Category: Reviews

There is something about Jenny Sealey which is mesmerising. Having spent a career fighting for the rights of differently able people to get onto a stage and turn round to face their audience, then be given the respect and attention their stories deserve, we get a very honest and upfront story which is all about… Continue reading Self-Raising

Variety has definitely been the byword for the 2023 Classic Thriller Season at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal. As usual, four plays have been performed in four weeks, with some of the actors in three plays while others appeared according to the demands of each production. Gone are the days when a middle-sized company would appear throughout… Continue reading Snake in the Grass

Warmly touching and physical, this autobiographical show from David Scotland is as much a story of working out how to love yourself as it is one of understanding your place in this world as an artist. A graduate of musical theatre and dance specialist from Bird College, his story unfolds against a carefully chosen musical… Continue reading I’ve Never Met Anyone Quite Like You Before

When it comes to English royalty, Henry VIII must surely be the personality most often depicted across various art forms. In addition to numerous portraits and biographies, he continues to dominate the literary stakes on both page and stage, having recently been a central figure in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy and, at one remove, Six. Not too long… Continue reading Henry VIII

There have been many important moments in the long struggle for abortion rights. Among the legal consequences of these struggles, perhaps the most famous is the American 1973 Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade. Yet few of us have any idea who the names in the case referred to. Kiera Bell has created, from… Continue reading Jane/Norma

One of Ayckbourne’s early plays—a West End success in 1970—How the Other Half Loves was innovative in its stagecraft and gained a reputation for being very funny, and Robin Herford’s production for The Mill is certainly entertaining, but things have moved on. It presents a set of three couples: Frank and Fiona Foster, he an… Continue reading How the Other Half Loves

Thrown follows a group of highly motivated women who come together to play in and perhaps win the Highland Games. Initially, they are a group well mixed, excited to be involved. But the flaws in each of the women and in their relationship become the crack that could cost them the competition. But outside is… Continue reading Thrown

Andy Rubens is one of the first school guards on duty when he hears a gunshot. It was just noise. He was not sure what he heard. He was trying to “ascertain”. America’s frighteningly familiar multiple shooting events are the basis for 17 Minutes. We need to know who the hero is and who is the… Continue reading 17 Minutes

It’s an indication of one of modern opera’s most spectacular success stories that the re-issue of this recording from its première 1981 season coincides with the production’s sixth revival, currently showing to sell-out audiences at Glyndebourne, with Peter Hall’s masterpiece of staging now in the hands of original choreographer Lynne Hockney. The visual quality of… Continue reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream