Coming in at just over one hour, this World Premiere promenade production of a condensed version of J.S.Bach's St. Matthew Passion is a very confident and uplifting visual and aural Easter spectacle, and is just the right length for tired feet to cope with after a long and hard day! [There was very limited seating available and no toilets in the venue].
The piece was performed in a joint venture between Streetwise Opera and The Sixteen in association with HOME (Mcr).
Thank goodness this show was only an hour long...my nerves couldn't have taken much more!
Circolombia is comprised of twelve performers from Colombia and their show, Acelere, is described as 'circus with guts, gusto and grace'. I certainly agree with the guts, gusto and grace but I'm not entirely sure I would describe it as a circus. There are a whole lot of things going on: contemporary dance, singing, rapping, some general mingling and absolutely nerve shredding, look-through-your-fingers acts of mind boggling daredevilness!
A Seductive Cauldron of Drama and Passion
Carmen is a four-act opera by French composer Georges Bizet, first performed in Paris on 3rd March 1875 with audiences initially objecting to the wild and immoral behaviour on view. Sadly Bizet's sudden death in June meant he did not get to see its resounding success in Vienna later that year and its subsequent international acclaim. It is now one of the most popular and frequently performed operas.
Zero written by Robin J Lyons tells the story of Eddie (Dean Gregory) and Helen (Rosemary Terry) and how their father’s suicide impacted their lives. The scene is set at the very beginning; Eddie and Helen meet at the bridge their father jumped off to scatter his ashes. However, it soon becomes clear that the characters have dealt with their grief in very different ways.
Presented by The Touring Consortium Theatre Company and A Birmingham Repertory Theatre Production, the classic tale of 'Of Mice and Men' is purely gripping, emotional and pure genius.
Based on the 1937 novella of the same name written by John Steinbeck, the story follows follows two men, George and Lennie, as they take on a new job working on a ranch in central California "bucking barley" for the ranch owner and his son. George and Lennie begin the story at a River where they discuss their past discussing how they have come to be here and where they are going.
A Beautiful Combination of Acting, Music and Singing
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Italian composer Puccini which premiered in Rome on 14th January 1900. It is set in Rome in June 1800 (before Italy as a country existed) when the Kingdom of Naples' control of the city is threatened by the advancing army of Napoleon Bonaparte. Musically, Tosca is structured as a through-composed work, with arias, recitative, choruses and other elements musically woven into a seamless whole.
Act One is set inside the church of Sant' Andrea Della Villa where Cesare Angelotti (Roman Balko), former Consul and now an escaped political prisoner, has taken refuge. He hides on the arrival of a Sacristan (Valeriu Cojocaru) before the painter Mario Cavaradossi (Vitalii Liskovetskyi) appears to continue work on his portrait of Mary Magdalene, based on a blonde-haired woman who is in fact Angelotti's sister, and he compares her to his dark-haired lover, the singer Floria Tosca (Alyona Kistenyova).
Billed as “The UK’s Biggest Magic Spectacular” this evening’s show was a spectacle of human strength and nerve, of clever sleight of hand, of humour and delights, and many marvelous moments of WOW!
We were delighted by a veritable buffet of magical talent as the audience was taken on a magical mystery tour through the history of magic. We marveled at tricks old and new, artistically framed by excellent set and lighting design from Andrew D Edwards and Howard Harrison. The sound and music was expertly used, by Gareth Owen and Ryan Martin, to create a mood and bring the voice of the ‘volunteers’ to the ears of everyone. And the icing on this cake were the excellent visuals from 59 Productions and the costumes from Marie-Madeleine Sarson. The first class production team evoked the different periods of history perfectly, creating a backdrop for the performers to, quite literally, work their magic.
In a co-production between Leicester's Curve Theatre and The Rose Theatre, Kingston, and with Roald Dahl's excellent story adapted by possibly the best known and most well respected children's and young people's playwright there is, David Wood, then the bar level is raised high and this should have been a production to deliver..... But was it?
X-rated Avenue Q still fur-ociously funny
It may be 13 years since Sesame Street went grown-up but, the resulting musical, Avenue Q (showing at The Regent Theatre in Stoke this week) still created some of the most comical and heart-warming moments I've felt, with felt.
Many of the evening's laughs were to be had at seeing seemingly innocent puppets be bad. They told racist jokes, made loud noises during love making and took pleasure in the pain of others. Yet from all of these adolescent antics stemmed the 'lessons' of the musical, which is where it packed a surprising emotional punch and formed a loose narrative...
Murder, blackmail, deception, adultery...Chicago has all this in spades and much more. Set mainly in the Cook County Jail in Chicago in the 1920s, we follow the story of Velma and Roxy, two women who will do whatever it takes to be famous.
Chicago was written as a play in 1926 by a reporter called Maurine Dallas Watkins, based on the crimes and criminals she reported on. Roxy Hart and Velma Kelly are, in fact, based on two real women. They are both awaiting trial for murder but are in competition for who can grab the most headlines and give the best performance in the witness box, the ultimate aim being to get their own Vaudeville show when they are released.
Where My Wellies Take Me is the story of a sunny Mayday through the eyes of 9 year old Pippa who is staying with her Aunty Peggy.
Unfortunately for this afternoon’s show Michael's wife Clare was unable to join him on stage due to illness, also missing was Natalie Walter a 9 year old actress who normally takes the part of Pippa, she also had been struck down by the flu bug and was unable to speak. Michael therefore assumed the roles of himself, his wife and Natalie, this resulted in a loss of feel for the performance.
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