A guide to modern panto
Published in The List 3 November 2023 If the culture wars were an actual thing rather than the delusions of some Tory sociopaths, where would pantomime be in the battle?…
No Love Songs
The Guardian 6 August 2023 There is a tremendous amount of heart in this musical two-hander about the stresses of early parenthood. It is inspired by the experience of co-writer…
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,…
Tickbox
The Guardian 18 August 2021 The first time it happened was when Lubna Kerr joined the Brownies. The future actor and comedian found the girls in her pack to be friendly and…
Meet Jan Black
The Guardian, 2 April 2021 What will audiences want after the pandemic? Will it be daft comedies by Noël Coward? Or will they have an appetite for Pulitzer-winning cancer dramas…
Earwig
The Guardian 3 Feb 2021 Haruki Murakami would have called it What I Talk About When I Talk About Weightlifting. The title chosen by playwright Stef Smith is The Deadlift.…
Rapunzel: A Hairy Tale Adventure
The Guardian 22 December 2020 Did Brian Friel ever write a Christmas show? If he did, it might have looked like this one from the National Theatre of Scotland. Responding to…
Scenes for Survival, 2nd round-up, NTS, online
The Guardian 4 Aug 2020 DURING the Covid crisis, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has been collecting what it calls Pandemic Objects: artefacts that have taken on new significance…