ON Sunday evening I watched Liverpool on TV give away a two goal lead in their FA cup tie against the lower ranked Shrewsbury Town side. When they were two goals in front, they relaxed a team sure of their position and skills. Watching the first half of this ballet I had the same feeling….

THE big selling point of Romantics Anonymous (both the French film and this wonderful musical show) is “love and chocolate, what’s not to like?” But that would be to overlook the many extra delights that Emma Rice has included in her inspired production, which sold out the Sam Wanamaker Theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe as she…

LINSEY O’Neill’s hysterical Castle Players pantomime is based on the story of Macbeth, with a few other Shakespearean plays thrown in for good measure, and liberally sprinkled with a satirical look at game shows and “reality” television and the traditions of the panto genre. What could possibly go wrong ­– other than the electrocution of…

WRITER Ed Edwards’ views on why the social groupings becoming addicted to hard drugs has changed from a handful of well-heeled upper-class people. Go back before the swinging sixties and the figure for the number of addicts in this country was officially under 5,000, nearly all from that higher social and income bracket. With the…

THE big problem with Sleeping Beauty is that it is a story that ends too soon – as a pantomime, the big scene is the one where Princess Aurora pricks her finger on the spinning wheel brought to the palace by the wicked fairy Carabosse, and the Fairy Queen saves the day by putting everyone…

ANYONE who was lucky enough to see Tracie Bennett in the National Theatre’s brilliant production of Follies will know that this is a woman who can carry a whole show. Her character, Carlotta, was not one of the four principals, but her performance of I’m Still Here, one of Follies’ big numbers, was an absolute…

YASMINA Reza doesn’t like her plays being called comedies – she thinks they are tragedies. But she does accept that they are funny. God of Carnage is both. It is very, very funny. It is also very sad. Lindsay Posner’s brilliantly directed Bath Theatre Royal production captures both aspects. We laugh loudly and frequently at the…

NICK Payne’s extraordinary play Constellations has its south west premiere at Yeovil’s Swan Theatre. It’s an intense two-hander that observes a relationship from the road(s) less travelled. And the premise is that every single move we make is predetermined, and may be almost replicated in alternative universes. Marianne and Roland meet – many times over,…

aWHY do we like to be frightened? What is it that makes horror films so appealing? Why do we love to gather round the fireside and have our blood chilled by stories of haunted houses, headless knights and grey ladies ceaselessly pacing lonely battlements? You might say, we live in comfortable times and we need…