Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Children are the toughest critics of all theatre – fidgeting, asking ‘can we go now?’ – they’ll certainly not mince their words when they tell you that they’ve had enough. I was lucky enough to enjoy Cinderella at Oldham Coliseum with three lively and opinionated young ones. They followed the hilarious action, sang along with the catchy tunes and joined in with all of the obligatory pantomime booing, cheering and chanting. All three came out of the auditorium saying that it was the best pantomime that they had ever seen. Now, if that isn’t testament enough, please do read on.

Every year Oldham Coliseum deliver up a top-notch traditional pantomime with their tried and tested recipe of seasonal goodness. The size of Oldham Coliseum’s auditorium really lends itself to audience involvement – just the right size for every child (and adult) to be able to interact, which is a real bonus for younger theatre-goers. Energetic, funny and full of heart – every performer has a magical glint in their eye – Cinderella is Oldham Coliseum’s best panto yet.

Pantomime is always a huge amount of fun for any creative team and this enthusiasm and engagement really shines through, with all of the cast giving commendable performances. Springy Richard J Fletcher brings an animated and charming Buttons to the stage alongside the hugely likeable Shorelle Hepkin as Cinderella. And this year, Oldham Coliseum brings a dame double-act with Simeon Truby and Fine Time Fontayne playing the ugly sisters, Trumpy and Pumpy. Double the laughs and lots of fun with sound effects.

Sue Devaney steals the show as Cinderella’s evil stepmother, Countessa Squeezepocket – her fabulous performance is worth the ticket price alone. Some of the best and most entertaining moments felt completely spontaneous, pleasingly wacky and off-script – and this is where the live stage at Oldham truly shines. On the opening night, there was a slight problem with sound at the start but all was soon rectified and no enjoyment was spared.

Simply put – Oldham Coliseum’s Cinderella is everything that a pantomime should be. With an abundance of laugh out loud moments, Dave Bintley’s lively musical score of sing-along chart-toppers, a sterling cast of seasoned performers and a pleasing price-tag – Cinderella at Oldham Coliseum is the best traditional panto in the North.

-Kristy Stott

Cinderella runs at Oldham Coliseum until 12 January 2019.

Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Death of a Salesman is widely considered one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century. It’s a classic and well-studied text, and it was always going to withstand the test of time. In this production at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, Sarah Frankcom steps up to direct Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, and the result is scorchingly brilliant production which shoots straight into the heart of a modern-day audience.

Don Warrington, last seen as King Lear at the Royal Exchange, takes the role of Willie Loman, a man at the close of his life. In a self-deluded and bitter bubble, we see Willie in the last two days of his life – his belief in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, contrasted with the tortured actuality of his situation.

It’s a production of beautiful binaries and dreamlike contrasts: the round rusting stage hints at decaying industry, and the foliage hangs, just out of reach, like a canopy over the stage indicating the potential for hope, newness and growth. Warrington’s Loman is like a fast river current – his visage often impassive, but his body tense, on edge. Twitchy fingers. Stuttering, strained speech. Everything feels uneasy and fragile, and perfectly so.

Maureen Beattie as Loman’s wife Linda, nurturing and compassionate – though guarded with nerves of steel. Loman’s sons are perfectly cast with Buom Tihngang as Happy, and Ashley Zhangazha as Biff.  Happy trudges along in his father’s wake – eager to please, suited and booted – blinkered to the mundane pattern of life. And Zhangazha, as Biff, fresh from his well-deserved UK Theatre Award, gives a phenomenal performance. Gripping. Heart-wrenching. The cast are visible onstage, even when they do not feature in the dialogue centre-stage. Sat on the edges of the circular stage, mirroring the audience, watching Willie’s devastating downfall.

Frankcom takes on all of the complexities of the play, the psychological blurs and switches in Loman’s mindset, with a stunning and fluid directorial hand. Death of a Salesman resonates more than ever and certainly this was evident from the audience’s reaction on the night I attended. Uncomfortable though hauntingly timely.

-Kristy Stott

Death of a Salesman runs at Manchester’s Royal Exchange until Saturday 17th November 2018.

Guest Reviewer: Daniel Shipman

Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

With Everything that happened and would happen, MIF stage another trailblazer event designed to give us a taste of what we can expect from The Factory. Created by Heiner Goebbels, this work is ambitious, experimental and impressively large-scale. Ostensibly based around the history of 20th century Europe, the piece has very little recourse to concrete meaning, preferring instead a poetic approach to history.

Goebbels’ background in contemporary music is evident here. The sounds range from harsh and abrasive to hypnotically beautiful. There is perhaps too much of the former and not enough of the latter for my taste, but maybe that’s just me. Either way, all are totally suited to the huge, atmospheric surroundings of Mayfield Depot and make full use of this wonderful space and its unique acoustics.

Visually, the performance never quite lives up to its full potential. However, the audience are treated to flashes of brilliance with tunnels of smoke and light, chaotic layers of huge draped cloths, and an especially beautiful final section on the roof of the venue with huge folds of cotton flowing in the autumnal breeze. The pitch darkness and size of the venue allow for some fascinating interplay between shadow and light, but very little colour is brought in over two and a half hours, so I soon found my eyes getting bored.

The fact that the conclusion of the performance takes place on the roof of the Mayfield Depot surrounded by Manchester’s night skyline serves as a pertinent reminder that the Europe we have seen repeatedly built and destroyed throughout the course of the evening is not an abstract concept, it is the foundation of the world we live in. As the cast disperse into the crowd and the realisation dawns that the piece is over, the audience slowly slides back into the real world again.

Perhaps it is no surprise that a show titled Everything that happened and would happen sets expectations too high for itself. Reading the programme, it is obvious that a huge amount of intelligent work has gone in to this performance, it just seems to have strayed a little too far from its source material to still affect and entertain those not involved in the creative process.

-Daniel Shipman

Everything that happened and would happen runs at Mayfield until 21st October 2018.

 

 

Guest Reviewer: Elise Gallagher

Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” Penelope Skinner’s new play Meek is a narrative surrounded by notions of control, freedom, and faith.

Shvorne Marks plays the protagonist Irene, who by day works as a munitions worker, but at night dreams of being a singer/songwriter. The play opens with Irene alone and arrested for a song she wrote and performed in a local coffee shop, which is reported as offensive to the dystopian regime ruling the country, and Irene is put on trial for a capital crime.

We see fragments of Irene’s progress in captivity through snapshots of visits from her best friend Anna (played by Scarlett Brookes) and her legal aid Gudrun (Amanda Wright), who examines her story in order to present it at her trial.

Song Number One is the name of the song which has landed Irene in purgatory. She says the song was written about her love for a married man who ended their affair, not against the holy spirit which the anonymous reporter claimed.

However, with little surrounding context on offer and with the narrative magnifying this small social group’s history it’s quite easy to identify the subject of Irene’s song, and by extension her accuser.

The set design is minimal but effective, the characters encompassed within grey blocks with the only centre point being a bright neon crucifix. You can argue that Skinner has taken inspiration from works like The Crucible and The Handmaid’s Tale, but Meek lacks the vision to explore the situation further, instead trying to push the idea that this kind of regime could happen anywhere. The vague nature of the surroundings dilutes the impact the play could have.

But the performances given by the three actors far outweigh the cons discussed above. They perfectly illustrate the situation they find themselves in, a combination of hopeful and hysterical – the performers carried the play exceptionally.

The biggest disappointment of the performance – and this was out of the production’s hands – was the disrespect that came from surrounding audience members, which were mainly made up of large groups of teenagers – a school trip I imagine. Talking, laughing, and rustling sweet packets. Not only is it disrespectful to your fellow audience members who’ve paid to attend, but it’s wholly disrespectful to the cast and crew who have put so much effort into delivering a performance.

-Elise Gallagher

Meek is at Salford’s Lowry Theatre until the 22nd September.

Guest Reviewer: Ciaran Ward

Upstaged Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

To no detrimental effect, OthelloMacbeth condenses two of Shakespeare’s most renowned tragedies into an intimate, two-hour performance, that explores the role gender politics have in the drama, and in contemporary society. Rather than producing two disparate plays, HOME and Lyric Hammersmith deliver a single intertextual drama that emphasises the thematic unity of envy, power and injustice, and their influence across both plots.

Whilst accurate to Shakespeare’s original play, director Jude Christian’s condensation of Othello highlights how Iago’s (played by Samuel Collings) plan to bring about the downfall of Othello (Ery Nzaramba), is dependent upon the manipulation of Desdemona (Kirsten Foster), Emelia (Melissa Johns) and Bianca (Kezrena James) as unwitting pawns. This sense of patriarchal authority and injustice thus seeps into other aspects of the production. From Basia Binkowska’s metallic set design, which resounds the sounds of Desdemona’s domestic abuse at the hands of Othello, to the positioning of Joshua Pharo’s lighting, which constructs the domineering shadow of Iago over his wife Emilia, the audience are continually reminded of the omnipotent presence of patriarchy, and its devastating effects on the female characters.

In the second half of the performance, Christian juxtaposes the distinct gender binaries of the previous half, as the manipulated characters of Desdemona, Emelia and Bianca metamorphose into the manipulative witches of Macbeth. The revolutionary interpretation of these iconic characters as wronged women suggests an attempt to symbolise the rebirth of their former characters’ gender identities, and their defiance against patriarchal authority. Here, they are omnipotent beings, visually present in every scene, who are responsible for the tragedy that unfolds throughout the plot, regularly walking to the front of the stage to wash blood off their hands, unnoticed by the other characters.

Caroline Faber’s performance as Lady Macbeth, likewise, contributes an extra dimension to this already complex female character. Though Macbeth (Sandy Grierson) is traditionally labelled the tragic hero of the play, Faber’s iteration of the character poses as an equally tragic heroine. As she clutches onto a baby blanket during her later moments of grievous remorse, her actions suggest regret over her ignorance of maternity and her transgression into a character motivated by a thirst for power.

By exposing the dire consequences that arise from the misuse of power in relation to two of Shakespeare’s plays, HOME and Lyric Hammersmith have produced an innovative piece of theatre that deserves the utmost acclaim and remembrance for its sheer creativity and ambition.

-Ciaran Ward

OthelloMacbeth runs at HOME until 29th September 2018.

Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Queen Margaret features heavily in four of Shakespeare’s history plays – the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III, yet she’s a character that we never really fully understand. In this new version, playwright Jeanie O’Hare cleverly weaves Shakespeare’s original language with her own to tell the story of the formidable Margaret of Anjou.

Littered with straight-talking wit and 21st-century flair, O’Hare’s text is nothing short of superb. Blending Shakespeare’s poetic verse with O’Hare’s own words must have been quite a challenge, yet nothing feels jarred or disjointed.

Following the solid reign of King Henry V, his son proves to be a reluctant leader; weak and faltering, Henry VI struggles to keep his court in order. There is mounting unease between his lords and murmurs from the Yorkists who believe that they have an entitlement to the throne following the usurpation of Richard II, by Henry’s grandfather. Leaving behind her home country of France, Margaret marries Henry and soon proves to be the more able and resolute leader. Dubbed the She-Wolf of France, Margaret is frequently reminded of her French roots and the bitterness surrounding the Battle of Agincourt by the ghost of Joan of Arc, played beautifully by Lucy Mangan.

Jade Anouka is a tour de force as Queen Margaret – utterly compelling – from her first appearance as the young Queen through to the fiery and powerful matriarch and warrior. Commanding the stage – if looks could kill – she’s got that spot on. Alternatively, Max Runham’s Henry gives a pleasing contrast – jittery, child-like and worried to death, literally. The cast of eleven give outstanding performances – Helena Lymbery as Hume deserves a special mention – carrying the narrative throughout, she announces each scene and provides humorous interjections, connecting the audience to the action.

Queen Margaret is an extraordinary production which combines the insight and depth of a Shakespearian history play with contemporary humour and ingenuity. Jeanie O’Hare’s writing is a complete success and the remarkable cast bring out every word, beat, nuance and look.

-Kristy Stott

Queen Margaret runs at Manchester’s Royal Exchange until 6 October 2018.

Reviewer: Megan Hyland

Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The Return of the Soldier is a melancholy musical adaptation of Rebecca West’s novel and tells the story of wounded soldier Christopher Baldry’s return home. Christopher is suffering from amnesia and in his confusion has reached out to former lover Margaret – much to his wife’s dismay. Drudging up unresolved feelings and creating distance in both their marriages, Margaret and Christopher explore their second chance at a lost love, but how long can their dream last?

Chris Jenkins stars as Christopher, delivering an emotionally charged performance. He is every bit the WW1 Captain, perfectly embodying his stoic character. Tessa Kadler stars alongside him as Kitty Baldry, his quick-tempered and dejected wife. She delivers a beautiful and moving solo, No Mans Land, which shows a more vulnerable side to her high-strung character. Jenny Baldry, Christopher’s cousin and childhood best friend is played by Esme Sears, who brings warmth and a touching gentleness to the role. However, her character’s direction within the plot is quite disappointing, as it feels as though Sears has a great deal more to offer than the role of Jenny allows.

Naomi Slights is Margaret Grey, delivering a series of truly stunning monologues and solos. Her smooth, soulful voice transports the audience into her character’s past relationship with Baldry, creating charming visuals that stretch beyond the simplistic set. However, the show is well and truly stolen by Marc Pickering, who plays both William Grey and Dr Anderson. Pickering brings a distinctive vitality to his characters, breathing life into a comparatively static storyline. His touching solo as Mr Grey, The Little Things I Need gained the first round of applause for his magnificent comedic timing and sincerity. He is a naturally funny and likeable performer, with his second solo, Headmaster, displaying an expert execution of choreography and humour. As Mr Grey, he generates the most sympathy, and as Dr Anderson, the most laughs.

Charles Miller’s music lends itself beautifully to the story, however it feels at times that some of the songs are too similar, each boasting the same melancholy melody. Despite this, Tim Sanders’ lyrics and Miller’s music couple wonderfully, creating a host of elegantly carried and touching songs. The stunning set, designed by Leah Sams, perfectly represents the divergent lives of Margaret and Christopher, while still containing subtle details that draw similarities between them – such as the Greys’ wallpaper featuring the same flowers present on the walls of the Baldrys’ garden.

Despite the brilliant efforts of the cast and production, it felt as though the story was almost too simplistic for the length of the play itself. While it opened with a promising beginning and closed with a touching ending, the story had a rather slow progression in between. Just when it seemed that it was building to a climax, it returned to its same slow steadiness, at times feeling as though the audience was simply bouncing between the two households.

Of course, not all musicals have to be bright and bold, it can certainly be just as effective to be subtle and sombre. It merely felt that a change of tone was perhaps needed at times, as it fell into a steady rhythm quite early on. However, The Return of the Soldier tells a touching story about the emotional turmoil that soldiers face, and the culture of repression that is still present in Britain today. Together, the cast has a striking chemistry and are faultless throughout, their singing voices creating some truly breath-taking harmonies. There is a rousing atmosphere created by Daniel Jarvis and Inés Mota, who play live, and overall The Return of the Soldier is a truly moving and meaningful performance.

-Megan Hyland

The Return of the Soldier runs at Hope Mill Theatre until 29th September 2018.

Reviewer: Daniel Shipman

Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Laying its cards on the table from the very start, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery is just that – a comedy about a bank robbery. Taking the well-worn but equally well-loved form of a farce, the play makes for an entertaining evening but isn’t without flaws.

The performances are wonderful. The cast of twelve conjure a small army of comic creations which keep your interest far after the jokes begin to lose their charm through sheer repetition. It is such an ensemble piece that I could name any cast member really, but Jon Trenchard as the loveable yet tragic Warren struck the ideal balance of comedy and pathos.

The play is far from the best example of a farce I’ve seen. Some jokes are stretched out far too long (one example of bedroom-based physical comedy had me repeatedly checking my watch) whilst others simply aren’t funny – tired camp stereotypes rear their head a little too often.

The reliance on exaggerated slapstick recalled classic comedy such as the Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin. If these references seem dated, that’s because they are – if you’re treading in the footsteps of greats like these, you need to either execute it perfectly or bring something new to the table, and I’m not sure this show quite achieves either.

The Comedy About a Bank Robbery doesn’t try to be anything more than an evening of escapist fun at the theatre. It sets itself the modest goal of staging a decent farce and meets this, but it doesn’t break any boundaries or split any sides in the process.

-Daniel Shipman

The Comedy About A Bank Robbery runs at The Lowry until Saturday 15th September 2018.

Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Running in the intimate setting of the Paines Plough Roundabout in Ordsall Park, Island Town is a brand new play written by Simon Longman. In the town where Kate, Pete and Sam live there is very little to do and very little hope for the future. Sam’s dad is a drinker and Kate is her dad’s carer; Pete dreams of becoming a dad only he’ll need to meet a girl first.

The intimate in-the-round setting of the Roundabout is the perfect performance space for this austere and bleak narrative. With a running time of just 80 minutes, the story follows Kate, Pete and Sam’s lives from the age of 15, as they get their GCSE results, through to their 18th year and then further on into their future. Making the most of the bare, circular stage and lack of props – there is an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. Absorbing snapshots of the characters lives play out before they halt and jolt; using their physicality to switch time and space they move into another vignette, more hopeless than the last.

Despite the sense of hopelessness for the future of the characters, Longman manages to weave sharp elements of humour into the text. There are some real laugh-out-loud moments, usually involving Pete’s dalliances – his encounter with a goldfish and Sam’s nan. Charlotte O’Leary gives a versatile performance as Sam – starting out as wide-eyed and sparkly, the dead-end town takes its toll; Jack Wilkinson as spirited, likeable but hopeless Pete contrasted well with Katherine Pearce’s angry, bruised cider-swigging Kate.

Island Town is a brutal through compelling minimalist three-hander with outstanding performances throughout.

-Kristy Stott

Island Town runs at Paines Plough Roundabout in Ordsall Park until Sunday 9th September 2018.