______ 1 September 2025 ______ 5***** ______ Written as part of a trilogy all set in the same suite of a luxury Swiss hotel, ‘A Song at Twilight’ is one of Noel Coward’s final plays and tells of renown writer Sir Hugo Latymer coming face to face with his past lives and loves, which may […]
A SONG AT TWILIGHT – Manor Pavilion Theatre, Sidmouth Read More »
______ 30 August 2025 ______ 4**** ______ A cricket match, a food fight, a vegetable competition – what’s going on here? From the description you wouldn’t think for one moment that this is going to be a review of ‘Giulio Cesare in Egitto’ (‘Julius Caesar in Egypt’) by George Frideric Handl, but it is! As
CESARE – Strode Theatre, Street Read More »
______ 25 August 2025 ______ 4**** ______ The ghost story/thriller has, over the years, been something of a neglected genre by theatre; true there have been a few decent ones; versions of ‘The Turn of the Screw’, ‘The Woman in Black’ for instance, but a revival really came with Danny Robins’ ‘2:22 – A Ghost
MURDER IN THE DARK – Manor Pavilion Theatre, Sidmouth Read More »
______ 22 August 2025 ______ 4***** ______ It seems strange to think that this 1925 comedy – one of Noel Coward’s earlier plays (revised in the 1950s) – should have ruffled the feathers of the authorities and been subject to serious questions by the office of the Lord Chamberlain, the censor of the time. The
FALLEN ANGELS – Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis Read More »
______ 18 August 2025 ______ 5***** _____ In the wrong hands, a production of Philip King’s 1945 farce can be a disaster – when you have a director like Jonathan Hunt and his assembled cast at the Manor Pavilion, Sidmouth – it is an unalloyed joy! Farce relies on split second timing, full command of
SEE HOW THEY RUN – Manor Pavilion Theatre, Sidmouth Read More »
______ 17 August 2025 ______ 4**** ______ A former resident of Fyne Court (now a National Trust property) was one Andrew Crossse whose fascination with electricity lead to experiments which would brand him as someone trying to play God. It is believed that one of his lectures was attended by Mary Shelley; the subject of
FRANKENSTEIN – Fyne Court, Somerset Read More »
______ 15 August 2025 ______ 5***** ______ Jane Austen was never to see the publication of her final novel ‘Persuasion’; wracked by ill-health, she was aware she was seriously unwell while writing it. In his adaptation of the novel, Mark Healy, uses the story of Austen writing the book as a parallel to the life
JANE AUSTEN’S ‘PERSUASION’ adapted by Mark Healy – Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis Read More »
______ 14 August 2025 ______ 3 1/2 *** ______ There can be no denying that ‘Hamilton’ has been a phenomenal success, gaining multiple awards across the world and now on its first UK tour.  The story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers, is perfect for the purposes of dramatisation; the tale of a
HAMILTON – Theatre Royal Plymouth Read More »
______ 11 August 2025 ______ 4**** ______ Frederick Knott’s 1952 play, ‘Dial M For Murder’ is one of those unusual thrillers in that you know who did it and why from the start, the story is rather built around how and when the perpetrator will be caught out. The play started life as a TV
DIAL M FOR MURDER – Manor Pavilion Theatre, Sidmouth Read More »
______ 9 August 2025 ______ 3*** ______ The scene is set so very well; a rustic rural house, the sounds of a French chanteuse and the realisation that we are in the build-up to the Second World War and then the mystery begins. Brian Clemens had a long and illustrious career – mainly as a
STRICTLY MURDER – Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis Read More »
