Cormac Richards

______ 25 July 2024 ______ 5***** _____ As an astonishingly popular TV series of the 1970s, it took until 2018 for a stage version to hit the stage – with great success – it starred Joe Pasquale as the hapless character Frank Spencer, the role created on screen by Michael Crawford. The delightful Barn Theatre […]

______ 22 July 2024 ______ 4**** ______ Playwright Richard Harris has written some of the most performed plays in the UK – ‘Stepping Out’ and ‘Outside Edge’ to name the best known; ‘Party Piece’ is a much lesser known work, but based on his earlier play, ‘Local Affairs’. In ‘Outside Edge’ the central characters are

______ 15 July 2024 ______ 3*** ______ The TV series Yes, Minister and sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, were pivotal situation comedies of their time; garnering support and praise from politicians to critics to the man on the street. Running collectively through the best part of the 1980s whilst Margaret Thatcher was in Number 10 Downing

______ 8 July 2024 ______ 2.5      **½ Opening in 1987 at an Off-Broadway Theatre, ‘Perfect Crime’ is still running; a younger equivalent to London’s ‘The Mousetrap’ (now in it’s 70th year!). More astonishing is the fact that (apart from a small handful of performances), the leading role of the psychiatrist, Margaret Thorne Brent,

______ 1 July 2024 ______ 5***** ______ Written when Noël Coward was approaching his mid-twenties, it is difficult to believe that his hugely popular play ‘Hay Fever’  is celebrating its centenary having been written in 1924 with its stage premiere the following year. Noted for the strength of the comedy and the verbal sparring between

______ 26 June 2024 ______ 5***** ______ A year ago I came across Rendez-Vous Dance for the first time. The show was ‘What Songs May Do’ and I described it in one word, ‘Outstanding’. Following such a fulfilling experience, one yearns for any follow-up to be on an equal standard. ‘The Monocle’ is just that.

______ 24 June 2024 ______ 3*** ______ A yearly celebration takes place in the seaside town of Sidmouth in Devon; the opening of the Summer Play Festival; 12 plays performed in 12 weeks forming the longest running repertory theatre season in the UK. With advance ticket sales as good as they have ever been there

______ 20 June 2024 ______ 4**** ______ I have followed Cornwall-based Ha Hum Ah Theatre Company for some years now and their growth has been a joy to watch. In collaboration with the Minack Theatre, they are currently touring in ‘The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary’, an adaptation (of sorts) by John Nicholson. Now, Nicholson

______ 4 June 2024 ______ 5***** ______ The dinner party from hell is a tried and trusted setting for writers, from Shakespeare’s ‘Titus Andronicus’ to Graham Greene’s novel ‘Doctor Fischer of Geneva’ to Peter Greenaway’s film, ‘The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover’  – hosts setting up to humiliate their guests whilst offering