Reviews

This week saw the opening of the rebranded, refurbished, spun through ninety degrees and replacement of buttockly-aching bench seating (with, well, more buttockly-aching bench seating) Sherling Studio at Lighthouse, Poole, with the world premiere of Caridad Svich’s new play, Archipelago.  New undertakings all round as it also marked the directorial debut of the recently appointed Lighthouse Artistic Producer, Stephen Wrentmore.  Although touted as a world premiere, Archipelago has received readings across venues in America from as early as 2013, sometimes under the direction of Mr Wrentmore, and has been the subject of a Russian translation. ‘Like the great writers who went

When I go to the theatre, I want to believe that what I’m watching on the stage is real, that those characters really do exist. This is, I think, even more important for a small child who may be making his or her first visit to the theatre and who may, if the experience is a positive one, immediately be hooked for life on this wonderful world of make-believe. At the first night of this production, a young and very excited little boy was sitting just behind me, clearly loving what he was seeing and even, towards the end, joining

The start of December marks open season for Christmas music and performances, and P&P have been quick off the mark with this very enjoyable show. It is staged primarily by the musical theatre wing of the society, but they are joined by the P&P Singers and it is good to see the two groups working together in harmony – in every sense. As one has come to expect from this group, there is lots of movement, Sophie Wright’s choreography being interpreted slickly and with bags of energy, notably in the tap accompaniment to ‘Happy holiday’. Under Dani Warner’s skilful direction,

If you want a change from the magic carpet and transforming pumpkin of traditional Pantoland this Christmas, you could do a lot worse than this brand new adaptation of one of Roald Dahl’s best stories by Sam Holcroft, with music by Arthur Darvill. It opens traditionally enough, with four birds singing sweetly in close harmony. What happens next tells you that this is something a bit different, and then we are into the story of Mr Fox and his friends and their attempts to outwit the three farmers: irascible Bean, greedy Boggis and thick Bunce. The birds, by the way,

We knew, from the moment that we were allowed into the main hall in Wimborne’s Allendale Centre, that this was going to differ from the usual theatre experience because there was audience seating both on the stage and on the floor of the theatre and the chairs were facing, unconventionally, away from the stage and into the auditorium – as also was the lighting rig. In the centre of the hall stood a two-storey edifice of welded steel tube and mesh with a stepladder up the middle with a mostly two-dimensional extension of similar structure to the right; this whole

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