Month: January 2025

Death, grief and Irish identity are sewn into the seams of Michael Keegen Dolan’s absorbing new work created for his company Teac Damsa, translated from Irish as the “house of dance”. Dolan’s starting point for an hour and a half (no interval) of creative outpourings derives from its title, Nobodaddy, based on a poem by William… Continue reading Nobodaddy (Tríd an bpoll gan bun)

Director Max Webster reverted to Oscar Wilde’s original four-act version, restoring some of the cuts made to produce the version that premièred in 1895. There are also a few modern interpolations and a radical approach that recognises the play’s queer undertones and perhaps makes it even more wildly Wildean. Designer Rae Smith frames it in… Continue reading The Importance of Being Earnest

2024 brings a wealth of celebrations to the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Resident producers Evolution Productions mark their 20th anniversary, whilst musical director Chris Wong reaches the milestone of 30 years at the venue, having played the Ghostbusters chorus for the legendary Marlowe Theatre Ghost Gag 16,200 times. This year, the Marlowe returns to a title not seen… Continue reading Beauty and the Beast

In regional theatres up and down the country, people who still know how to do panto put on a show at Christmas for an audience who may never step inside a theatre at any other time. In Coventry, that person is Iain Lauchlan, who has written, directed and played Dame in every Belgrade Theatre panto… Continue reading Dick Whittington

Rather like those classic ‘lonely at Christmas’ songs, there’s something comfortably familiar about a story of love and heartbreak set at Christmas, and The Crumple Zone has that recognisable feel with its course of true love never did run smooth romcom-esque flavours. As befits the budget of its unemployed actor tenants, the action takes place in an… Continue reading The Crumple Zone

Cassie has decided to hide out in her basement from the growing right-wing unrest in the American city where she lives in Christine Rose’s topical political thriller Sanctuary directed by Donna King. Not wanting to be alone during such tense times, she has invited her childhood friend Amelia to join her in the basement. Initially, they reminisce… Continue reading Sanctuary

It’s a sign of a successful panto when the performers are struggling to continue because they can’t stop laughing. There are two action-stopping moments in Nottingham Playhouse’s current offering that mean the show can’t go on—for a brief moment at any rate. In the first half of Jack and the Beanstalk, Dame Daisy Trott is supposed… Continue reading Jack and the Beanstalk

It is 21 years since the première of Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s production for the Royal Opera, since which time there have been many revivals and many outstanding singers in the role of Butterfly, Cio-Cio-San. So it is an interesting question why this version, starring Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, recorded in March 2024, is… Continue reading Madama Butterfly

As seasonal as Christmas pudding, turkey, stuffing and sprouts, Nutcrackers get family audiences out for their postprandial annual treat, tonight filling the five-thousand-plus-seater Royal Albert Hall. And they are loving it… I hear a lot of Russian voices in the audience, celebrating one of their own, though neither Tchaikovsky nor Petipa had an easy time of… Continue reading The Nutcracker