As it’s the first of the month, we’re taking a moment to remind ourselves of the most popular contributions from our 20+ syndicate Mates bloggers from the month just closed. What were the reviews and other blogs that got readers clicking most? Any surprises? Our Top 25 Mates Blogs from November 2017 are listed below with summaries and links to read more.
Watch out too for our Top 10 News Stories and our Top 15 Ticket Recommendations. FYI, all three are bundled together in our new, monthly Top 50 Bumper Email newsletter, which you can get direct into your inbox.
Sign up to receive our next Top 50 bumper email at the end of this month – it’s free!
Top 25 blogs
TIGER BAY – Cardiff ★★★★★
Anne Cox: The Wales Millennium Centre has come of age with its first major foray into story-telling on a truly epic scale – Tiger Bay The Musical.
TRESTLE – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
Carole Woddis: Up and down the land there are ordinary people living unexceptional lives. And now and then, a writer suddenly pops up who appears to capture them perfectly.
POISON – Orange Tree Theatre
Victoria Sadler: An anguishing set of circumstances have brought a separated couple back together – temporarily – after nine years without having set eyes upon each other.
QUIZ – Minerva Theatre, Chichester
Maryam Philpott: Sometimes even Londoners need to leave the capital in search of excellent theatre and there are few more compelling reasons to get on a train than a new play by James Graham.
Blame it on Bianca del Rio in Liverpool
Vicky Anderson: An extra earner on a night off from the larger Comedy Queens tour, Bianca del Rio stopped by Liverpool gay bar Heaven this week for a quick club appearance.
Post-show Q&A video: How has The Secondary Victim captured the blame-culture zeitgeist?
Terri Paddock: It was a packed house – including many therapy professionals – for Thursday’s performance of Matthew Campling’s new play at the Park Theatre.
THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA – Cervantes Theatre
Shanine Shalom: Federico Garcia Lorca’s play, The House of Bernarda Alba, offers an interesting insight into the world of upper-middle-class Spanish women.
FROM DOWN UNDER: The Last Five Years
Simon Parris: A new collective of committed artists breathes fresh life into independent musical theatre favourite The Last Five Years with an immersive, music-centric production.
MISS JULIE – Jermyn Street Theatre ❤❤❤❤
Emma Clarendon: Howard Brenton’s adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie is sharp and observant in which the tension is carefully built up.
THE RED LION – Trafalgar Studios
Johnny Fox: Two old muckers run a semi-professional club in the Northern League – John Bowler’s wonderfully poetic Yates, a deeply loyal ex-player with the stamp of Nobby Stiles, is the ‘kit man’ who…
BAD ROADS – Royal Court
Aleks Sierz: It is one of the strengths of Ukrainian playwright Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s savage war play, Bad Roads, translated by Sasha Dugdale and part of the Royal Court’s autumn international season..
INTERVIEW: Follies’ Sarah-Marie Maxwell
Helen McWilliams: ‘Follies has been an incredible experience so far. At 24 having the opportunity to work with such fantastic people and in The National Theatre of all places is so overwhelming.
EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE – West End
Ian Foster: Written by Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae, and based on a BBC documentary, Jamie casts off the archetypal coming out and gay bashing stories.
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS – West End ★★★★
Jonathan Baz: Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet’s concise study into the snake-pit of commission fueled property sales, is relevant today.
HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY & NEVER BE FOUND – Bristol ★★★★
Kris Hallett: Funny how some plays can disappear completely and take a while to be found.
CORIOLANUS – Barbican Theatre (RSC)
Matt Merritt: Angus Jackson bookends the RSC’s Rome season, his traditional dress Julius Caesar having opened it he now caps it off with Coriolanus.
BIG FOOT – Tara Arts ★★★★
Rosie Snell: Guyanese folk stories, grime and anime references; Joseph Barnes-Phillips’ Big Foot pulls on a multitude of references to build a diverse show that excites, moves and challenges.
DICK WHITTINGTON – Oldham ★★★★
Kristy Stott: The team at Oldham Coliseum always deliver a Christmas cracker with their traditional, raucous and cheeky pantomime fun and this year is no exception.
DOUBLE TROUBLE – Intermission Youth Theatre
Laura Kressly: It can be tough to get kids to engage with Shakespeare. Many of them see foreign-sounding language and old-fashioned stories…
TWELFTH NIGHT – Stratford-upon-Avon (RSC) ★★★★
Debbie GIlpin: Following in the footsteps of Emma Rice’s production of the same play in her final summer season at the Globe, director Christopher Luscombe
PHOENIX RISING – Smithfield Meat Market ★★★★
Michael Davis: Phoenix Rising isn’t your average play. Written by Andrew Day and directed by Maggie Norris, it takes place in an underground car park.
‘A lovely new toy for theatreland’: Thoughts on the Bridge Theatre & Young Marx
Emily Garside: A review of two halves, as I can’t be given a shiny new theatre to poke at without reviewing that too.
MACBETH – Bussey Building ★★★
Guest reviewer: Alessandra Cenni: Nothing screams ‘welcome to this production of Macbeth ‘ better than a lovely full-body skeleton.
WAIT UNTIL DARK – Touring
Libby Purves: To be honest I was slightly daunted by the PR point that Karina Jones is the first blind actress in recent years to play Susy.
‘A stunning debut’: Review of Sheridan Smith’s new solo album
Over the past decade, Sheridan Smith has established herself as one of the UK’s finest actresses. Now she has the music world in her sights as she releases her debut album.
MyTheatreMates publishes a selection of daily press releases sent to us by publicists of the relevant show or theatre. We are not responsible for any inaccuracies contained within these materials.
