The Arts
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Right, let’s get it over with. Oh no it isn’t and it’s behind you. I’m doing that for both my sake and yours, to remove any temptation to pepper the blog post with panto puns throughout, and so that we can get to the crux of the matter. Rumplestiltskin from The Big Tiny theatre company
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It’s been an emotional week. I don’t think I’m alone in having an unconditional love for animals, whereas my love or actual like for humans is (with exceptions) deeply conditional. Having had more trips to the vet that one would like this week (although an amazing vet – shout-out to MCR vets on The Quays),
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Where shall we start. I had a really lovely, enlightening, informative, heart-warming and entertaining afternoon last Friday in Stockport. Less a frequent flyer than I used to be, this was my first time at the impressive Stockroom, the shared community-focused space which offers up areas for reading, studying, meeting, coffee-drinking, eating, exhibitions and, that day,
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I was sat next to a very nice lady at last night’s performance. She turned to me during the interval to ask how I was enjoying it so far. Really enjoying it, I said. I’ve never seen an opera by composer Benjamin Britten before. She responded that he is her favourite operatic composer. I can
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It’s been a month of quiet contemplation. Not to go too deep on a Thursday and stray away from the task in hand, but seeing friends deal with losses and feeling their pain both personally and empathetically, leads to existential thoughts. There are both positives and negatives to this, the former being strength and resilience
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Right I’m going to hang myself out to dry here. But it’s for the greater good. I don’t know why, I don’t know how. But I missed IDEAL the first time around…. Johnny Vegas stars as Moz, Manchester’s longest serving weed dealer, in a dope opera of epic proportions. Starring some of the hit BBC
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It was really really really really really really good! That’s 6 reallys from a 5 year old. And in a world with much competing for little ones’ attention, that’s no mean feat. Get ready to sing, dance, and celebrate with your favourite CBeebies stars – the ultimate CBeebies House Party Live! is coming to Lowry, Salford… and you’re
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Diana, Princess of Wales, punctuates my memories on occasion. Sporadically, but meaningfully. Occasion 1 – one of my earliest memories is of a humble plastic flag. A Union Jack plastic little flag on a plastic white stick, provided to me in 1981 to fervently and obediently wave inside my childhood home. 2 and a few
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Love me a short film. So I was happy to receive an invite to the premiere screening of new short, held at Salford University at MediaCity. Know what else I love? Connect 4. The 14-minute comedy-drama, set in the traditional social clubs of the North West of England, joins young Connect 4 star “Frank” as
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I think if we were asked to write a list of our triggers, well apart from the very act being very triggering, I bet we wouldn’t automatically be able to put a comprehensive list together. The thing with triggers, is that we don’t always know what our personal ones are. Until they pop up and
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There was a point where I was attending film preview screenings on the regular. On one occasion, Sony brought out the big guns and took our phones off us until after the screening had finished, lest we use them for nefarious reasons. Last night wasn’t quite that extreme, but we were asked to put our
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Imagine me starting a blog post on a dark note. Well now you don’t have to. But when I lost my Dad, I had what was I’m sure a very common reaction to the life event and, indeed, my perspective on what we’re all doing here. What it’s all about and all that jazz. Part
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We three. Macbeth is synonymous with that opening scene with the ‘we three’. They swoop in, landing us into the story with a bang as they double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble… They drop a bombshell, but then they largely step aside as the main players take it from there. Not
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There’s something exceptionally special about stepping into the artist’s studio. In 2023, the exhibition, ‘From Moss Side to Marseille: The Art of Michael Brown and Eric Cantona’ launched at the National Football Museum. Whilst paying a visit, I was enthralled to discover that artist Michael Browne was in residence throughout, creating a new piece as
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Or Aviva Studios. But Factory International above all else. So I’m going to go in on this straight off, as I tried it out, once. Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The gig is that there’s an incredible synchronicity in theme, tone, tempo and narrative if player out simultaneously. Completed
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At first I was afraid, I was petrified. Kept thinking I could never love an adapted stage version of one of my favourite films, by one of my favourite film makers, starring one of my favourite Hollywood leading men. And after spending 125 minutes (plus 20 minute interval) watching how Wise Children productions took this
honorary manc 