WICKED FLIES INTO THE LOWRY FROM 3 JUNE 2015 FOR FINAL DATE OF MULTI RECORD-BREAKING, TWO-YEAR UK AND IRELAND TOUR
Wicked, the West End and Broadway musical phenomenon that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz has won the This Morning Audience Award, the only Olivier Award which is voted for by the public. It was presented by the Olivier Awards 2015 at The Royal Opera House earlier this month.
The critically acclaimed, multi record-breaking UK & Ireland Tour will conclude its incredible two-year journey at The Lowry in Salford from 3 June 2015.
Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
With music by Academy Award® winner Stephen Schwartz, Wicked is based on the international best-selling novel, ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’ by Gregory Maguire.
John Catterall and David Crellin in Coalition Nightmare
Date: 16 april 2015
Upstaged Rating:
After 12 sell-out seasons, JB Shorts is back with its thirteenth edition. For those who aren’t familiar with JB Shorts – it is an evening of 6 brand new plays, each of 15 minutes duration, written by respected television writers. JB Shorts was first produced in 2009 and has built up a brilliant reputation and received widespread critical acclaim – this live entertainment bonanza continues to brighten up the dark cellar of Joshua Brooks pub in Manchester city centre with two editions each year.
First up is Talk Talk, a two hander written by Catherine Hayes and directed by LizStevenson. What first appears as an abstract conversation between Mathilda (SheilaJones) and Ellie (Jennifer Hulman) about currency and post codes actually transpires to be a very peculiar job interview.
Karaoke Cara, written by Trevor Suthers and directed by Barry Evans, is up next. When snotty Michael (Bill Bradshaw) tries to snoop on his widowed and aristocratic father’s new love interest he gets more than he bargains for. Encouraged by his super-posh friend Jeremy (Aaron Cobham), the story takes a humorous twist when his fathers new girlfriend Cara (Denise Hope), shop worker and karaoke singer, manages to get the upper hand on the pompous pair. Bradshaw and Cobham’s exaggerated upper class accents, which did slip at times, masked some of the promising humour in the script.
Number three is Chris Thompson’s Safe in Our Hands. Directed by Alyx Tole, it is a left wing Dickensian expression about the state of the NHS. When Bunyan (Ralph Casson) complains about pains in his chest, three ghosts visit him – the first his dead mother Bev (Joyce Branagh) who gives him a dressing down with a fine performance; secondly, upper-class Bullingham (Jack Dearsley) appears as a representative of capitalism trying to flog elements of the NHS to Bunyan; finally, he’s joined by the ghost of Branston (Ethan Holmes) who tries to convince him to purchase private health care while dressed as a Virgin air hostess. It’s all very entertaining and relevant to the general election next month.
Illusion written by Diane Whitley and directed by Alice Bartlett, was the highlight of the night for me. Through the interval the cast roam the crowd performing card tricks which paved the way for the Victoria magic show which followed. A renowned magician, Mafeking (James Lewis) has disappeared during one of his shows and his comrade Archie (Haydn Holden) organises a spooky séance to try to find out what has happened to him. All of the cast put in strong performances namely, Vanessa Hehir, Emma Laidlaw, Alex Phelps and Joe Slack and the staging for the magic tricks is well executed and managed.
Number five was A Muslim, a Jew and a Christian Walk into a Room written by NickAhad and directed by Max Shuell which depicts an Orwellian state where religious expression has been outlawed. The three characters David (Garry Hayden), Qadir (Kamal Kaan) and James (Murray Taylor) meet in secret to pray. However, a clever turn in the plot reveals that one of the characters is not how he appears.
Coalition Nightmare was the final short of the night, written by Dave Simpson and directed by James Quinn, it depicts the nightmarish prospect of UKIP managing to swing the balance of power in a hung parliament. There are good performances all round, Jack (David Crellin), Ted (John Catterall) and Charlotte (Jenny May Morgan) stealing the show with a well observed and well timed representation of a newsreader.
JB Shorts never disappoints, however, this time it seemed to be overloaded with political material due to the general election next month. And with the election propaganda being forced down our throats at the moment, I would have welcomed more escapism, like Diane Whitley‘s Illusion, with open arms.
-Kristy Stott
JB Shorts 13 is on at Joshua Brooks until Saturday 25th April. Tickets cost £7.00.
Jonathan Harvey wrote Beautiful Thing when he was just 24 years old. The production first premiered in 1993 at the Bush Theatre and now this critically acclaimed award-winning play, directed by Nikolai Foster, returns to the stage at The Lowry.
Heated by the backdrop of a glorious summer, Beautiful Thing is an urban love story which captures how it feels to be a teenager, coming of age and the pangs of first love. Troubled teen Jamie (Sam Jackson) lives with his feisty mum, Sandra (Charlie Brooks) on a rundown council estate in South East London. When his neighbour and classmate Ste (Thomas Law) gets beaten so badly by his alcoholic father one night, Sandra suggests he stay with them and sleep ‘top-to-tail’ with Jamie.
Charlie Brooks’ comedy timing as the loud, brash, attention seeking Sandra is highly entertaining, particularly when all five characters are on stage together. VanessaBabirye is outstanding in the role of Leah, the Mama Cass obsessed neighbour – she steals the show completely when she takes LSD, dresses up in Mama Cass attire and believes that she is the dead singer. And Sandra’s ‘artist’ boyfriend Tony (GerardMcCarthy) also puts in a superb performance as the latest in transient string of lovers.
Both actors, Sam Jackson and Thomas Law play the bedroom scenes with the right amount of teeny awkwardness. Jamie appears quite brave about his sexuality whereas Ste comes across as more vulnerable – their scenes together are well played with the right balance of fuzzy warmth and sexual tension.
Ben Cracknell’s balmy lighting design complements Colin Richmond’s gritty, urban set design, which includes a rising platform which offers itself as a bed and an outside air vent which swiftly transforms into a bedside table.
Jonathan Harvey’s writing is still immensely brilliant and still relevant; Nikolai Foster’s direction manages to bring out every nuance in the script and I found myself noticing elements that I hadn’t fully appreciated in any of the previous interpretations that I have seen. This production felt like a celebration and a salute to how far rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people have come over the last 20 years, and a recognition that we still have a fair way to go. It all stands to prove that this love story between two working class boys is still as beautiful and as powerful as when it was first written over two decades ago.
Beautiful Thing is at The Lowry, Salford until Saturday 18th April. There will be a post show Q & A with the cast on Thursday 16th April – hosted by Manchester Pride and chaired by British Actor and Writer Arthur Bostrom (‘Allo, Allo!). This event is free to ticket holders.
Shappi Khorsandi bounds on to the stage, sparkling like the sequinned trainers she wears and informs us that she is going to do her own warm-up – she quickly adds, “Times are hard.”
The aptly entitled show ‘Because I’m Shappi’ is uplifting and refreshing – it is not often you see a stand-up show which is built on happiness, a reflection on the good things in life and a celebration of the characters who have contributed to her stand-up career. It is clear to see that Shappi is a comic who loves her life on and off stage and she is happy when she is performing.
I can relate to Shappi- a mother of 2 children herself – she is proud and fearlessly independent, she is also highly likeable, mischievous and charming. During her warm-up act for ‘Big Shappi’ she handles her diverse Mancunian crowd with a razor sharp wit. She chats with a bride-to-be about how much she loathes hen parties and chocolate cocks and then starts to play a giant game of snap with her audience. And when she looks on edge and tells us that she is confiding in us, things that she has never divulged before – we believe her.
The whole show feels quite free-flowing and relaxed, with tales about childhood friends and family, Twitter trolls and internet porn while pregnant. We feel as though we are a confidant listening to a friend – Shappi’s tone is warm, engaging and conversational. Although, occasionally the material does feel a little too free-flowing and in covering such wide ranging subject matter, there didn’t always seem to be a main strand to follow and sometimes fluidity lacked as she jumped from one topic to another.
On leaving Shappi Khorsandi’s show I feel hopeful – her humour is infectious and refreshingly truthful- she fizzes energy and she is a charming and compelling entertainer. It seems that everyone in the theatre, including Shappi, has enjoyed themselves and that’s the most important thing.
-Kristy Stott
Shappi Khorsandi continues her show ‘Because I’m Shappi’ at The Ropetackle Arts Centre on Friday 24th April and she continues to tour the UK through May and June 2015. For more dates please click here.
Tall Stories Theatre Company are well versed in adapting well-loved children’s stories for the stage. Using their trademark physical theatre style, catchy signature tunes and puppetry – they succeed in appealing to the adults in the audience just as much as they do the children.
And Tall Stories usually present the well-known childhood story with a frame story which serves to entertain the children as they enter the theatre. There is no waiting around for the action to start because as the audience file in to take their seats, the actors are all on stage improvising a camping trip to the woods. What is really clever is that the actors tap into older relatives experiences of a family camping trip too, particularly us parents who might find that we need to have “a ploughmans, a tiramisu and then…a shot!”
The camping trip setting leads through to a Blair Witch-esque sighting of something flying in the sky which leads neatly to the narrative that we have all been eagerly waiting for, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s, Room on the Broom.
Yvette Clutterbuck’s Witch is as scatty as is hinted at in Donaldson’s original story, a good likeable witch who struggles to cast a spell. Luckily, she has a super competent cat with plenty of ideas, a marvellous singing voice and an endless supply of sweets, played by Emma MacLennan.
As the witch and her cat fly along on their broom stick, they end up making friends with three other animals, who help her retrieve her belongings when they fall to the ground. The puppets, designed by Yvonne Stone, are well characterised by David Garrud, who plays the dog and the frog and Daniel Foxsmith as the green bird. The American country and western singing frog is a particular hit with the young audience, as is the dog, especially when the two puppets swap accents during an exchange. I’m not sure that this was intentional but it was a great source of humour for many in the audience.
Tall Stories Theatre Company, headed up by Artistic Directors Olivia Jacobs and TobyMitchell, never fail to delight with their interpretations of Julia Donaldson’s well-loved tales. Although admittedly, Room on the Broom wasn’t my favourite Tall Stories production, they have certainly succeeded in producing superb children’s theatre consistently and they absolutely had the young audience at The Lowry under their spell for the full 55 minutes.
-Kristy Stott
Room on the Broom is at The Lowry, Salford until Sunday 12th April 2015. It then continues the tour at The Lyceum Theatre in Crewe for 14th and 15th April. Room on the Broom continues to tour nationally until 29th August 2015. For further UK tour dates click here.
Always wanted to see Margaret Thatcher in a spandex leotard?
Then you should probably bag yourself a ticket to watchThe Lady’s Not For Walking Like An Egyptian, showing in The Studio at The Royal Exchange from 9th April until 11th April 2015. This new play presented by Mars. Tarrab mixes the words of Margaret Thatcher with the lyrics of every top ten hit by a female artist in the 80’s. Sounds interesting doesn’t it?
On 11th April 2015, there are 2 performances of When I feel Like Crap I Google KimKardashian Fat at Ziferblat, Edge Street in the NQ. These are ‘pay what you feel’ performances to raise funds to keep this project developing so you do not need to buy a ticket in advance. Just turn up in good time & come hear these women’s stories. The name alone intrigues…find out more at The Mighty Heart.
from 13 april 2015…
The critically acclaimed award-winning play by Beautiful Thing arrives at The Lowry from 13th April until 18th April 2015. Directed by Nikolai Foster and starring Charlie Brooks, this cult classic from writer Jonathan Harvey promises to be worth catching.
Also heading to The Lowry from 13th April until 18th April 2015, for its world premiere, is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Based on the best selling novel by John Boyne, this thought provoking and deeply moving production is recommended for ages 11 and upwards.
JB Shortsare back with their 13th edition. Running from 14th April through to 25th April 2015 at Joshua Brooks, Princess Street, Manchester.
JB Shorts is a really fun night with a fabulous reputation. Top TV writers and directors take over the cellar in Joshua Brooks to bring you 6 plays, each of 15 minutes duration. The night ends early so that you can get home for your supper or have a couple more drinks in the city…and it’s only £7.00.
Showing at Studio Salford, which is upstairs in The Kings Arms in Salford, is the eagerly anticipated Rise and Fall of Little Voice. Running from 15th April until 26th April 2015 and directed by James Baker, Assembled Junk Productions have been given 5 stars from me in the past, so the bar has been set high for Little Voice too… Musical theatre works so well in the intimate space at Studio Salford but I’d get your tickets quickly as a few of the dates have already sold out.
Hindle Wakes comes to Oldham Coliseum from 16th April until the 2nd May 2015.
Natasha Davidson as Fanny Hawthron & Barbara Drennan as Mrs Jeffcote
Written in 1910 by Stanley Houghton, Hindle Wakes is a charming, witty and powerful Lancastrian play. Considered a theatrical landmark, Hindle Wakes was one of the first plays to have a working-class female lead and explored sexual double-standards and female emancipation. Hindle Wakes is on its last week of the run at the Octagon and will be opening at the Coliseum on 16th April. The play itself has a really interesting history (professors at Oxford tried to ban it in case it was a bad influence on young women!).
FROM 20 APRIL 2015…
The Rolling Stone is showing at The Royal Exchange from 21st April until 1st May 2015. This Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner in 2013, plays in rep alongside Anna Karenina – using the same cast and creative team and depicting similar themes of lovers at odds with their society.
Showing in The Studio at The Lowry from 22nd April until 24th April 2015 is Shooting With Light. Lowry Associate Artists Idle Motion are masters of multimedia theatre and I will be so interested to see their latest show – which manages to weave a story about Gerda Taro, one of the first pioneering women to photograph the front line, with the phenomenon of photography, memories and the idea of framing our lives. This trailer from Idle Motion may shed more light…
Plastic Figurines by Box of Tricks is at The Met in Bury on the 22nd April 2015. And if you aren’t able to catch it at The Met, it is also coming to The Lowry on 6th and 7th May 2015.
“Mum told me that there was something in his brain that was different, she said that he liked to put his toys in lines and that was a symptom or whatever. I used to go in his room and see all his stuffed animals in a line and I’d mess them up. I’d mess the line up.”
Inspired by events in the writer, Ella Carmen Greenhill’s own life, Plastic Figurines is a funny and moving new play that explores autism and the relationship between siblings with very different views of the world.
The tour of The Woman in Black reaches The Lowry from 28th April until 2nd May and is guaranteed to send chills…
From 29th April until 1st May 2015, Waterside Arts in Sale present Writers For Sale. In 2013, 3 theatres (The Royal Exchange, The Everyman and Bolton Octagon) and 1 university came together to facilitate the first Masters degree in Playwriting and Writers For Sale is a showcase of their work. The evening consists of 7 short plays and it costs £8.00. Visit Waterside Arts to book.
Secret Diaries, presented by Art with Heart, pays homage to our teenage years, the awkward time when you realise that life isn’t going to be as straight forward as you originally thought that it would be. When a thirty something year old Hayley returns home and starts to look through her old belongings, it doesn’t take much more than the smell of an old school polo shirt and the familiar sound of her cassette player to transport her, and us, back to the 80’s.
As Hayley reminisces over her teenage experiences, laughs, loves and losses – she reads excerpts from her diary which are then animated and brought to life by the cast of three. Hayley is played well by Sarah Emmott, managing to portray the ups and downs of teenage angst vividly, as we follow her coming of age but also, more poignantly, her coming out as a gay woman.
Hayley is flanked by her best friend Deb (Catherine Pugh), a mouthy teen with a wet perm. The two friends work well together on stage, writer Sarah Evans has created two well layered characters, that we can laugh at and sympathise with all at once. Hayley’s father also seems to struggle to find his feet in an ever-changing world, played by Michael Forrest, we can empathise with his sentiment although his performance does feel awkward at times. Some of the scenes between Hayley and her father, particularly towards the end of the play did seem to lose some momentum.
Designer Lynsey Akehurst‘s stage design and soundtrack was a technical highlight and the star of the show for me. The flashbacks from the present to Hayley’s teenage years could have posed quite a challenge but Akehurst’s ingenious set design, 80’s soundtrack and speedy costume changes made light work of two decades. And Rachel Moorhouse‘s fluid direction ensured that the stage was swiftly changed to suggest a classroom, a teenage bedroom and a trusty old park bench with ease. Sound bites from a news reel signifying the Iron Curtain falling and snippets from the Band Aid II single all succeeded in suggesting the passage of time.
Secret Diaries is worth checking out for reminiscence purposes alone, packed full of guilty pleasures from the eighties and nineties, Sweater Shop jumpers and Smash Hits posters, that will make you smile and reminisce about your own experiences.
Written by Jackie Kay and in collaboration with The Royal Exchange YoungCompany, Brink examines the space between being a child and gaining responsibility and independence while crossing into adulthood. With a focus on those years from 14-21, Brink explores ideas, worries and those ‘brinking’ moments in a young persons life, when you’re on the edge, venturing into the unknown or having to make a crucial decision.
What is most remarkable about this production is that the young people are involved in every element of the production, not only on stage but behind the scenes too. With support from the wonderful Royal Exchange and working professionals, the young company are encouraged to take the reigns in marketing the production, producing programmes and stage managing. And it is through this amazing opportunity that this talented bunch have experienced the inner workings of a top notch theatre, like Manchester’s Royal Exchange, and the hard graft that is involved in honing an idea and achieving the standard of a professional production.
Brink is performed on a thrust stage which resembles a cosmic looking rubik’s cube. Frankie Bradshaw‘s design sees each young person enter through a door at the back of the stage, as they find themselves ‘on the brink’. Under the clever direction of Matthew Xia, the young people unpack their concerns and experiences surrounding sexuality, the concept of home, education and mental illness. Jackie Kay has moulded their experiences into a beautifully poetic and frank expression of their feelings which each member of the cast delivers with honesty and individuality. The production also tackles issues such as depression and abuse which Mercy (Natasha Hylton) displays with sensitivity and bravery.
The show is made up of spoken word, movement and song, with many of the cast being talented musicians and singers – Jason Patel and Abigayle Bartley, responsible for music composition, stand out as being ones to watch, as does Yandass Ndlovu, a skilled beatboxer with electric moves to match. And the bored and disinterested Harvey (Nea Edwards-Dixon) has a wonderfully rich voice which is complemented by the tuneful harmonies produced by the rest of the cast.
Brink is a wonderful, insightful and hopeful production by a group of talented, hardworking and creative young people.
The Young Company at the Royal Exchange gives young people aged between 14 and 21 the chance to train as Communicators, Design Technicians, Performers and Writers.
Working alongside theatre staff and arts professionals, the Young Company offers 100 young people 12 months of in-depth training to broaden their understanding and develop their skills in their chosen discipline.
To find out more please click here.
Brink runs from 26th – 29th March 2015 in the Royal Exchange Studio.
The Royal Exchange Theatre launches its new Spring – Summer 2015 Season with a contemporary adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, Anna Karenina. Writer Jo Clifford, certainly must have had a mammoth task on her hands in stripping back and making cuts to this classic, almost 900 page novel, so that the story and themes could be condensed into a two hour performance inhabiting the intimate space at The Royal Exchange.
Admittedly, I have not read Tolstoy’s novel from cover to cover but I am familiar with the main themes running through it. For this production Clifford puts a particular emphasis on love, infidelity and trust to capture the tour de force of Tolstoy’s original text, but, even with this element as a main focus, this adaptation did feel a little over packed.
Set to the backdrop of nineteenth century Russia and directed by Ellen McDougall, this adaptation of Tolstoy’s monster focuses around three couples and their experiences of love and marriage. Firstly, we encounter Dolly (Claire Brown) talking to Anna (Ony Uhiara) about her unfaithful husband, Oblonsky (Ryan Early) Ironically, Anna convinces Dolly to stay with her husband and work at her marriage. Anna meanwhile married to Karenin (Jonathan Keeble) gives up on being the dutiful wife when she is introduced to Vronsky (Robert Gilbert) and the two embark on a passionate affair culminating in her leaving her husband for her new exciting lover. Running alongside these two stories, is the story of Levin (John Cummins) and Katy (Gillian Saker), their relationship is a slow burner but ultimately, they marry completely for love – embracing the ups and downs of a true marriage.
“Love is just a better way to hurt each other”
The symbolism in Joanna Scotcher’s set is a stark but perfect delight. Train-lines cut right across the bare stage containing a channel of brown soil which runs between them. This design is aptly suggestive of the ground that the characters inhabit and the formation of the railways running relentlessly through them.
“If you cut someone from the soil, you damage him.”
Anna and Vronsky first lock eyes with each other at a fairytale-esque ball. They maintain eye contact through a sea of large, hooped pastel coloured skirts, in contrast Anna is wearing a plain black dress. Magnetically the lovers are drawn to each other, they begin to intertwine and move passionately but it all feels a little awkward. In trying to fit such a monster of a text in to such a short time frame it feels as though we are being raced through the characters lives, which results in us being feeling quite detached from them, their emotions and the predicaments that they have landed in.
“And trains that can crush us as if we are fleas.”
Maybe like the characters are affected by the train lines cutting across the stage, I hoped that this adaptation would reach an emotional peak and leave me feeling as though I’d been on a wild train ride, sadly, I didn’t feel as though this production had any particular destination in mind.
-Kristy Stott
Anna Karenina is running at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester until Saturday 2 May 2015.
Twelve Angry Men opened at The Lowry last night following its record breaking run at the Garrick Theatre in the West End. Presented by Bill Kenwright, this powerful new production sees ReginaldRose‘s gripping courtroom drama and three-time Academy Award nominated screenplay, including best picture, suited perfectly for the stage.
It’s late summer in 1954 and the scene is a New York City courthouse, a jury of twelve men has murder on their minds as they decide the fate of a young delinquent accused of killing his father. If found guilty the boy faces the death penalty. At first the trial appears to be an open and shut case, with a unanimous verdict of guilty, but there is one juror who believes the case isn’t as straightforward as it first appears to be.
Olivier Award Winner, Tony Award Winner, Variety Award Winner and Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Tom Conti plays Juror 8, an architect, who believes it could be possible that the boy did not kill his father. The verdict of the case becomes a huge dilemma as tensions, prejudices and discriminations, from each of the jurors, towards the accused are laid bare and thrashed out.
Under the direction of Christopher Haydon, the whole play works perfectly in the one setting of the jury room, there are no scene changes and the walls of the jurors room become claustrophobic as the tension builds throughout. The thunderstorms and stifling summer weather transfer well into the jury room. Michael Pavelka‘s set design sees the rain pouring down the windows to the sound of thunder- it’s all very reflective of the pressures and anger of the twelve jurors confined to the room.
None of the jurors are known by their names instead they are referred to as a number, although, there is some reference made to their occupations. It is hard to pick out any stand-out performance in this show as it is extremely well cast with many strong performances, Tom Conti‘s performance as juror 8 is outstanding.
The production did start half an hour later than planned on its opening night, because of technical problems, however this did not detract from the show in the slightest. Twelve Angry Men is an edge of your seat courtroom drama that was well worth the wait, managing to keep the audience captivated from start to finish.
-Kristy Stott
Twelve Angry Men is at The Lowry until Saturday 28 March 2016.
