Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Everyman, Cheltenham

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Everyman, Cheltenham

by

I must confess to never having seen Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, nor Jesus Christ Superstar, nor Hair. Never having been a hippy was maybe one reason, although I did have some trousers of many colours, if that counts. It was perhaps those three shows, more than anything, that opened the way to the new, blockbuster musicals that have dominated the West End and Broadway ever since. Without them we would have had no Evita, no Les Mis, no Miss Saigon, no Phantom of the Opera et al.

Read More

CLOSER EACH DAY at the Wardrobe, Bristol

by

” . . . Bristol is rapidly becoming something of a centre for improvised theatre and getting an early warm-up for the forthcoming Bristol Improv. Theatre Festival (BITFest) Closer Each Day last night gave the latest instalment of their improvised soap opera . . . Standup is now firmly established as a sub-genre and for one reason or another, perhaps its open-endedness and informality included, has become very popular. With a pint from downstairs to keep you going you might very well get hooked and find yourself going back to see how the unpredictable plots develop.

Read More
THE FORBIDDEN DOOR at Tobacco Factory, Bristol & North Wall, Oxford

THE FORBIDDEN DOOR at Tobacco Factory, Bristol & North Wall, Oxford

by

The story itself is a fantastic mix of well-known fairly-tale motifs and new inventions. It shifts – or is shifted – seamlessly, from the gods and the cosmos to the familiar and domestic. As in the myths of Ancient Greece, gods roam the Earth and inhabit human forms. As in all good fairy-tales, familiar, pattern-building repetition is deployed and intercut with surprising twists and turns. Not one, but two epic quests are undertaken, grizzly sacrifices are made and the images and messages conjured by this magic act are as dark, as strange and as vivid as any of Hans Christian Anderson’s or Perrault’s.

Read More
Alan Ayckbourn’s ROUNDELAY at Bath Theatre Royal

Alan Ayckbourn’s ROUNDELAY at Bath Theatre Royal

by

” . . . For me the four plays didn’t hang together and were only saved from complete collapse by some good acting. E.M.Forster gives a useful distinction of the difference between a random sequence and a plot; whereas, ‘The king died then the queen died’, is a story, ‘The king died then the queen died of grief’, is a plot in virtue of the fact that the latter contains the element of causality. In Roundelay Mr. Ayckbourn has lost the plot in that sense, but hasn’t quite given us a satisfying replacement . . . ”

Read More
Mike Whitton’s review of 2016

Mike Whitton’s review of 2016

by

StageTalk Magazine reviewer Mike Whitton takes a look back over some of the shows he has seen in the past twelve months in Bristol and Bath. He reveals his overall favourite and explains why some shows turned out to be a bit disappointing.

Read More
BROKE at the Ustinov Theatre, Bath

BROKE at the Ustinov Theatre, Bath

by

” . . .The Paper Birds have recognised two big truths: firstly that debt is the vehicle by which financial establishments create new money. And secondly that we are all slavishly engaged in the perpetration of this act, but that some are paying a higher price than others. . . Close to the Ustinov you can hear the sound of tennis balls ‘pocking’ away in brightly lit and heated all-year membership-only courts. . . Less than 500 metres away the Bath Food Bank operates out of the Manvers Street Baptist Church. The Paper Birds are right to tap into this dichotomy.”

Read More

Pin It on Pinterest