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

Malory Towers: Grade A Girl Power

Where to begin? The present: to a mixture of current and nineties pop songs, this year’s bad guys assemble outside the Head Teacher’s office in a British secondary school. Quickly, character traits and dynamics are established before a pair of girls fighting over a diary sends one into unconsciousness, starting off this adaptation of Malory Towers with an Oz-like dream framework. Continue reading

Hetty Feather: uniting generations through the wonder of theatre

With a stirling production crew behind them, York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre present Emma Reeves’ colourful adaptation of beloved children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s book, Hetty Feather. Continue reading

Swallows & Amazons: conquering heroes

Setting the course for a generous canon of children’s adventure stories, Arthur Ransome’s beloved 1930 tale is faithfully adapted by Helen Edmundson and co-directed by fresh swabbie John R. Wilkinson and seasoned seadog Damian Cruden, with a beautiful score by Neil Hannon and masterful musical direction from Kieran Buckeridge. Continue reading

Bad Girls The Musical: appropriately disturbing

Set in a British women’s prison, Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus’ now-thirteen-year-old musical adaptation of their own ITV series returns to York, this time storming the stage at John Cooper Studio on Monkgate, presented with jubilation by local amateur production company NE Musicals. Continue reading

Driving Miss Daisy: quiet power

With a cast of three, Suzann McLean’s Driving Miss Daisy is a short and sweet snapshot of a friendship spanning 25 years and a historical commentary spanning much further. Based on the 1989 film, 72-year-old Daisy Werthan (Paula Wilcox) is horrified when her son Boolie (Cory English) suggests she needs a chauffeur after she crashes her car, yet again. When Boolie finds African-American Hoke Colburn, (Maurey Richards) an instantly kind-hearted and funny character, the scene seems set for a warm family-friendly comedy about an unlikely friendship. Continue reading

A Midsummer Night’s Mischief: mischief managed

Warming the hearts of children and adults alike, Hoglets Theatre is back with a summer smash hit that brings all the magic of William Shakespeare to life for all the family. Just skimming the back end of the recent York International Shakespeare Festival 2019, this cheeky remix of A Midsummer Night’s Dream provides the perfect half-term entertainment. Continue reading

Heart of Darkness: interrogating the canon

imitating the dog present a deconstructed retelling of Joseph Conrad’s classic novel about colonial tensions in turn-of-the-century Europe and Africa; a Lynchian reach into our collective psyche that challenges what we are obliged to keep or discard when engaging with our cultural canon. A pertinent study for our time of rising nostalgia for imperialism. Continue reading