The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Guardian 27 November 2022 Holywood repeats itself, first as musical, second as panto. If you have never imagined Dorothy in drag, well, you have never reckoned on Johnny McKnight,…
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Guardian 27 November 2022 The temperature is rising in Middle Perth. Nobody says it in so many words but the opening salvo of songs tells you all you need…
Peter Pan and Wendy
The Guardian 25 November 2022 Captain Hook looks as if he has stepped out of the court of Louis XIV. His head is half wig, half galleon, buoyant on a…
Enough of Him
The Guardian 25 October 2022 It is the start of May Sumbwanyambe’s uneasy drama and Joseph Knight (Omar Austin) is showing John Wedderburn (Matthew Pidgeon) the book he is reading.…
Shirley Valentine
The Guardian 24 October 2022 Willy Russell’s 1986 monologue is addressed to a kitchen wall. Stuck with domestic chores and a rigid catering schedule – if it’s Thursday, it must…
The Time Machine
The Guardian 17 October 2022 Strange to report that the least interesting aspect of this adaptation of The Time Machine is the stuff written by HG Wells. In a devised…
La Performance
The Guardian 14 October 2022 What’s not to like? You’ve got Ramesh Meyyappan, the beguiling physical theatre performer who, in shows such as Off-Kilter, has displayed a winning combination of…
Trainspotting Live
The Guardian 12 October 2022 Perhaps you thought Trainspotting was too coy. Maybe you thought Irvine Welsh’s novel was on the restrained side. Yes, it had scenes of drug-addled bed…
James IV: Queen of the Fight
The Guardian 5 October 2022 It’s a cosmopolitan place, the court of James IV of Scotland. In the earthy crucible of Jon Bausor’s set, you hear Spanish, French, Scots, Gaelic…
The Maggie Wall
The Guardian 12 September 2022 There is something unknowable about young Maggie Wall. Perhaps you would call it spiritual. You hear it in the lullaby handed down through the generations,…