CASTING THE RUNES at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol

It is late one evening in 1904. You are in your club; an oak panelled affair in whose fading light you can still manage to pick out details on the book lined walls. The third brandy and your comfortable wing chair conspire – with the last remnants of a once cheerful fire – to do their work. The porter comes in to tell you that because of the January fog your Hackney carriage will be some time yet. Resigned to a tedious wait you sink further into your chair at which juncture one of the longer standing members slips into the room . . .

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SO IT GOES at the North Wall, Oxford

Hannah Moss came up with So It Goes in response to her father’s death in 2007. It took her a number of years to begin to come to terms with his death, and talking about it was difficult, so the notion of expressing her feelings without words was a welcome one. With her friend David Ralfe (together they are the theatre company On The Run), she began to explore the idea of wordless communication to tell her story, and to share her experience of grief and loss with her audience.

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THE GEORGE GERSHWIN SONGBOOK Everyman Studio, Cheltenham

The Everyman’s creative director, Paul Milton, is still tapping in to his rich seam of material based on the great pre-war American songwriters. After Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, The George Gershwin Songbook is another little gem. In the previous two shows Paul managed to create a story line using just the lyrics . . . but The George Gershwin Songbook is a straight tribute with biographical details punctuating the songs.

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CHASING THE DREAM IN THE LEAST HARMFUL WAY at the Alma, Bristol

Dominic Lindesay has created a fascinating and morally complex character. Guy is often crass, yet he is capable of considerable sensitivity. At times he is a blundering, selfish oaf, but he can also be forensically self-aware. We see his increasingly inebriated and excruciatingly inept attempt to chat up an attractive colleague at an office party, but we also see him thoughtfully reflecting on the masks that people wear when playing life’s various roles.

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DEAR LUPIN on tour

“Fox Junior (Jack), acting with his pa, was able to use the curious blood chemistry of father and son to bring a genuine warmth to the role, which takes him through writer, Charlie Mortimer’s life with dad’s letters as signposts . . . As a touching portrait of a particular take on humanity through the description of a father-son relationship it will undoubtedly find an audience to entertain. ”

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OUTSIDE MULLINGAR at the Ustinov Theatre, Bath

“This compassionate and delightful romantic comedy from the Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Oscar-winning author of Doubt will win many hearts. The great appeal in John Patrick Shanley’s play lies in one woman’s fight to overcome spectres of isolation and barrenness by staring down what stands in her path, and in its final message of tender reconciliation . . . Set in rural Ireland, Outside Mullingar is, at heart, an essay on the redeeming qualities of love and forgiveness . . . “

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