A Midsummer Night’s Dream proudly flaunts its all-female cast. But cast’s chosen pronouns are one of the least notable things about this production. The casting is flawless, regardless of gender.
Freedom, Fringe and Al-Fresco Fun: Refract Festival returns to Waterside
As inclusive, “something for everyone” events go, Refract truly lives up to its claims.
Raise the Curtain: Live Theatre has Returned!
With a spotlight at the end of the lockdown tunnel, and the promise of live theatre productions taking place as early as next week, I’ve been ruminating on what it really is that I’ve missed and exactly what I can’t wait to return to.
Search Trends 2020: Searching for Hope (or Googling Our Way Through the Shitshow)
It will come as no surprise that ‘coronavirus’ was the most Googled term worldwide during 2020. But, what else did we search for? Here are some of my favourite glimpses of humanity from the internet-sphere in 2020.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s Statue: How to Subordinate a Woman on her Own Platform
This week saw the unveiling of a long-awaited statue. Yet the Mary Wollstonecraft sculpture is a striking example of artistic gaslighting: how literally to belittle a woman whilst purporting to honour her.
My Plastic-Free Period
I renounce plastic straws, plastic bags and plastic bottles. So why must my menstruation be plagued with single-use plastics?
Furlough Fashion
Many of us are unsure, unsatisfied and a little scared of our current lifestyles. But the biggest question that looms over us all: what should I wear?!
Insane Animals: Sparkling Satire from Bourgeois and Maurice
Homosexuality, heterosexuality, civilisation, tyranny, immortality, trans-humanism and Brexit are all on the bill, and doused in sequins.
The Clashing Cacophony of Wuthering Heights at the Royal Exchange
In a beautifully dissonant retelling of Emily Brontë’s traumatic love story, we are cast into the North Yorkshire Moors at the heart of the Royal Exchange.
The Glory of Gypsy at the Royal Exchange
Billed as ‘a musical fable’ this sparkling production follows the highs and lows of life in show-business. We watch a pushy mother living vicariously through her daughters; an unmarried woman finding fulfilment in the shadow of the spotlight.
“Run away from your troubles white man” - Playland at Empty Space Theatre
Playland is a meeting of two men in Apartheid South Africa. These men stand at the brink of a new decade, searching for redemption in the bright lights of the fun fair.
Macbeth: Queen of Scotland at the Royal Exchange
For centuries scholars have dissected the power of female characters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Now, in this new adaptation by Christopher Haydon, Macbeth herself questions the same.
Under Three Moons: A Spotlight on Male Communication
Daniel Kanaber’s new play is at once an in-depth conversation and a presentation of the unspoken. At the show’s heart, the titular moon shines a spotlight on the very human - rather, very male - struggle to communicate.
Make Way for the Matriarchy: Hive City Legacy @ HOME, Manchester
This cacophonous collage of individual stories certainly fulfils its ‘genre-defying’ promise. From poetry, beatboxing, breakdancing, and song, to aerial acrobatics and unforgiving satire, you can never be sure of what the next scene holds.
Miss Julie @ Hope Mill - An Age-Old Story of Sex & Power
Elysium Theatre Company’s production adheres to the period of the piece, whilst engaging in the timeless battle between servant and master, man and woman.
One World Women: Working Together Across Borders
One World Women is an international, peer-to-peer training initiative, aimed at promoting business growth for ambitious female entrepreneurs in Western Africa. I caught up with the charity’s founder, Cath Harris, to discuss the past, present and future of this inspiring project.
dressed @ HOME Manchester
“It's difficult to review a play that directly points the finger at how trite the art of review writing can be.” Find out what Sacha Crowther thought of dressed, a new, thought-provoking production by This Egg theatre.
All I See Is You @ Hope Mill Theatre
All I See Is You follows Bobby and Ralph as they navigate the illegal underbelly of Canal Street in the 1960s. At its core, this production grapples with injustice, adjustment and, ultimately, acceptance.
Drag Becomes Her: A Strange Sense of Sisterhood
This sparkling showcase features big names from Ru Paul’s Drag Race alongside a skeleton cast of fledgling Queens. Together, they celebrate tongue-in-cheek amateur dramatics for a screaming crowd of superfans.
West Side Story: A Story of Love, Loss and Male Bravado
Jets, Sharks; Americans, Puerto Ricans; Men, Women: this is a land of opposites brought together in dissonance. Is it possible to bring a ‘love at first sight’ story into the Tinder-dominated age in which we now live?