When The Rain Stops Falling: inherited tragedies

A York premiere and launch production for new theatre company Rigmarole, Andrew Bovell’s award-winning 2008 play When the Rain Stops Falling addresses the most important issue of our times: “Are we prepared to pass on the damage from the past to our children?” Continue reading

The Woman in Black: the wonder of mischievous light and shadow

Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt and directed by Robin Herford, Susan Hill’s 1983 ghost story The Woman in Black creeps the boards at York Theatre Royal, in a production first seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Hill’s home town of Scarborough. Continue reading

Reasons To Stay Alive: theatre review

”Life is waiting for you. Hang on in there if you can. Life is always worth it.” English Touring Theatre and Sheffield Theatres present Reasons To Stay Alive, the first adaptation of best-selling author Matt Haig’s memoir on depression, imagined for the stage by Jonathan Watkins with text written by April De Angelis. Continue reading

Amanda Palmer ‘There Will Be No Intermission’: live music review

“I’m so happy I don’t have to do my show tonight,” breathes Amanda Palmer, the artist who makes no airs or graces about doing “exactly what the fuck you want”. Unflinching in her raw honesty, Palmer opens the evening’s entertainment with an acoustic ukulele serenade from the stage-left box, climbing out like Peter Pan and ambling, grinning, across the stage, taking in the room. She is here to live in the moment, because “the moment is real”. Continue reading

Blood Brothers: musical review

Bill Kenwright’s long-loved production of Blood Brothers returns to the Grand Opera House York with Lyn Paul in the iconic role of Mrs Johnstone for the final time, joined by Joel Benedict as Eddie, Danielle Corlass as Linda, Danny Taylor as Sammy and Chloe Taylor as Mrs Lyons. Alexander Patmore returns as Mickey alongside Robbie Scotcher as the narrator. Continue reading

It’s True, It’s True, It’s True: “I will say this forever”

Originally commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, Breach Theatre’s multi-award-winning It’s True, It’s True, It’s True is a devised play created with the cast using verbatim court transcripts from the 1612 trial of Agostino Tassi for the rape of baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi; the seven-month trial that gripped Renaissance Rome. Continue reading

Under Three Moons: models for male friendship

“I bet when they get older they’re going to look back on tonight and say, that was a night that was, by that fire, that was a night.” Spanning half a lifetime, Daniel Kanaber’s new play Under Three Moons takes place on three nights across three decades of two friends’ lives. Through the lense of a friendship through multiple comings of age, this succinct fringe script explores how men relate to each other today. From a school trip to France as teenagers, to a surf shack in their twenties, to Christmas in their thirties, Mike and Paul meet up and talk into the night. From boyhood to manhood to fatherhood, these are the nights they share. Continue reading

Monster Makers: “give ’em something that they won’t expect”

Stephen Dolginoff (Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story) serves up a jolly, camp romp in his new triple-feature musical Monster Makers, which celebrates the colourful talents behind the most (in)famous classic horror films. Continue reading

Phoenix Dance Theatre: The Rite of Spring & Left Unseen

“The Rite just has to be shocking. If it doesn’t shake you to the core, if it doesn’t make you feel that the guts of the earth are opening up, or at least that the Royal Albert Hall is being immolated in orchestral violence, then the performers just ain’t doing it right.” – Tom Service, BBC Proms 2013 Continue reading

Mad Alice: “I was a witch that day”

Inspired by local landmark Mad Alice Lane and dedicated to her brother, Victoria Delaney’s new original play Mad Alice investigates the local legend we all think we know, but cannot accurately place in history. Opening in the ‘Mucky Duck’ (White Swan Inn) in 1825, an ominous electronic soundscape threaded with rumours and whispers plays as the cast creep on stage one by one, immediately establishing palpable dynamics between them with the slightest of glances. Continue reading