★★★★
Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s Much Ado About Nothing hits a higher level of excellence again, producing a work that will appeals to both Bard newbies and connoisseurs.
‘Lays down its comedy with a thud’: CYRANO – Bristol ★★★
It’s only when the location moves to the battlefield and the production is allowed to breathe and the poetry to sing that this production of Cyrano finally begins to come into its own.
‘Awash with beautifully heightened language’: UNICORNS, ALMOST – Bristol ★★★
It may not be a piece that shakes you, but in bringing the words of Keith Douglas to its audience, Sheers has proved a willing literary executor.
‘It knows what its audience wants’: VET. DETECTIVE. – Bristol ★★★★
It may not be the company hitting their absolute heights, but it knows what its audience wants having been versed over the past few years and plays all the hits. Like your favourite festival and a week by the pool, I’d expect it to become a summer institution.
‘The kind of work that should open some doors’: BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES – Touring ★★★★
Theatre is tackling a constant diversity issue, a key component being how to attract an audience that rarely feels the theatre is open to them. Barber Shop Chronicles is the kind of work that should open some doors.
‘A bewitching, bewildering work from one of Britain’s foremost physical theatre companies’: INSTITUTE – Bristol Old Vic ★★★
Many of us will be all too aware of the 9-to-5 drudge that office life can encompass. Yet in Gecko’s Institute, the office becomes a place of both dream and nightmare.
‘The itch certainly isn’t scratched here’: INTRONAUTS – Bristol
Intronauts, the new co-production from Green Ginger and the Nordland Visual Theatre is a work badly in need of a writer.
‘Deserves to be seen far & wide’: RICHARD III – London & Touring ★★★★★
Truly great acting is rare to see on stages these days, the type that elevates good work into a higher form of art. Yet right now at Bristol Old Vic, Tom Mothersdale’s Tricky Dicky, Richard III, is music, verse and sculpture of the highest order.
‘Solidly entertaining’: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – Bristol ★★★
There is plenty to like in Tobacco Factory Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a brisk, crisp and fully accessible take on the play that should provide perfect introductions to a Shakespeare novice.
‘Promises to be real marmite’: TWELFTH NIGHT – Bristol ★★★
If nothing else Wils Wilson has produced a rollicking evening of entertainment in Twelfth Night at Bristol Old Vic, even if it is only a surface level take on this most beguiling of masterpieces.
‘A celebration of all those who classify themselves as female’: MAKE MORE NOISE – Bristol ★★★★
Marking 100 years since women were first granted the vote, it’s a celebration of the women who dared to be different, and a call to arms to finally eradicate gender inequality for good.
‘Shakespeare done right, freshly minted, funny, accessible’: ROMEO & JULIET – Eastville Park ★★★★
If Shakespeare promised his audience in the prologue of Romeo and Juliet two hours’ traffic of our stage’, Insane Root does one better and knocks out, probably the world’s most famous play, in 100 minutes.
‘Well worth a watch, but won’t leave any lasting feeling’: SOUTH WESTERN – Bristol ★★★
It has been a heady time for Bristol’s The Wardrobe Ensemble, their last two Edinburgh shows have won public acclaim and Fringe Firsts and the company is now taking up residency this August at the National Theatre with the rather charming family show The Star Seekers.