Reviews

Wayne Ings should be so pleased with this show: his young cast fully embrace every comedic notion, nuance and musical lilt in a buzzing score and bonkers story and script that just works  fantastically well on this stage at Eastleigh. He has clearly worked hard on all aspects of this show to bring an entertaining and new look to this classic while retaining all the elements that make it one. The band under the wonderful direction of Nigel Finch are so good that the notoriously arch Mr Porter would have found little to complain of, if anything: the sound beautifully

Whether BBLOC’s reputation had gone before them or whether it was the opportunity to see half a dozen men whipping off their clothes I know not, but a capacity audience at Wednesday night’s opening performance whooped and cheered their way through what proved to be a fantastic evening’s entertainment, performed in this company’s ever-excellent style. Although the film version of the show was set in Sheffield, this Broadway musical version by Terrence McNally and David Yazbek has the setting as Buffalo, New York State, where a group of unemployed steel workers discover a new, if emotionally challenging, way of making

The greatest compliment that can be paid to this production is that it does justice to one of the most popular plays in the canon. It allows all the brilliance of Wilde’s 1895 work to scintillate for the entertainment of the audience as epigram follows epigram and the familiar story unfolds of two likeable upper-class rogues who evade their social obligations and two wilful young women who have a clear idea of what they want. The sub-title, ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’, is right: it is essentially a trivial piece and any attempt to find darker aspects, a link

When we are young, we believe that old age is something that happens to other people, erroneously assuming that we ourselves will remain the same for ever. Eventually, of course, we realise that there is no escape from the ageing process, and I speak from experience when I say that it’s a hard fact to deal with. For a performer who has spent his or her life being adored by many, the trauma must be even greater – and it is this that is at the core of Ronald Harwood’s play, set in a home for retired singers and musicians.

Estranged identical twins, Zanetto and Tonino, are unlike each other in every way other than looks. When they both arrive in Verona on the same day, each seeking a bride-to-be, romantic entanglements soon become hopelessly confused. As their paths cross they are never seen together, nor are their loved ones, friends and acquaintances even aware of the other. What could possibly go wrong – other than insults, threats, proposals, mistaken identities, offers of duels and boxes of jewels going astray?! Marcus Whitfield (on stage virtually all the time) is superb in the dual roles of Tonino and Zanetto, each very

I don’t think it is sycophantic to say out loud that ImpAct Theatre produce some of the highest-quality theatre around these parts, and have been doing so for two decades or more. It’s a fact. So when I’m asked to review an ImpAct Theatre play, I feel that I’m going to be in for an evening of watching some terrific acting and an interesting story. I’m yet to have my first disappointment, and Visitors kept up my record of ‘never disappointed in an ImpAct Theatre show’. Visitors, by Barney Norris, is a multi-layered piece of theatre. It is a study