Theatre through the eyes of a Manc
KAFKAESQUE - (adjective) - Characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive, nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world; blending the absurd, surreal and mundane. In Franz Kafka's novella, Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. Having to exist in a society that is horrified by his physical mutation,... Continue Reading →
Picture this... It's Manchester, 1999. Tommie is sick of his dead-end job, cold calling people. He decides to quit his job and winds up being trained as a vampire hunter by a vampire-slaying priest, Father Badass. He has to defend the world as the Devil has hatched a plan. On the stroke of the Millennium,... Continue Reading →
Richard III is a difficult play to get right. With Shakespeare's protagonist being a power-hungry, ruthless, murdering despot, there is always the temptation to place the play's context within the twentieth century, basing Richard on one of the many dictators during this period. Martin Freeman's 2014 production at Trafalgar Studios tried setting the play in... Continue Reading →
The best thing about living in Manchester is the abundance of theatre on offer. From the smallest fringe venues to large theatres, there is always something fantastic to watch. Here is my pick of what to watch across Manchester in May. RICHARD III - HOME, MANCHESTER On until 4th May 2019 After decades of the... Continue Reading →
Bananas. The average person eats 102 of them per year. They are the cheapest fruit available in the supermarket, unless you use the self-serve machines to scan Pink Lady apples through as onions. Although in the 19th century nobody in the West had even seen a banana, let alone eaten one, they have now become... Continue Reading →
Clocks have been put forward an hour and British Summer Time has officially begun. As the evenings get lighter and the weather gets warmer, you can always pay a visit to your local theatre this April. Manchester has some cracking productions across its theatres. Here is a handful of some of the plays that you... Continue Reading →
"Welcome to the wrong side of the tracks". In Brixton, identical twin showgirls, Dora and Nora Chance celebrate their 75th birthday. On the other side of the Thames, in Chelsea, their father Melchior Hazard, the greatest Shakespearean actor of the age turns 100. An invite to their father's birthday party takes the Chances on a... Continue Reading →
"I've got two dads. The only thing the black one gave me was ethnicity". David Judge grew up on the Wythenshawe council estate in Manchester as a mixed race kid with two white parents. SparkPlug is his autobiographical monologue, wherein he moves the narrative up a generation, telling his story from the perspective of his... Continue Reading →
"Who came in the night, while we were asleep? Where are all the children of Red Herring Street?". The residents of the Bayou ask themselves these questions after something mysterious happens to the unruly children of Red Herring Street. The Bayou is a fictional area of social deprivation, wherein lies the dilapidated tenement block on... Continue Reading →
