My first encounter with Cornwall’s James Wilton Dance and it is easy to see what all the fuss is about. Innovative and mesmerising. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is recomposed by Max Richter with extensions by Michal Wojtas leaving only whispers of the original as Wilton’s choreography redefines the seasons as stages of the universe’s genesis and… Continue reading The Four Seasons
Month: November 2022
Life’s a Drag
Fun and feisty, Life’s a Drag reveals the parallel lives of an awkward young Queer. Maxine struggles to resolve the tension between family pressures and her identity, something that itself remains unreconciled. Her outlet is Drag Diva, a say-it-how-it-is alter-ego who can be, and can do, all the things that 18-year-old Max cannot. In its… Continue reading Life’s a Drag
Revved
Revved, Patrick Quinn’s debut play at the Lyric Belfast, depicts a dark rite of passage set against the background of the annual Donegal International Rally in which surging emotions compete with supercharged cars. Set in a petrol station stockroom in Letterkenny, home to the “three-day bender” that takes over roads and lives in the town… Continue reading Revved
Roma
Anthony Lo-Giudice is a well-established choreographer in the NE and beyond; his intimate duet L’uomo is frequently performed abroad and was last performed in Gothenburg this autumn. Now he brings dance theatre work Roma to North East audiences and I caught up with the performance at Durham Cathedral. Roma is re-visioned from an earlier version… Continue reading Roma
One Off
Prison drama has a long history. If we take two TV extremes, there’s the three highly successful 1970s series of Porridge, written by Clements & Le Frenais and starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale. This was quality stuff, if soft-centered. Roy Minton’s 1991 TV depiction of borstal life Scum, which as far as I can recall didn’t go… Continue reading One Off
Pickle
The tone of Pickle is set from the off; as the audience make their way to their seats, they’re invited to dance and enjoy sweets, the more confident leaping into action, the more reserved looking on with gentle amusement. This upbeat and welcoming atmosphere creates an inclusive and relaxed environment for a one-woman play that… Continue reading Pickle
La Traviata
The current visit by Opera North to The Lowry includes some radical productions and one undeniable classic. A wicked woman with a heart of gold is a standard feature of melodrama but has seldom been better used than in Verdi’s La Traviata. Knowing she is on borrowed time, Violetta Valéry (Máire Flavin), suffering from tuberculous,… Continue reading La Traviata
The Cher Show
“The only thing that will be left after a nuclear holocaust is cockroaches and Cher.” This is not a word-perfect quotation—and the identity of the quipper has been lost—but the sentiment it conveys is loud and clear: Cher is a survivor. She is also a musical chameleon, renowned for reinventing her image and music on… Continue reading The Cher Show
Spike
Trying to bottle the mercurial comedy genius of Spike Milligan into a stage play was never going to be easy. A whole post-war generation grew up honing their impressions of his radio Goon Show characters, such as Bluebottle and Eccles, or learning the lyrics to the “Ying Tong Song”. It is those same fans who… Continue reading Spike
Hold Tight
I go to see this simulation whilst in the real world more missiles rain down on Kyiv and casualties mount up… Nothing can match the surreal, demented logic of the parallel universe in which Putin awards ‘City of Military Glory’ to Melitopol and Mariupol—similar to ‘Hero City’ awarded to cities that held off the Nazis—retaliation… Continue reading Hold Tight