Theatre through the eyes of a Manc
Jackie Kay has had an extraordinary life, which is detailed in her memoir, Red Dust Road. Growing up in Scotland in the 1970s, as the adopted mixed-race child of a Communist couple, young Jackie struggled to fit in with those around her. Experiencing racist attacks, her memoir is an exploration of Jackie's identity as a... Continue Reading →
Created in collaboration with prisoners at HMP Wandsworth and written by Luke Barnes, The Jumper Factory tells a series of stories depicting life behind bars. Taken from interviews with inmates, this short piece uses the authentic voices of these prisoners to relate how it feels to be locked up. Without delving too much into the... Continue Reading →
Harold Pinter's No Man's Land is a play in which not very much happens. There's no action, nor an exciting narrative. It is just characters talking and drinking. A lot. Deliberately ambiguous, you never really get to know any of the characters, and Pinter's dialogue is complex; packed full of metaphoric imagery. This is not an easy... Continue Reading →
Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey is perhaps best known from its 1961 film adaptation starring Dora Bryan and Rita Tushingham. Sweeping the acting gongs at Cannes, it is set in Salford, and relates the story of a dysfunctional relationship between a mother and her daughter. This powerful family drama, from a local playwright, makes... Continue Reading →
It seems that these days almost every good indie film is being turned into a musical and transferred to the stage. Some have been successful, with Waitress securing a prestigious, lengthy run on London's West End. Others have been viewed as failures, like Little Miss Sunshine. Even the iconic 80s classic, Back to the Future... Continue Reading →
Zoey Barnes and Clementine Bogg-Hargroves are quickly becoming the best double act in Manchester's theatre scene. After the success of Skank at the GM Fringe, the couple's new collaboration, Austen Power, showcases Barnes' debut as a writer. And what an impressive debut this piece is! It tells of two sisters who inherit an independent, family bookshop from their father.... Continue Reading →
Welcome to The Community Centre, a place where you can relax and while away the time, or engage in "How to Charm Your Own Snakes" workshops. It is the lifeblood of the local Mancunian community, where elders can go to avoid paying their electric bills, and where people can skive off work. As the central... Continue Reading →
Sub-titled "Scenes from the Luddite Rebellion", this play has no relation to the song of the same name by The Smiths. What we get is a fascinating history lesson about the Luddite Rebellion and how the rise of the machine in the Industrial Revolution devastated the livelihoods of the working-classes, when their jobs were replaced with... Continue Reading →
I want to begin this review by firmly stating that I truly dislike The Taming of the Shrew. Unlike most of William Shakespeare's plays, this one really hasn't aged well. I have always struggled to consider his play, in which a woman is broken into submission by her abusive husband, a comedy. It is difficult... Continue Reading →
