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Criticism

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‘Brings clarity to a towering American masterpiece’: WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF – Bristol ★★★★

In Opinion, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett27th February 2020Leave a Comment

David Mercatali’s production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf though long finds layer after layer in the lashings of marital discord.

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‘It knows what its audience wants’: VET. DETECTIVE. – Bristol ★★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews by Kris Hallett13th August 2019Leave a Comment

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.

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‘A bewitching, bewildering work from one of Britain’s foremost physical theatre companies’: INSTITUTE – Bristol Old Vic ★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett31st March 2019Leave a Comment

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.

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‘Thoughtful, detailed, durable: That’s what fires up this critic

In Audio, Features, Opinion, Reviews by Edward Seckerson4th February 2019Leave a Comment

I have often been asked if I listen to music differently when reviewing or not reviewing. It’s an interesting question. There is, you could say, a heightened level of awareness when ‘in working mode’.

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NEWS: #LynsNextStep revealed… Lyn Gardner joins pioneering theatre app Stagedoor

In London theatre, Native, News, Plays, Press Releases, Sticky by Featured Content24th October 2018Leave a Comment

We’ve been counting down to the announcement of #LynsNextStep and, at an industry-only event tonight at The Vaults, MyTheatreMates’ co-founder Terri Paddock is delighted to be chairing a Q&A with Lyn Gardner about her new appointment – follow us on Twitter for live-tweeting from this – but in the meantime, we’re delighted to reveal the news here!

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The Mates are big fans of Lyn Gardner. Any ideas what #LynsNextStep might be?

In Features, London theatre, Native, News, Sticky by Terri Paddock12th October 2018Leave a Comment

Last week I received a mysterious invite. “Please join us on 24 October 2018 for drinks to celebrate the launch of a radical new platform for theatre criticism,” it read. That’s intriguing, but not nearly so exciting as the next bit: “…and to find out about Lyn Gardner’s next step.”

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‘A celebration of all those who classify themselves as female’: MAKE MORE NOISE – Bristol ★★★★

In Musicals, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett5th August 2018Leave a Comment

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.

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‘Director Michael Blakemore lets Puccini work his magic’: TOSCA – Touring ★★★★

In Opera, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett15th April 2018Leave a Comment

Michael Blakemore’s production of Tosca plays out with a straight bat, period appropriate, detailed sets and clear delineation of character. He lets Puccini work his magic, each act building in tension and wrapping up on cliff-hangers that make you long for the next act like your latest Netflix binge.

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‘A work that in an era of #MeToo has become ever more complex’: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW – Bristol ★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett23rd February 2018Leave a Comment

all in all, it’s a very solid take on a work that in an era of #MeToo has become ever more complex. Working with an accomplished director as Bill Alexander is obviously paying off.

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‘Soapy construct is elevated with physicality of breathtaking beauty’: THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE – Bristol ★★★

In Opinion, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews by Kris Hallett14th February 2018Leave a Comment

It’s rare for a new production to be demonstrably better than its source text but this one by Frantic Assembly’s Things I Know To Be True by Geordie Brookman and Scott Graham shows it can happen.

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‘An explosion is waiting to happen’: PUNK ROCK – Bristol ★★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews by Kris Hallett14th January 2018Leave a Comment

The sixth form common room in Simon Stephens pulsating Punk Rock is an incendiary point ready to spark. The seven sixth formers the play introduces us too are standing on an edge of a precipice, no longer children but still trapped in limbo where their exam results will decide how they enter adulthood.

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Kris Hallet’s Year In Review

In Broadway, Musicals, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett30th December 2017Leave a Comment

This was a year where the work touring into Bristol and the work I saw in Latitude, London, the cinema and New York dazzled.

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THE LITTLE MERMAID – BATH ★★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews by Kris Hallett14th December 2017Leave a Comment

Writer Bea Roberts has subtly altered the tale within the overall framework, and as a result, you watch it not knowing exactly where it is going to end up. A happy ending is likely guaranteed.

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SNOW GLOBE – Bristol Old Vic ★★★★

In Children's theatre, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett11th December 2017Leave a Comment

For Kid Carpet’s latest show for the younger generation at BOV is packed full of questions like this. Children’s theatre may be seen as the poor relation to the more grown up stuff by some of the more sniffy members of the fraternity, but they should try standing up and perform in front of a baying pack of children.

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LITTLE MATCH GIRL & OTHER HAPPIER TALES – Touring ★★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett11th December 2017Leave a Comment

As Black Friday and New Year bashes grow exponentially, child poverty in the UK is on the rise. The Little Match Girl may have her origins in the Victorian era and snow flecked tales of Hans Christian Andersen but that child can still be found today in most towns and cities across the country today.

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BEAUTY & THE BEAST – Bristol ★★★★

In Musicals, Regional theatre, Reviews by Kris Hallett9th December 2017Leave a Comment

If Christmas shows are measured by the smile it puts on our faces and the gales of laughter elicited from the younger ones, then this is a stone-iron smash.

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How to Disappear Completely & Never Be Found – Bristol ★★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews by Kris Hallett19th November 2017Leave a Comment

Funny how some plays can disappear completely and take a while to be found. When Fin Kennedy won the John Whiting award for this work, not one theatre had responded to its open submission.

THE TIN DRUM – Touring ★★★★

In Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett12th November 2017Leave a Comment

Never let it be said that Cornish theatre company Kneehigh lack in ambition. Gunter Grass’ The Tin Drum has accrued significant cultural acclaim since its publication in 1959, gaining its author the Nobel Prize in Literature and later being turned into a film.

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HOW TO WIN AGAINST HISTORY – Touring & London

In London theatre, Musicals, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett9th November 2017Leave a Comment

Only the British could have produced as flamboyant and controversial a character as Henry Cyril Paget, the Fifth Marquis of Anglesey who lost his family fortune to a blitz of frocks and jewels and a desire to make theatre for the people.

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EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION – Touring

In London theatre, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Kris Hallett7th November 2017Leave a Comment

If we were playing A Desert Island of theatre than Wardrobe Ensemble’s Education, Education, Education would be what I would ask for. It ticks all the boxes I most love.

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