Theatre
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Rigoletto exists on the margins of a world owned by the privileged few – and is despised by them for his difference. Twisted inside by the life he has been forced to lead, the only thing he lives for is his daughter, Gilda, of whom he is obsessively protective. When a combination of bitterness and…
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“I walk home. The skyline is changed.The skeleton is fast becoming a huge metal creature.They have built a behemoth here.” Bhopal. India. 1984. Born under a blue sky in a city of lakes, a girl grows up with her father and sister. The three of them together, always.But as she grows, the land begins to…
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Martin Shaw stars as Sir Thomas More – scholar, ambassador, Lord Chancellor and friend to King Henry VIII. Above all, he is a man of integrity, loved by the common people and his own family. When Henry demands a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, clearing the way for him to marry Anne Boleyn, the staunchly…
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‘You see how full of changes his age is’Shakespeare’s most elemental tragedy charts a kingdom where power corrupts, families become enemies and prosperity devolves into war. At its centre is the mind of a man who can no longer understand what it means to be human.Lear is a searing portrait of a king unable to…
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When FBI trainee Clarice Starling is sent to interview the psychiatrist and infamous murderer Hannibal Lecter, it’s hoped his brilliant mind will help catch sadistic new serial killer, Buffalo Bill. Another girl is missing, and time is running out. But Dr Lecter has questions of his own, and now Clarice must decide: keep a safe…
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A secret marriage. The brink of war. Fact and fiction Fear, passion and paranoia bubble beneath the surface of Othello and Desdemona’s newlywed life. Lago’s manipulations begin in whispers – and end in ruin. As a consumer, theatre-goer, audience-member, I’ve rather a lot of Shakespeare in the bank at this point. Some traditional in word and…
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Josie is seeing her mother Fay for the first time in a while – she’s never walked into a prison before and she’s been putting it off for fifteen years. Uncovering the memories they share is going to be more perilous than either of them can imagine. Real-life mother and daughter Christine Mackie (Dr Gaddas…
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I went to a catholic high school. In our last year, I was involved in some sort of mass confessional event in our school assembly hall. It was a cross between speed dating/ drive thru purging. What a lovely way to mark the end of one period of education as you prepare to head into…
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The tagline to this production is Greece the musical (but not that one). Phew, I thought. For I’m the miser, the killjoy, the steadfast, who has never seen Grease and never shall. “You’ve never seen Grease?!”, they say “No.” “What about Grease 2?”. “That would be a mental,” I respond. The opening strains of the…
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Last weekend I had the privilege of being invited to what was the 10th, well, birthday celebrations for Kantos chamber choir. Except in one of those weird turnabouts that I’ve never quite understood where in offices those whose birthday it is brings cake in for those whose birthday it is not, we guests were the…
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Memories light the corners of my mind…misty water-coloured memmmmorieeeessss, of the way we were… Once upon a time (2019), a young blogger, merely 19 years into her tenure as an honorary Manc, saw Nathaniel J Hall’s work as a writer/performer in the autobiographical First Time at Waterside Arts, Sale. Hugely impressed, I had to make…
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Fringe theatre – taking you straight into the heart of the action. In this case, I felt truly immersed as an audience member as I joined four characters with hours to go before the world ended, as they hung out in an underground car park, in the railway arches. The great theatre space that is…
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honorary manc Rounding up some happening highlights from Manchester and Salford over the next month unTaPped 2026 at Lowry This contemporary theatre festival at Lowry is crafted by the Arden School of Theatre and Performance’s Third Years, and is a platform for the next generation of up-and-coming theatre-makers, allowing them to push boundaries of performance,…
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Trigger warnings. They give a flavour of what’s to come. For some that is indeed ‘a mere flavour’, for some a true warning to brace and self-care, for some a strong indicator that this production just isn’t for them. In all honesty, I scanned over the warnings, thought ‘blimey, buckle up’, and instead chose to…
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*(full title – The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here)) Walking into the lovely Hope Mill theatre space after enjoying the lovely Hope Mill theatre bar space, I was met with an open coffin (empty at this stage, I should fiercely stress)…
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It all got a bit meta on Wednesday night. Checking out the flyer at the venue for the theatre show I was about to watch, there was me, telling me (and others) that I want you to see it for yourself and feel the sucker punch I did. Was I caught up in another time…
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honorary manc Rounding up some happening highlights from Manchester this month Soul Safari – Macharia at Contact theatre Coming to Contact this Friday 17 April, artist Macharia blends her own music with Kenya coastal and Kikuyu folk traditions. The show, performed in Swahili, Kikuyu and English, combines music, storytelling and audience interaction, exploring themes of…
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I think this is my third time seeing this brilliantly delicious Noel Coward play. First in this very theatre, the Royal Exchange, in 2011 BHM (before honorary manc) with Simon Robson and Imogen Stubbs). The second was in 2022 with Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge (blog here). And my hat-trick was realised back at the…
