Cormac Richards

4**** 12 September 2019 Entering the auditorium, one is greeted with the strains of music from the ‘Carry On’ films – beloved of many, decried by others. To me, the tunes conjour up ludicrous plots, extreme characters, mad capers, campery, innuendo and saucy dialogue – this is not an accidental choice to set the scene […]

4**** 5 September 2019 When first performed in the late 1970’s this lovely play was blessed with major stars on both sides of the Atlantic – Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson in London and Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert on Broadway; a film followed with Harrison and Wendy Hiller.  Pretty good I would say. A

5***** 29 AUGUST 2019 Every so often you see a production of a rarely done play which makes you sit up and take notice and say, ‘Why isn’t this performed more often?’. You then tell yourself that you are pleased it isn’t as it would be less of a treat when you do get to

3*** 23 August 2019 An effective stage thriller is pretty hard to pull off. When you only have a very small number of characters to play with it is even more tricky; ‘Sleuth’, ‘The Business of Murder’ are but two names that spring to mind as successful. ‘Dangerous Obsession’, by renown TV script writer N.J.Crisp

20 August 2019 4**** Robin Hawdon is not a name that trips off the tongue when you are thinking of good writers of comedy and farce and although his output has not been prolific he has certainly made his mark – not least with his huge hit from the 1970s, ‘The Mating Game’. ‘Perfect Wedding’

4**** 1 August 2019 When Alan Ayckbourn let it be known that he was writing a trilogy of plays, he was advised that they were not a good idea for the West End. As he has always premiered his plays at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough he has never looked much beyond the North

2** 29 July 2019 The device of ‘twins’ in a film or play is a useful one for a writer to offer the audience an extra edge to the plot of their work. It takes something extra special to pull it off and for stage productions, some clever artistry is required to keep the patrons

4**** 19 July 2019 Noel Coward completed writing PRESENT LAUGHTER in six days – but had to put it’s stage debut on hold for 3 years as war broke out as it went into rehearsal. Finally opening in 1942 it starred Coward, and as he acknowledged, playing a version of himself; the self-obsessed actor Garry

5***** 11 July 2019 There is a very good reason why J.B. Priestley remains popular today – and studied by students and academics alike – he is a very good writer. ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a masterpiece of construction, and the gradual exposure of secrets which have a devastating effect on the characters, is simply

1* 7 July 2019 ‘Bristol Pantomime Productions Ltd are a new professional theatre company that tour around the UK producing high quality shows for children and adults alike’, so says a note in the programme for this production of ‘The Pirates of Portishead’. Having been invited to review this show – and I have no