Theatre

Feature Of Mice and Men

The celebrated tale is adapted for the Carriageworks stage

This month, Leeds Carriageworks theatre are bringing their own version of the best-loved novel-turned play, Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck’s novel has been brought to life by the local award-winning theatre group Mind the Gap, who work with both actors with learning disabilities and those who are non-disabled.

The characters of George Milton and Lennie Small will be reenacted in a touching performance which has been deemed suitable for… Read more...

Review The Deep Blue Sea

Simon Walker watches the impressive Terence Rattigan play at the West Yorkshire Playhouse

Rarely have I found myself so enchanted by a set. Ruari Murchison’s angular London apartment is a platter of jutting panels, its triangular floor dislodged from a huge, horizontal picture frame. It belongs to the Hong Kong skyline, or in an ice cream. The Playhouse’s version of The Deep Blue Sea, by Terence Rattigan, is almost worth seeing for architectural reasons alone.

Thankfully, though, there are others. Director Sarah Esdaile… Read more...

Preview Jenny Eclair

See the Grumpy Old Woman tickling the funny bones of the Carriageworks

Comedy was never exactly written in the stars for Jenny Eclair. The Kuala Lumpur-born daughter of a British Army major, Jenny moved back to England with her esteemed parents aged two, and in later life was apparently approached to join the MI5, having spies in her family. However, she first tasted life as a performer in a cabaret act at Manchester Polytechnic, and after moving to London she carried out… Read more...

Interview Maxine Peake

Ali Schofield meets with the Bolton-born actress to talk 'Shameless', the West Yorkshire Playhouse and why she has only just come to terms with leopard print

“You get, ‘Are you that bird out of ‘Shameless’? What you doing now, are you still working?’ And you say ‘Yeah’ and feel terrible like they expect you to go ‘No, I’ve got a copy of my CV in my bag. Do you want to have a look?’”

Despite leaving ‘Shameless’ some four years ago, Maxine Peake – who’s other stand-out roles include Myra Hindley, local lesbian diarist Anne Lister,… Read more...

Review Dreamboats and Petticoats

The Dreamboats and Petticoats brand is quite a phenomenal one with CD albums and this show running concurrently on tour and in London; it was time to see what the fuss is all about!

Dickie and Butch are not known for being great lovers of jukebox musicals – indeed, in the past we have intentionally swerved the opportunity to see anything which promises a loose story based around the songs of Take That/Abba/Billy Joel/Engelbert Humperdinck. So it was with due cynicism that I took my seat once again in the beautiful Alhambra theatre and completed D&B’s usual brand of pre-show research.

Dreamboats and Petticoats… Read more...

Review Kneehigh Theatre at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds

Kneehigh Theatre, under the artistic direction of the charismatic Emma Rice, have established themselves as one of the leading producers of contemporary theatre

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Kneehigh’s very welcome return to Leeds – the literature had been more than a little vague. Having been invited by Opera North’s wonderful Howard Assembly Room to stage a one night performance, the talented Cornwall-based theatre company grabbed it with both hands and managed to produce a night out of the highest quality.

The evening was titled In the… Read more...

Review Road made its mark on the audience at the Carriageworks

Leeds Arts Centre presents Jim Cartwright’s bleak but poignant play, Road, at the Carriageworks

The idea of going to see a play based in the ‘80s about economic difficulty and mass unemployment might seem a bit off-putting given the country’s present financial circumstances. However, a frequent shot of humour into the otherwise bleak subject matter means that the audience for Jim Cartwright’s Road is kept on its toes, darting between moments of genuine tragedy and gritty comedy. This production at the Carriageworks manages to… Read more...

Review The Mill

Ockham's Razor bring a stunning piece of theatre to Leeds' Carriageworks theatrs

Once the clinking industrial soundtrack fades and the blanket of smoke in the auditorium starts to clear a strange and wonderful sight greets us. The central focus of The Mill is an enormous, suspended hamster wheel, attached to which are a series of ropes, pulleys and smaller drums and reels. It’s on these bits and pieces that the performers of Ockham’s Razor skilfully clamber, swing, glide and climb. Their… Read more...

Review The Wreckers

A somewhat under-whelming gothic tale comes to Leeds from the Clap Trap Theatre Company

When a piece of theatre is billed ‘A Ghost Story’ an audience will always bring along a set of expectations. Sadly, The Wreckers fulfils few of these. Despite its promising establishing premise– the cottage in which the action takes place is constructed from the wood of ships that have been lured to their demise by bandits – the play quickly abandons this creepy concept in favour of a rather tired… Read more...

Review The Rocky Horror Show

The ever popular British musical comes to Leeds Grand. So yes, it's time to do the Time Warp, again

Rocky truly is the popular branded yeast extract product of the musical theatre world – you either love it or you hate it, well, that’s true for most people…

The Rocky Horror Show is something of a British anti-conformist institution. Since 1974, hoards of tanked-up scantily clad women and bored middle-managers in high heels have flocked in unison, sequinned purses in hand, to part with their hard earned and give… Read more...