Month: February 2023

The ever-popular Scottish Ballet, based in Glasgow, made a dazzling return to Newcastle Theatre Royal last night with The Snow Queen, a family friendly extravaganza, which sold out in the 2019/20 tours. Scottish Ballet is an ambitious and feisty ballet company that punches above its weight and this scintillating production choreographed by Artistic Director Christopher Hampson… Continue reading The Snow Queen

The tense thriller The Ballerina performed in one of the small, bleak, atmospheric tunnels below Waterloo Station takes us to the world of international intrigue. The white British diplomat Celia (Dominque Isabella Little) is interrogated in a darkened cell possibly somewhere in an African country. She is not allowed to contact anyone and she hears… Continue reading The Ballerina

The year opens at Hope Mill with this recent musical based on the fifteenth-century romance Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney with a book by the writer of Avenue Q and songs from the back-catalogue of ’80s American all-female pop-rock band The Go-Go’s (described as ‘punk’ in the programme, but then American punk was very different… Continue reading Head Over Heels: The Go-Go’s Musical

It was the first play I ever saw in the theatre, probably my parents’ first too. Harold Macmillan had not long been Prime Minister, Educating Archie was the top TV programme at the time, “Volare” the record number 1 by Domenico Modugno. Whatever happened to him? Agatha Christie’s whodunnit unexpectedly proved to have a longer… Continue reading The Mousetrap

It is difficult to go wrong with an Agatha Christie, isn’t it? Add in the quality of Rachel Wagstaff, who is a dab hand at book adaptations (think Birdsong or Girl on a Train), and it is safe to say that one feels in capable hands with The Mirror Crack’d at The Cambridge Arts Theatre.… Continue reading The Mirror Crack’d

Experiencing The Ocean at the End of the Lane is reminiscent of a fairground ride: twists and turns, shocks, scares, and a mixture of joy and sadness as the ride gently slows to a halt. You leave your seat and want to do it all over again. Adapted by Joel Horwood from Neil Gaiman’s 2013… Continue reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane