Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, carollers singing, snow falling and Charles Dickens. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without any of this traditional festive images but Dickens will never quite be the same again after Eastern Angles irreverent alternative to conventional panto fare. Budding author Oliver Nicklefield has engaged a troupe of travelling actors to…
We’ve all been there, receiving a long list of instructions from our mothers that give us a long list of horrors that await us should we fail to follow her advice. It’s this basis that forms the jumping off point for Charlotte Keatley’s debut play My Mother Said I Never Should. Taking a look at…
Thanks to the popularity of shows like Lark Rise To Candleford, quaint bygone rural life seems to be in vogue. It’s not a new phenomenon though; novelists have been turning to tales of country folk for years – the Brontes, D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy among others who visited the Genre. Stella Gibbons’ 1932 novel…
Is our future life decided by nature or nurture? How much do our surrounding effect the route we take in life? That’s the question that Willy Russell has been putting to audiences. Blood Brothers has been a highly successful musical, running in the West End for the last 23 years but, prior to the musical,…
Theatre itself has always proved a rich source of material for playwrights. Backstage antics, over the top ‘luvvies’ and the often surreal workings of the industry giving writers plenty of inspiration. Paul T Davis has tapped into this vein to create The Green Room, three monologues that interlink and overlap as we peer into the…
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…
On the surface life is all happy families in the Crompton house in Bolton. Run with military precision by patriarch Rafe it’s a home where financial prudence is key, a rule not helped when Mother is not good with figures and a chain of borrowing causes many a headache. Scratch the surface though and there are tensions just waiting…
John Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice And Men may now be over 70 years old but is still as fresh and gripping today as when first penned. It’s one of those rare pieces that works equally well as a book, film or stage play and Serendipity Theatre Company’s latest offering brings this potent mix of human…
As Nigeria celebrates 50 years of independence, Eastern Angles turn their attention from rural East Anglia to Africa in Palm Wine & Stout, a Nigerian coming of age story. A young mixed race British man, Taiye, and his mother are on a journey to Nigeria to meet Taiye’s father and trace his Nigerian ancestry. It’s…
Solo plays seem to be a developing theme through this years’ Pulse Fringe Festival. It’s an encouraging sign that writers are exploring the potential of small scale theatre. Let’s start with a confession, I have never heard of Roger Deakin or his novel Waterlog, so in some respects it was starting from a step back…
Solo plays seem to be a developing theme through this years’ Pulse Fringe Festival. It’s an encouraging sign that writers are exploring the potential of small scale theatre. Let’s start with a confession, I have never heard of Roger Deakin or his novel Waterlog, so in some respects it was starting from a step back…
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…
Gallery Players have long had a tradition of presenting new work and with Adam Gwon’s musical Ordinary Days they manage to trump the National Theatre. Adam Gwon is one of America’s up and coming musical composers and if this piece is anything to go by is surely a front runner to succeed Stephen Sondheim when…
Gallery Players have long had a tradition of presenting new work and with Adam Gwon’s musical Ordinary Days they manage to trump the National Theatre. Adam Gwon is one of America’s up and coming musical composers and if this piece is anything to go by is surely a front runner to succeed Stephen Sondheim when…