Reviews

Jim Cartwright’s Two is a masterpiece of theatrical writing. It delves deeply into the study of the human condition, dealing with what could easily be seen as the real lives of real people at any time. It is set in a northern pub, and the Plaza Theatre has the perfect place to perform it: their ‘Green Room’ studio is a gift of a place to perform and to watch a piece like this, calling as it does for intimacy between performer and audience member. As the title suggests, it is a play for two performers, one of each sex. In

The story of Cinderella has always been heavy with Freudian overtones: the sexual symbolism of the foot and the slipper – which in the Old French version is made of fur (vair), not glass (verre) – the predominance of female characters, the Oedipal nature of the relationship between Cinderella and her father. These themes are very evident in the Grimm Brothers’ version, Aschenputtel, and are given full expression in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s re-interpretation of the story, The Ash Girl; it is markedly different from what has become the modern, sanitised version with Cinders singing sweet, sad songs with her good friend,

When I was asked to review this show, I instantly had a nostalgic flashback, as the first play or show I can remember going to see was Toad of Toad Hall at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln as a child. This production is Alan Bennett’s adaptation of the Kenneth Grahame original, and I was greatly looking forward to seeing how this group would deliver the material. As in the book, the play opens with Mole (Sarah Newman) discovering a new world outside his underground home. He is stumbled upon by Ratty (Alison Silver) who takes them both boating. After getting

Annie is the story of a feisty young orphan who is living in poverty in a run-down orphanage under the dubious ‘care’ of the child-hating, autocratic, liquor-swigging Miss Hannigan. She is offered an unexpected way out of her dire situation when wealthy billionaire Oliver Warbucks decides to take in an orphan for Christmas. Annie finds that she is, for once, in the right place at the right time when Warbucks’s personal assistant, Grace Farrell, picks Annie as the lucky recipient of his invitation. The younger cast members have been divided into two teams, Team Yellow and Team Blue, to perform

As is my usual practice, as soon as I arrived home from the Soirée, I switched on my computer and settled down to check Facebook – and immediately felt so guilty that I clicked off the page. Thanks, Soirée team: I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that your ‘Social Media Story’ had the desired effect! That particular section, sung to a medley of tunes from West Side Story, was just one of the many highlights of this evening of pure pleasure, clearly put together with love, care and a lot of laughter. For many years now, the Soirée has

How well do we know the people we think we know? Not very well, if you believe this comedy by Eric Chappell, the author whose best-known work is Rising Damp. Like that TV show, Wife After Death has its moments of farce but relies for its laughs on a lot of very clever dialogue and smart one-liners from characters who are caricatures, but only to the point where they remain believable. The central character spends the first act in a coffin and the second as a pile of ashes: the late comedian, David Thursby. Gathered to say goodbye to him