Iphigénie en Tauride is a 4 act Opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, first premiered at the Paris Opera on May 18th, 1779. This new and contemporary adaptation brings a fresh new view to not only a dramatic and timeless story but to the genre of Opera itself. Presented by the wonderful English Touring Opera that is currently travelling around the UK showing three Operas in a new and diverse way.
I would just like to say a heartfelt thankyou to Joe Sellman-Leava for this show.
It touched a still-raw nerve. I told him so post-performance. My brain had put into temporary storage the issue of racism, until the “build-walls and shoot” heckling of the Trumps and Hopkins of this world made me sit up, get angry and anxious in equal measure; question: are we really civilised, have we not come further in this multicultural, multi-faith land and bridged Powell’s river of blood?
In mythology, Pygmalion was a King of Cyprus who sculpted a statue of a beautiful girl and then fell in love with it. The statue was brought to life by Aphrodite in answer to his prayers. This myth has given name to the Pygmalion Effect, a self-fulfilling prophecy which states that higher expectations lead to better performance.
This is, therefore a really rather apt and clever title for George Bernard Shaw's excellent play of the same name. In fact, if I am honest, I have never really been so sure why Shaw has fallen so out of favour whilst other playwrights of his generation are still performed and lauded by the critics everywhere, when it is abundantly clear even with only this one play that Shaw was a master playwright whose comedy of manners, the class system, the English language, and goodness knows what else is an absolute delight and so well-observed. Thank goodness for Messrs Lerner and Loewe for creating the Musical My Fair Lady, for I fear without that, this play too might have been consigned to the 'For Reference Only' shelf along with such other gems as Man And Superman, Arms And The Man, Major Barbara, Candida, You Never Can Tell etc... All waiting to burst back into life some day when some producer or director wakes up to the fact that these are truly great plays!
Ben Mellor is an award-wining poet and performer debuting his new show, “Kiss It Better - a playful, potent perusal of the placebo effect”. It is part of the celebrations for Manchester achieving the accolade of European City of Science.
Billed as a mixture of performance lecture, stand-up poetry, confessional storytelling, ritual, live music and audience interaction; tonight’s one hour performance didn’t disappoint, the result was much greater than its component parts.
Judy Garland may have tragically left this earth far too soon, however she still remains a legend today. End Of The Rainbow is a humorous yet deeply moving play focussing on Judy’s final years and focuses on her last UK concerts at The Talk of The Town (now known as The Hippodrome Casino) in London’s Leicester Square, as well as her engagement to Mickey Deans and the unexpected love between her and her gay pianist Anthony Chapman.
The cast comprises of only four actors, however this evening Sam Attwater, who is cast as fiancé Mickey Deans was off (presumably unwell) therefore Simon Pontin played both the role of Mickey and the Interviewer/ASM. Therefore last nights opening night in Sheffield the play consisted of a cast of just three, yet is was the most magical play I have ever seen.
No scenery, no fancy lighting and only forty minutes long...yet this is one of the most exhilarating theatrical experiences I have ever had.
Tipping Point is a play about five phobic people having their regular "Phobics Anonymous" meeting. From the outset there is humour from Mr Smith (Adrian Horne), the rather grumpy caretaker who takes great delight in misaligning all the chairs which Steve (Kris Hitchen) has carefully lined up, courtesy of his OCD. No words are spoken between them, yet there is great humour and physical comedy and after this, I knew that whatever was coming, it was going to be good.
Continuing with its Flying Solo Festival, the Contact Theatre welcomes Amsterdam based artist Igor Vrebac to its premises to perform his one man performance, My Father Was A Terrorist. I was very intrigued to see Igor’s show from having read that the piece was inspired from the accounts of Zak Ebrahim, whose father was one the men who planned the 1993 World Trade Center terror attack and through psychical movement and dark humour he would explore how much pain a man can endure before it transforms him psychically and have an effect on a person’s perception. What I saw was something completely different.
A true original!
Modern retakes on Shakespeare have had hits and misses over the years- from Macbeth set on council estates to Hamlet in the trenches of World War One- but this take on Twelfth Night by Filter Theatre was a true original.
The text was interrupted by musical numbers delivered by an onstage band, headed up by percussionist Oliver Lowe and the exceptional cellist/ guitarist Laura Moody. Other instruments were also played by cast members, and the actors also joined the audience in the stalls for periods, in a performance that also had us throwing balls on stage and even going onstage to take a shot of tequila. It was a brilliant evening of raucous entertainment.
Atomos is described as "Wayne McGregory’s beautiful and mysterious exploration of atoms and form". From the start of the physical theatre piece you are transported through synthesisers and sharp and bright lights to a world of creativity and self-expression.
10 dancers build the collective of the piece, each having an individual and unique style of movement and emotion. The memorable moments stemmed from the synchronised dancing for me. There was something marvellous when, in mixture with the technology, the dancers would move together and keep a steady concentration. All of the company were fully entranced in the music itself it seemed, bringing an astounding feeling towards the audience that this was not just a dance piece. The performance was so much more than physical theatre but incredibly difficult to categorize, the best interpretation can be stated as an art form or performance art.
At the Lyric Theatre, Salford this evening the stage was set very simply with a hanging lamp and chairs for the guitarists, a plain black backdrop with two white panels that were occasionally lit up red. Taking to the dimly lit stage 15 minutes later than they should have started, to a sparse audience, Olga Pericet appeared dressed in a black trouser fitted outfit with a white bolero and was accompanied by two guitarists Antonia Jimenez and Pino Losada and two male singers Miguel Lavis & Manuel Gago.
The weather outside may not agree, but summer is certainly here in Manchester with the arrival of Mamma Mia at the Palace Theatre. It was an absolute joy to see the theatre packed to the rafters tonight to celebrate the official opening night of this show that has been running in the West End for 17 years, toured all over the world, yet surprisingly on its first ever UK tour.
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