Theatre Through the Eyes of a Manc
What happens to your teddy bears when you grow up and forget about them? According to playwright Jackie Hagan, they live in a forest with other forgotten things. This is no ordinary forest though. It is a forest where discos used to happen all the time, but are now as forgotten as the bears. The... Continue Reading →
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The Coca Cola trucks are on TV, Michael Bublé has come out of hibernation, and Father Christmas visits Sale Waterside Arts. Pins and Needles return to this theatre with another cracking Christmas show, after last year's acclaimed production, The Bear. Bringing Raymond Briggs' book to life, this family play... Continue Reading →
Nathaniel Hall contracted HIV the first time he had sex, aged 16. Receiving the diagnosis just two weeks after his 17th birthday, it took him fourteen years to open up to his family. A year later, Hall has written a play about his experiences, which he also performs. It is making its premiere at Sale's Waterside... Continue Reading →
The Maids is based on the true crime of two sisters who, as maids, murdered their employer's wife and daughter in 1933. The play is written by French dramatist Jean Genet, who was no stranger to spending time behind bars. Using the Papin sisters as his inspiration, Genet's The Maids is a dark, unnerving play... Continue Reading →
I never thought that I would ever enjoy watching an opera. I had many preconceptions about opera and thought that I would hate the experience of going to see one. This is the first opera I have ever seen so I am a complete novice. Thanks to being introduced to opera through Opera North's Tosca, I... Continue Reading →
Christopher Marlowe's plays, Tamburlaine Part One and Two, depict the military conquests and spectacular rise to power of a tyrant. Sadly, this is a subject we are all familiar with in the 21st century. 400 years after Marlowe penned the plays, director Michael Boyd has condensed the two texts, turning them into a single, epic,... Continue Reading →
The Mysteries is a series of six one-act plays rooted around different locations in England, depicting a day in the life of their inhabitants. Two plays are staged each night, with 'Eskdale' and 'Manchester' being performed on the night I attended. As soon as you enter the studio, you feel like you are part of... Continue Reading →
If you take a walk down Manchester's Market Street, you will not fail to notice the street pedlars, pushing their mobile carts. Selling everything from fidget spinners to balloons and umbrellas, these mysterious street vendors are an integral part of Manchester's high street. In Water Seeds Not Stones, Elmi Ali, a writer, poet and spoken... Continue Reading →
Arthur Miller's psychological tragedy, Death of a Salesman, is familiar to anybody who has studied it as part of the GCSE curriculum. Its examination of the fragility of dreams, success and the decline of mental health, causes the play to remain relevant decades after it was written. In this production, Don Warrington returns to the... Continue Reading →
