2022 was a year when theatres fully reopened, when live performance returned bursting with energy and inventiveness and gloriously free from all the Covid-caveats and restrictions.  We have reviewed drama, ballet, musicals, pantos, puppetry and conjuring shows and, following tradition, StageTalk Magazine marks the end of the cultural year with our reviewers’ favourite  productions of 2022.

We hope these highlights bring you reminders and inspiration to keep on following both theatre and StageTalk’s theatre reviews.

MIKE WHITTON

I saw many shows in 2022 that featured strong performances, or imaginative staging, or originality of ideas, but there were just two that had that certain extra something that merited an unequivocal five-star response. However, it has been heartening to see how successfully our local theatres have got back into their stride after the ravages of the Covid epidemic, and it is good to see how they continue to find new ways to reach out to a wider audience than was once the norm.

From among the four-star shows a comic highlight was Howard Coggins’ outrageously irreverent portrayal of the Virgin Mary in The Living Spit’s Late-ivity, seen early in the year at The Ustinov Studio in Bath.

Also in January, Bedknobs And Broomsticks at The Bristol Hippodrome proved to be an unexpected treat; an imaginatively presented musical of real substance. Much later in the year, and much more seriously, there was a great deal to admire in the Bristol Old Vic’s Hamlet, especially Billy Howle’s mesmerising performance in the central role.

Now to the five-star winners: Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! at the Hippodrome in February had all the romance and spectacle one could hope for.

The middle-class cosiness of Tchaikovsky’s original is swept away by setting the story in a gloomy orphanage, though before too long that dose of social realism gives way to wonderfully inventive, unrestrained fantasy. Finally, Noises Off at Bath Theatre Royal in September reinforced this play’s reputation as a modern masterpiece. Lindsay Posner’s superbly paced production of this farce-within-a-farce was blessed with an all-star cast possessed of great physical skill and superb comic timing. The virtually wordless second act was so funny as to render this reviewer quite helpless with laughter.

BRYAN J MASON

I had two standout shows for the year, but only reviewed one personally. Revealed at Tobacco Factory Theatres was fantastic theatre, relevant, thought-provoking and genuinely thrilling.

My favourite show that I reviewed was a Bristol Old Vic Theatre School production as part of their Directors Festival performed in The Wardrobe Theatre in May.  How My Light Is Spent  had the lot. Great direction and design by Tobias Millard and Olivia Jameson who made superb use of the small space as well as two of the best performances you would hope to see from Bill Caple and Anna-Sophia Tutton. A production crackling with warmth and chemistry which bodes well for the continued excellent reputation of our very own Theatre School.

SIMON BISHOP

There have been plenty of theatrical highlights during 2022, a year in which the spectre of Covid began to recede in our minds if not in actuality, and an eager public was once again filling the seats of our theatres across the midlands and the southwest.

An astonishing night at the Tobacco factory stood out for me – Daniel J Carver’s extraordinarily powerful play Revealed, which laid bare how racism inflicts emotional damage on black men, and how that hurt can be passed from one generation to the next.

Carver’s piece never flinched from confronting the stereotyping, the struggle to communicate and the need for self-respect that can define the black male experience within a family under pressure.

In complete contrast, mention has to be made of the masters of madness over at The Wardrobe theatre. Their Christmas offering this year, MDH: Puppets Do A Movie, a mash up of hero-centric movie and charismatic puppetry was a triumph of satire and knockabout physical humour, a reprised classic from their ever- expanding repertoire. Earlier in the year their production of Drac and Jill had me laughing non-stop for two hours.

ROS CARNE

My first six months as a reviewer for StageTalk Magazine threw up some theatrical crackers. If I were to pick just one of these, it would be Spike at the Oxford Playhouse written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. As a horribly serious child, I was never a fan of the Goons, and my later exposure to Milligan via TV interviews suggested a grumpy old man who had little to say to me. Sorry, Spike. I got you wrong. The play was a revelation. A sparkling script and a brilliant central performance from Robert Wilfort brought the comedian and his work to life, resulting in a major reassessment on my part. The packed house roared with delight, and I joined in; sound, light, movement, design and performances all working in perfect accord to create theatre magic.

Other triumphs of 2022 included high quality work from the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, particularly the last two Henry V1 plays, billed as Rebellion and The Wars of the Roses. And there were several excellent smaller scale productions at lesser-known venues, such as Funeral Flowers, a stunning one woman show written by Emma Dennis-Edwards, performed by Sarel Madziya at the North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford, and also Tangle Theatre Company’s Richard II at Oxford’s dynamic Pegasus Theatre.

It has been a difficult year for theatre, and it looks as if it won’t get much easier in 2023. But with shows like this, often playing to packed houses, the future looks bright in this neck of the woods.

GRAHAM WYLES

In my three choices, all featuring highly talented female actors, each production was in its own way a step into new territory, expanding the possibilities of an art form which has always had a precarious existence, but which, when at its best is both entertaining and thought provoking.

My first choice, Phaedra and the Minotaur, was part of a double bill at The Ustinov under the new artistic guidance of Deborah Warner. Ms.Warner brings her considerable skill and experience in both theatre and opera to the intimate space of the Theatre Royal’s little brother. Offering the seldom performed cantata by Benjamin Britten was a courageous move that was rewarded by a performance of rare, intimate intensity from Christine Rice. It was the first in what promises to be an exciting programme under the theatre’s new artistic director.

My next choice is Outlier by and starring, Malaika Kegode, a poet with a distinctive voice and an instinctive understanding of what makes something theatrical.

This was no clumsy attempt at dramatic blank verse, but a natural feel for poetic language in dealing with an urgent subject; the space between childhood and adulthood where life changing decisions and mistakes can be made.

Finally, Beautiful Evil Things at Tobacco Factory Theatres found Deb Pugh in the guise of Medusa giving us a gallop through classical Greek myth and literature. In a bravura performance where she played all the characters, the essential skills of a solo performer were on display in one of the most entertaining one-woman shows I have seen to date. Drama and wit were in plentiful supply in a show which opened up the possibilities of the genre and will be an inspiration to others.