A lively show that mixes live drumming with theatre, judo, dance and wrestling. At the centre, is Jenni (Jennifer) Jackson telling us, repeatedly, she was a Junior Judo Champion (which in real life, she was) and a reason she fights with such passion and determination. Jennifer Jackson is also a performer, director and writer and… Continue reading WRESTLELADSWRESTLE
Author: Editor
Glorious
Hope Mill’s latest production is a play rather than a musical, but one with a musical theme. Peter Quilter’s 20-year-old play centres on the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the American socialite from the early twentieth century who was proclaimed as one of the worst opera singers in history but who sold out Carnegie… Continue reading Glorious
Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light
Allison Davies’s play, Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light, is a warm, compassionate and playful love story based on her own experience of autism. It was first seen in Newcastle in 2023, and Birmingham is the last stop on this 2025 tour. We first meet Elsa (Hannah Genesius) aged fourteen, full of hormones and hopelessly in… Continue reading Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light
Mother Russia
I love shows that open with a lie. Especially a lie about politics, as in the case of Lauren Yee’s world première, which finally opened after several world-changing events. First, this was scheduled to open at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2022. Sadly (for all of us), COVID-19 hit and hit hard, closing not only Mother… Continue reading Mother Russia
The Little Prince
Director and choreographer Anne Tournié and libretto adapter and co-director Chris Mouron’s colourful version of The Little Prince novella (my French edition is under a hundred pages), that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry pared down and down to essentials, is not modest. Remember that famous quote about seeing with your heart and not your eyes… that the Fox (very… Continue reading The Little Prince
Clueless, The Musical
It is sobering when younger generations begin to experience nostalgic moments, but 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Clueless, the film loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma (published 1815) that made stars of Alicia Silverstone and Paul Ruud and turned yellow plaid into a fashion statement. Amy Heckerling, writer of film and book, has now done the same… Continue reading Clueless, The Musical
Tell Me You’ll Think About It
There’s no denying there’s the guilty pleasure of schadenfreude in watching two twenty-somethings argue with each other for the best part of an hour. From the outset, director Sarah Majland has the two characters move around each other like unevenly matched opponents in a ring with David consigned once again to play audience and punchbag… Continue reading Tell Me You’ll Think About It
Weather Girl
Stacey is the perfect fit for her role as the weather girl at the American television station in Fresno California which wants to relax its viewers rather than worry them with unnecessary updates on the weather gloom. Stacey looks and sounds the part with her broad, warm smile, long blonde hair and tight-fitting pink skirt… Continue reading Weather Girl
Illegal rave play dances into Malvern
Six actors are needed for the première of a play which has taken 20 years to write: Rachel Tobin’s The Last Free Rave. Tobin is also directing the play about the Castlemorton Rave. What started out in 1992 as a small, free festival for travellers not only went down in history as the biggest illegal rave… Continue reading Illegal rave play dances into Malvern
The Valley of Queens
Curl Girl Productions is a West Midlands-based theatre company, led by artistic director Kiren Jogi, which focusses on South East Asian culture. The Valley of Queens is a piece of verbatim theatre performed by a cast of five women. It was created out of a project funded by Creative Black Country in which women aged fifty and… Continue reading The Valley of Queens