Theatre Reviews

3*** 12 February 2019 The concept of people running a helpline who are actually in need of help themselves is not a new one, but maybe setting it in some kind of apocalyptic future is. The volunteers at the Brightline Helpline arrive at work wearing gasmasks and discuss various disasters that have befallen Earth in […]

6 February 2019 5***** David Tomlinson became the archetypal English gentlemen in Hollywood films in the 1960s and 1970s; diffident, correct, slightly daft and always likeable. Before then he was a mainstay of British romantic comedies and films set in WW2. He was a character actor who you were comfortable with, you almost felt you

4**** 24 January 2019 Sometimes a theatrical production stands out as one which is almost impossible to categorise. Emma Rice’s version of Angela Carter’s final novel, Wise Children, is a case in point. Having made the transfer from the London Old Vic after a very successful run there, the production now reaches Bristol amidst much

22 January 2019 5***** If I have a more wonderfully entertaining 80 minutes of theatre in 2019 than I did watching the wonderfully titled ‘Snow White and the Happy Ever After Beauty Salon’, then I will be thrilled and surprised. This clever re-telling of the Snow White story, set largely in a 1950s style beauty

11 December 2018 2** The Pantomime Season is off and running and, seemingly, every theatre in the country is crammed with Cinderellas, Dick Whittingtons, Snow Whites and, at The Northcott Theatre in Exeter, Jack and the Beanstalk. There are many traditions associated with the pantomime genre and it is an almost uniquely British institution and

5***** 19 November 2018 In his programme note, writer Carl Grose explains how he wanted to offer a theatre audience a view of his native Cornwall that might fly in the face of common perceptions. Thus, his new play is set in a junkyard beside the stock car racing track at United Downs, just East

30 October 2018 4**** If there has been a sillier musical ever written I would be surprised. Just when you have coped with a piano which makes people dance when played, a fashion house called ‘Gusset Creations’ and a mute mime artist you get a space ship landing complete with alien. ‘Salad Days’ is bonkers.

4**** 16 October 2018 BEAUTIFUL THING Subtitled ‘An Urban Fairytale’, ‘Beautiful Thing’ tells the story of two teenage boys discovering their sexuality. First performed in 1993, the age of consent for legal sexual acts between two men was not lowered to 16 until 2001, thus this tale of a gay 16 and 15 year old

2** 2 October 2018 Mischief Theatre made their name with ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’; the tale of an incompetent amateur theatre company whose disaster-prone antics have entertained audiences around the country for several years now. ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ and this play soon followed and found favour in the West End of London. Ventures