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…
This week The Stage newspaper published its annual Stage100, a list of those seen as the most influential people in theatre this year. The list is compiled by a panel of judges but, this year, their list has caused some comment with its focus on London and the West End in particular. Lyn Gardner in…
There’s two sides to every story. Dick Turpin. Romantic hero or thief and murderer? As history passes and tales get embellished what’s real and what has been embellished to fit the agenda of the storytellers themselves? Just a few days short of the 306th anniversary of his baptism we still owe much of what we…
In a day focussed on how Arts Council cuts may impact the future of theatre, it is perhaps sadly appropriate that Suffolk Youth Theatre open their 17th and potentially final public stage production. There’s a sense of coming full circle as the company return to the production that they first staged back in 1995, Stephen…
2011 seems to be the year for Much Ado About Nothing. The much-publicised David Tennant/Catherine Tate production, the Shakespeare’s Globe staging and, first out of the blocks, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. Director Abigail Anderson has embraced the intimacy of the Regency playhouse and produced a chamber version of Shakespeare’s battle of the sexes….
Eastern Angles can always be relied on to turn the traditional Christmas show on its head and, on this occasion, it’s a case of ‘In Cod We Trust’. Gills Around The Green, Julian Harries’ and Pat Whymark’s 12th festive offering for Eastern Angles is a fishy affair. It’s the usual surreal offering so any attempt…