The whodunit is a theatrical staple. Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has recently celebrated its 250,000th performance over 60 years in the West End but in Eastern Angles marvelous mad murder mystery the genre has been given an anarchic makeover. The traditional ‘whodunit’ cry of ‘the butler did it’ doesn’t last long here as the menservants…
It’s not often you get the opportunity to revisit a production, a year apart. Last year on press night for London Road in the Cottesloe theatre, the atmosphere was electric; a sense that we were witnessing a new direction for musical theatre. A year on and the production has transferred to the larger, neighbouring Olivier…
You know those moments where you hid behind the sofa while watching Doctor Who as a child? Well with The Crash of The Elysium there’s no sofa to hide behind as you’re thrown deep into the midst of a real life adventure. Like any good adventures there are elements of surprise around every corner and…
The fenlands of East Anglia are an unsettling area. The vast expanse of big skies and dark earth seeming somewhat unnatural to visitors. It’s an area that has undergone considerable change as man drained the land to create some of the most fertile land in the country. Dan Canham and Silent House have used interviews…
To begin at the beginning, so starts Dylan Thomas’s epic narrative poem Under Milk Wood, detailing 24 hours in the life of a small, fictional fishing village. It’s also an appropriate line in which to kick off Ipswich’s 12th Pulse Fringe Festival. Bristol-based poet Jack Dean has updated Thomas’s epic poem to his home city….
To sleep, perchance to dream. Though in Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce there’s little chance of sleep. In three bedrooms, across one night, recriminations and repercussions keeps the occupants awake most of the night. In one, Kate and Malcolm are getting ready for a housewarming party, a second sees Jan getting ready to attend that party,…
The New Wolsey Theatre has joined forces with the RSC Open Stages and is holding open auditions for an ambitious production of Romeo And Juliet to be performed at Ipswich Town Hall in September. Open Stages is a project that embraces, develops and celebrates amateur theatre. Over 260 amateur companies have signed up to produce…
One of the pleasures of festival going is spending time beforehand perusing the line-up and picking out those events that you just can’t miss. Of course if you are reviewing it becomes a bit more complicated and you’re not really supposed to have favourites, however, some bits of marketing blurb just jump out at you….
Life can often seem a bit of a conveyer belt, endless meetings, family gatherings and commitments piling up to form a non-stop barrage. It’s a feeling repeated in Gecko’s Missing, as conveyer belts move performers in and out of focus. It’s a device Gecko has used previously in The Race, but here developed to a…
A true measure of the success of any musical based on the back catalogue of an artist is if someone unfamiliar with that music can still enjoy the show. While fans of Ian Dury and The Blockheads will undoubtedly revel in the nostalgia of Graeae Theatre’s Reasons To Be Cheerful, even those unfamiliar with his…
As they bring their tenth birthday season to a close, and rehearsals begin for their annual ‘rock n roll’ panto, Robin Hood, Ipswich’s New Wolsey Theatre has just announced details of their new Spring Season. After the tenth birthday season, the spring season marks another major milestone for the 400-seat venue. At some point during…
Rogues, vagabonds and thieves, and that’s just the legal profession in 18th Century London town. Allegedly based on a true story, Ken Campbell’s Jack Sheppard is full of larger than life characters that inhabit the shady corners of a crime-ridden London. Carpenter Jack Sheppard (not to be confused with the lead in TV series Lost)…
The phrase ‘lost classic’ is often enough to strike fear into any theatre critic. Often there is a reason these plays have been sitting on the shelf but just occasionally that cynicism is unfounded and the discovery turns out to be a true gem. Such is the case with Eclipse Theatre Company’s vivid reclaiming of…
Street theatre – the very phrase can strike terror into the heart. For every wonderful performance there is a plethora of dodgy mime artists, metallic spray clad statue artists and mishap jugglers. Bootworks Theatre, however, have reinvented street theatre and with their latest creation Babyboxes have dragged theatre out of its traditional home and out…
What is the future for regional theatres and how do they compete with London? A big question and the subject for The Big Debate, the opening event in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival. Chaired by Rob Salmon, the New Wolsey’s Associate Director, an assembled panel an audience gathered on a newly created performance space on…
National Theatre. Its very name implies it should reflect life in communities all across the nation. It also has a remit to challenge and provoke thought. In its latest production, London Road, a verbatim play with music based on interviews with Suffolk residents coming to terms with their road becoming infamous for the home of…
If you go down to the woods, sorry basement of the Spiral Car Park, you’re in for a big surprise. Walking down the deserted underground car park at night howls of wolves echo through the lot and strange faces peer through fire escape doors. On arrival in the deepest section of the car park some…
If you go down to the woods, sorry basement of the Spiral Car Park, you’re in for a big surprise. Walking down the deserted underground car park at night howls of wolves echo through the lot and strange faces peer through fire escape doors. On arrival in the deepest section of the car park some…
Arriving at the Ipswich Council Chamber audience members are handed a white forensic suit to wear and a pair of paint covered goggles. So Reykjavik isn’t going to be your traditional theatre experience. Nor is it a play about the banking crisis or Eyjafjallajokull, but a powerful and emotional exploration of love and memory. This…
Arriving at the Ipswich Council Chamber audience members are handed a white forensic suit to wear and a pair of paint covered goggles. So Reykjavik isn’t going to be your traditional theatre experience. Nor is it a play about the banking crisis or Eyjafjallajokull, but a powerful and emotional exploration of love and memory. This…
Well after a few hours sleep I haven’t calmed down. Where to start? Well just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This offensive, obscene and badly conceived piece ranks as the worst show I’ve ever endured. Last night’s second Pulse Fringe offering was the excruciating debacle Sex Idiot by Bryony Kimmings, billed as a…
Well after a few hours sleep I haven’t calmed down. Where to start? Well just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This offensive, obscene and badly conceived piece ranks as the worst show I’ve ever endured. Last night’s second Pulse Fringe offering was the excruciating debacle Sex Idiot by Bryony Kimmings, billed as a…
Now under new management, champions of new writing Paines Plough are presenting a series of shows around the country asking local writers to examine their local environment. For the Ipswich leg of Come To Where I’m From we are treated to four short views on life in East Anglia. Perhaps worryingly for the East of…
Now under new management, champions of new writing Paines Plough are presenting a series of shows around the country asking local writers to examine their local environment. For the Ipswich leg of Come To Where I’m From we are treated to four short views on life in East Anglia. Perhaps worryingly for the East of…
A mad dash across town for the second show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival. The New Wolsey Theatre has been exploring the fusion of Circus and Theatre to create a new physical theatre style. Using the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice the team have created a multimedia 30 minute spectacle that holds attention throughout….
A mad dash across town for the second show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival. The New Wolsey Theatre has been exploring the fusion of Circus and Theatre to create a new physical theatre style. Using the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice the team have created a multimedia 30 minute spectacle that holds attention throughout….
Well I’m confused. When is a play not a play? For me a basic requirement is some form of dramatic progression or tension. For the opening show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival we are offered a rehearsed reading of The Siege (although we are told in the introduction that it is now called Bunny)….
Well I’m confused. When is a play not a play? For me a basic requirement is some form of dramatic progression or tension. For the opening show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival we are offered a rehearsed reading of The Siege (although we are told in the introduction that it is now called Bunny)….
The weather may be telling a different story, but with festival season upon us summer must be finally here. Here in (what will hopefully remain) sunny Suffolk we are gaining a reputation for our festivals. The long established Aldeburgh Festival has been joined by the Bury St Edmunds, High Tide, Latitude, Harvest at Jimmy’s and…
The weather may be telling a different story, but with festival season upon us summer must be finally here. Here in (what will hopefully remain) sunny Suffolk we are gaining a reputation for our festivals. The long established Aldeburgh Festival has been joined by the Bury St Edmunds, High Tide, Latitude, Harvest at Jimmy’s and…
The Jekyll and Hyde tale is well known, a monster transformed out from a well respected individual – and an apt way to start this review of European Arts Company and Rhonda Cynon Taf Theatres touring production. What the company manage to do is turn a classic tale into a monster creation all of its…
The Jekyll and Hyde tale is well known, a monster transformed out from a well respected individual – and an apt way to start this review of European Arts Company and Rhonda Cynon Taf Theatres touring production. What the company manage to do is turn a classic tale into a monster creation all of its…
There are some shows that should just be put down to experience and never spoken of again – Forever In Your Debt is one of those shows – we shall mention it here but lets never speak of it again. It’s hard to describe exactly what Forever In Your Debt is or, to be precise,…
There are some shows that should just be put down to experience and never spoken of again – Forever In Your Debt is one of those shows – we shall mention it here but lets never speak of it again. It’s hard to describe exactly what Forever In Your Debt is or, to be precise,…