Category: Reviews

German born independent dance artist Esther Huss, who has been based in Northumberland since 2019, brings her new work Stairwall to non-theatre settings during October and November and I caught up with this eccentric and charming piece at the timber merchants Percy A Hudson in North Shields. As I approached, the timber workers were busy… Continue reading Stairwall – the things we find

It is Paddy’s personal journey that lies at the centre of Paddy goes to Petra and not his cross-country travels to reach this somewhat off-beat, archaeological tourist destination in Jordan, a country surrounded by Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Israel and the West Bank. For middle-aged farmer Paddy and his wife, touring has become something they do… Continue reading Paddy goes to Petra

Leos JanačekRoyal Opera House, Covent GardenReleased 26 August 2022 There is an oppressive feeling from the opening of this haunting, claustrophobic production that reminded me of the dramatization of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Instead of the watermill in the stage directions and suggested by the rippling music, director Claus Guth sets the opening in a… Continue reading Jenůfa

Music by Julian Philips, Aran O’Grady, Ábel Esbenshade, Blasio Kavuma and Lucy Armstrong, writer and librettist Phil PorterGrange Park OperaReleased 14 November 2022 Gods of the Game: a Football Opera could be the perfect introduction to opera for anybody who thinks that the art form is pompous or stuffy. This brand-new 100-minute work, recorded before a… Continue reading Gods of the Game: a Football Opera

What a glorious triple bill (curated by Carlos Acosta)—I nearly write tipple, and I wouldn’t be far wrong, didn’t someone say that Beethoven must have written his Seventh Symphony in a drunken state? Hotel is very trippy. And Forgotten Land, for me, it is the best tipple of the evening—music and dance in perfect mix.… Continue reading Into the Music: Forgotten Land / Hotel / Seventh Symphony

It’s easy to overlook, hearing a celebrity tenor perform “Questa o quella” in concert with devil-may-care abandon, just what a nasty piece of work the duke really is, and what a degenerate court he rules over. No mistake here, though. Verdi’s censors originally complained of the piece’s “repellent immorality.” The composer’s point was to contrast… Continue reading Rigoletto

What a glorious triple bill (curated by Carlos Acosta)—I nearly write tipple, and I wouldn’t be far wrong, didn’t someone say that Beethoven must have written his Seventh Symphony in a drunken state? Hotel is very trippy. And Forgotten Land, for me, it is the best tipple of the evening—music and dance in perfect mix.… Continue reading Into the Music: Forgotten Land / Hotel / Seventh Symphony

In an effort to make the plays of Shakespeare relevant to contemporary audiences, directors regularly stage them in radically different places and times than originally intended. Generally, this process is not applied to other classic playwrights like Ibsen or Chekhov possibly because their works are so closely related to specific time periods or events. Although… Continue reading The Cherry Orchard

Bollywood—in the West, the word conjures up a big budget spectacle of dance and colour that usually tells the story of a hero and a heroine, star-crossed lovers with a fairytale ending. In India, the actors are the icons of the people and the films escapist blockbusters that are an intrinsic part of their lives.… Continue reading Bombay Superstar

Much Ado is a popular play this year with productions by the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the RSC (which also got televised) and elsewhere. This lively production was the eighth to be reviewed by BTG this year when it opened in Sheffield. One version was trimmed down to 90 minutes with only six actors, another… Continue reading Much Ado About Nothing