Jessica Munna’s play Pieces of Us is about modern America, and the failures of the structures which should protect people is clearly a call from the heart. It’s a verbatim piece, weaving a series of mini-tapestries which all thematically match, despite the disparate locations and people. Winding its way from such disparate points of view… Continue reading Pieces of Us
Month: September 2023
Fiery Romeo & Juliet for Manchester
Nicholai La Barrie’s production of Romeo and Juliet opens at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, October 20. The fiery retelling of Shakespeare’s love story runs to November 18 and encapsulates the hope and tragedy of love, the power to make change even when everything feels impossible. Inspired by young people and visits to schools across Greater Manchester, La Barrie’s… Continue reading Fiery Romeo & Juliet for Manchester
Lucy and Friends
Lucy McCormick has no friends. Or so she’d have you think. In a change to the style of her previous Fringe appearances, she is on her own, performing solo as it were. But why should that bring any change to her usual manic madcap queer clownish burlesque? If you haven’t ever seen McCormick’s work before,… Continue reading Lucy and Friends
Golden return for Ailey 2
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Ailey 2—the second company of the iconic Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater—returns to The Lowry, Salford October 13–14, its first visit since 2011. The company’s young dancers are among the most talented of their generation and the company is renowned for merging spirit and energy with the creative vision… Continue reading Golden return for Ailey 2
Next To Normal
Next to Normal won a Tony for best score in 2009 and a Pulitzer for Drama in 2010 and caused quite a stir when it opened on Broadway, partly because of its subject: mental illness—not an obvious subject for a musical. We have had to wait a long time for a London production, but director… Continue reading Next To Normal
Andalucia
Classical music meets flamenco. One may ask, how can classical music go with flamenco? Well, see this show and you will know that in the right hands, they can complement each other. The show premièred this year and is based on the music of the eight cities of Andalucia. Daniel Martinez, director of the company,… Continue reading Andalucia
The Madwoman
There are a thousand stories that can be told of the French Revolution, but one tale that is largely forgotten is that of Théroigne de Méricourt, an orator and person of some note in the National Assembly meetings during the thrust of the revolution. The Miles Sisters have brought her life to the stage by… Continue reading The Madwoman
Serial killer drama back in Liverpool
A serial killer drama is back in Liverpool, October 10–21, at the Royal Court Studio, after a sell-out run. Presented by Liverpool-based Old Fruit Jar Productions and written by David Byrne and Olivia Hurst, it concerns the case that nearly broke the British police. The Incident Room is at the centre of one of the biggest… Continue reading Serial killer drama back in Liverpool
Midnight Building
The topic of sexual assaults on American college campuses has been a dark but understandably necessary area for theatre for the last half decade or so. It’s an avenue that allows for extremely emotional and difficult explorations of trauma, cover-ups and criminality, yet it is also fruitful ground for nuanced explorations of human interactions, particularly… Continue reading Midnight Building
That Face
Polly Stenham’s debut play, a study of a dysfunctional family and of mental illness amazingly written when she was only 19, here gets its first major London revival since its 2007 première in a production by Josh Seymour that is relentless and vivid. Eleanor Bull’s design places the entire action around a hospital-like bed, its… Continue reading That Face