5 STAR - Page 28 of 33 - StageTalk Magazine

FLEABAG at Brewery Theatre, Bristol

Posted by Simon Bishop | 22 Jan 2015

“. . . In your face, up your bottom, Fleabag is about sex – shedloads of it during a steamy, hilarious and sometimes disturbing hour. Bright-eyed, rouge-lipped Maddie Rice delivers Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s pulsating, award-winning monologue with disarming easy confidence . . . Waller-Bridge is a voice to be reckoned with. Take note, this woman knows no fear. At a time when post modernist feminism is battering at The Sun to remove its topless page 3, along comes Fleabag to post us a vagina selfie. You work it out! Brilliant.”

WAR HORSE at the Bristol Hippodrome

Posted by Graham Wyles | 15 Jan 2015

“The directors have learned that fundamental lesson of theatre (known indeed by striptease artists) that to suggest is often more powerful than to show. Morris’s other revival, Swallows and Amazons, bears this out. He has become a master of imaginative stagecraft and like Orson Welles, who brought Moby Dick to the London stage some half century ago, he relishes making the seemingly impossible possible. Total war calls for total theatre and in this production the two are well matched. “

EDUCATING RITA at Everyman Studio Theatre, Cheltenham

Posted by Michael Hasted | 10 Dec 2014

“. . . It would be impossible not to be interested in Willy Russell’s Rita and Frank. Rita has the infectious, uninhibited enthusiasm and humour of the cliché Scouser while Frank has seen better days and finds solace in a bottle until the arrival of Rita revives his raison d’être. Frank the university lecturer, Rita the hairdresser who, as we used to say, wants to better herself. . . The story is essentially that of Shaw’s Pygmalion but to me this is a much deeper play. Frank is a much fuller, sadder character than Higgins and Rita an eager guinea pig rather than a reluctant one. . .”

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS at Bristol Old Vic

Posted by Graham Wyles | 3 Dec 2014

“. . . Helen Edmunson’s script sucks the marrow from the book whilst Tom Morris’s direction (revived in this production by Pieter Lawman), spreads it across the stage in a dazzling display of theatrical ingenuity. It is as imaginative in its staging as the story is in its mapping of the inner terrain of a group of children given the whole world as their life’s stage. . . This is five star entertainment for any one who is or ever has been a child with an imagination and is itself a perfect treasure to lock away in your hoard of memories. . .”

SLEEPING BEAUTY at the Everyman, Cheltenham

Posted by Michael Hasted | 29 Nov 2014

” . . .The backbone of the shows for the past three years has been the inspired pairing of William Elliot as the dame and Tweedy the Clown as … well, Tweedy the Clown. Their magician sequence in Sleeping Beauty was the funniest thing in it with Tweedy the Conjuror revealing more music-hall skills and Willie revealing what this pantomime dame wears under her big frocks – leotard and tights – as his beautiful assistant . . . Altogether, this was one of, if not the best, pantomime produced by the Everyman in recent years and one with which it would be impossible to find fault. I enjoyed every moment.”

Category: 5 STAR

FLEABAG at Brewery Theatre, Bristol

WAR HORSE at the Bristol Hippodrome

EDUCATING RITA at Everyman Studio Theatre, Cheltenham

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS at Bristol Old Vic

SLEEPING BEAUTY at the Everyman, Cheltenham

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