Theatre
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I write this swathed in aptness as I prepare for a return to Shakespeare country; Stratford-upon-Avon this weekend. The weekender was originally intended to be more Butlins, Black Grape and Boo Radleys, and altogether less Bard, but when flooding takes out your chalet, substituting a Shiiine indie festival for Shakespeare felt the obvious move. But
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Ohhh. I’m conflicted. Well I’m not, I know what I need to say, I’m just not comfortable saying it. This blog post isn’t going to go how I thought it might. We were going to get my oft-said unnecessary and tedious proclamation of how on the whole I don’t really enjoy musicals. But how I
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I mean it’s a staple. We studied it in school, I’ve seen it performed ‘traditionally’, in Heaton Park that involved a travelling M&S picnic and a good few thousand steps. My plus 1, both in theatre-going and life, even saw it in this very theatre, the Royal Exchange, in Manchester back in 1992, and featuring
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In a week where this was a snapshot of my search terms, it was time to get me off my phone and back out to the theatre. And this was a production I’d been particularly looking forward to. This is the story of how we met, fell in love, and f*cked it up. But it’s
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The production is the cause is the charity is the cause is the production. What do I mean (I’m partially asking myself that question as I do go off into my own sphere at times and my blogs tend to be an immediate download, without discrimination, of my internal meanderings). I guess I mean it’s
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Who doesn’t love a good old ghost story? And none more-so than one from writer, M.R. James, who some consider ‘the grandfather of British horror’. A factor that separates him from many of his predecessors is that when he started writing in this genre (his first collection published in 1904), he chose to set his
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I know that Simon Nye is known for more than More Behaving Badly, but I really hope he’ll forgive me for bringing it up in the first sentence of this blog post (Neil Morrissey? consider this your 5 minute warning…). A 90s teenager, Men Behaving Badly (cough, the BBC years) was indeed a jewel in
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It all became a bit massively meta on Thursday night. It didn’t stop at going to watch a play about a pub which took place in a pub. The play talked about the evolution of the pub, taking in the changing landscape and gentrification along the way. I sat in the pub on WhatsApp remarking
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Wasteman was. a. riot. And to think I nearly missed it? For some reason I’m terrible with Instagram direct messages. I seem to have a blind spot in even seeing them but thank goodness I finally found Joe Leather’s invitation to check out the show. This morning I signed upto Threads so let’s see how
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Thank goodness I’m getting older. The days, weeks and months fly. And so do the years. Most of the time this freaks me out and delivers me into my latest existential crisis. But sometimes it works to my advantage and it feels like no time at all since the last Manchester International Festival, whereas it
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It’s been a while since I visited Waterside Arts in Sale and my first time inside the Robert Bolt Theatre. What prompted my return trip down the Altrincham tram line? Why, Wednesday saw the opening night of Pride in Trafford, in its 5th year, with two shows, the first being Turtle Key Arts’ The Chosen
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I’ve said before, love me a bit of Theatre 2 at HOME Mcr. The smaller the stage, the greater the magic for me. Wednesday night offered another hey presto moment with Ad Infinitum’s If You Fall. Margaret is a pillar of her local community. Norson is a brilliant cook. He loves cricket and fishing. She
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I live oppositeish The Lowry Theatre and from my apartment I have been able to see the big red foreboding (not sure why foreboding – I guess it’s the redness of it all, the slightly off way the words are configured, the specific word bones itself?) billboard poster from my apartment for some weeks now.
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It’s taken me a few days to write this – mostly because I wanted to give it the due attention it deserves. So much was lovely and joyous and poignant and funny and sad and lovely again about this play, which I saw last Sunday night. And there was much to be moved by. For
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We are never one thing, we are human.This play is dedicated to the immigrant women who have been here for decades, who are pushed into the shadows…I see your grace. Yusra Warsama- writer and director Of All The Beautiful Things In The World takes the Lorca classic The House of Bernarda Alba as inspiration, exporting
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I have a few stock phrases I’m only too conscious that I find myself rolling out time and time again. You see, I’m a bit funny with texture (context:food)I don’t like how it tastes of wet (context:also food)I’m not really into fantasy(context books, film, tv, theatre…) Just me. But I’ve realised I was when I
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I’ve lived in or near most places in Greater Manchester during my 22 year career of being an honorary Manc. My 8 month tenure as a Whalley Range resident led me like a magnet to enjoying the bright lights of Chorlton. And for me, the brightest light of them all was the Chinese takeaway, ‘The
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It’s a good job the theatre recently became my new neighbour when I moved to Salford Quays in the summer, as I’ve rarely been away from the place recently. Back Wednesday night and I’ll be honest, I would kill for a 100 year nap right now. No sympathy here, my love. So the Christmas trees
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As Opera North say, La Traviata is perfect for opera newbies as well as diehard opera fans. And I would wholly support this. I guess I would be placed in the middle lane in that I really do enjoy opera, have seen a respectable number of different productions but have yet to reach double figures.
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I enjoy a ‘reimagining’, especially of a classic text or narrative with strong themes. It might not always ‘hit the mark’ or runs the risk of negative comparison to what an original that some might consider sacred. But it can also be enjoyed in its own right as a separate piece and do a service
honorary manc 