★★★★☆ CellarDoor Theatre’s production of the classic horror story Frankenstein opens with a near bare arena. The creature is alone, wrapped like an embryo in the translucent film that hangs from a scaffold frame. It awakens; breathing, writhing and choking. There are no grand machines or lightning strikes; the creature stands, stumbles and falls over and again…
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★★★★☆ This night began as a night at the ballet should, with that rare thing – the sound of a live orchestra tuning-up over expectant audience hubbub. And then suddenly, it was curtain-up into a transformed world of grace, drama and beauty, as music and motion, staging and costume merged into an astonishing and indescribable whole. And who better to produce that alchemy than The Birmingham Royal Ballet accompanied by the RB Sinfonia?
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★★★★☆ Tobacco Factory Theatres and Circomedia have joined forces to show three highlights of the 2016 BE Festival. This annual summer festival takes place at Birmingham REP and specialises in presenting unconventional work from Europe that defies easy categorisation.
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★★★★★ Visually the performance has been called ‘a cross between a Beckett play and a Monty Python sketch’ and certainly the Beckett comparison rings true – think Happy Days, where Winnie is buried to her waist and neck in a mound of earth, or That Time, where the character sits silently and his own voice is heard recalling his past . . . A must-see!
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★★★☆☆ The Rice/Lloyd Webber illustrated bible story is nearly fifty years old. The novelty and frisson of setting holy writ to a popular music score and having some irreverent fun with the characters of the story may seem tame by today’s trenchantly secular standards . . . It’s a thoroughly enjoyable family show, which continues to showcase some impressive emerging talent.
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★★★★☆ The ship bobbed on, through a catastrophic encounter with an iceberg (a titanic accident), past alluring sirens, to a finale that exploded with an unexpected triple wedding, mutiny and murder. Jolly japes all round!
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