WITHOUT Alan Turing, it is arguable that we would all be living under the Nazis with no computers. Hugh Whitemore’s play ‘Breaking the Code’ dates from 1986, a time before the fame and reputation of Alan Turing were firmly established. We now know that the eccentric mathematical genius masterminded the history-changing breaking of the German Enigma code…
AS yet stage adaptations of popular children’s stories have not come up to the classic film versions that have been made of L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz, E Nesbit’s The Railway Children or Roald Dahl’s The Witches. Whilst not putting this production in that category it has to be said that the Birmingham…
HEADED by Heather Westwell and Feargus Woods Dunlop, who founded the company in 2008, Frome based New Old Friends have spent the past 11 years honing their comedy skills presenting their own original creations to a wider and wider audience. This production which set off on its travels in the Spring of last year under the title…
THOMAS Hardy’s novel The Mayor of Casterbridge famously begins with Michael Trenchard, an angry drunken young farm-worker, selling his wife and baby daughter at an auction. It would be easy to think this is a brilliant and shocking plot device by a great writer, but the story is based on a real life event, the…
HAVING conquered television playing juveniles in Outnumbered and Cuckoo, before writing documentaries on sexuality, online dating and porn, Tyger Drew-Honey has now decided that it is time to use the talent that brought him success on the small and large screens and radio to show that he can be equally effective live on stage. The…
PRODUCERS of modern blockbuster musicals spend a fortune acquiring the best equipment and expertise to ensure that the mixture of music and vocals on offer to their audiences is ideal for the show they are presenting. If you look at the sound desk these experts have to deal with for a show like The Lion…
FIONA Williams’ production of Puccini’s classic weepy, La Boheme, has been whisked from the garrets of Bohemian Paris and relocated in student bedsit land in Worthing! The touring Opera Holloway production, brought by Artsreach to Stalbridge village hall, comes complete with a live mini orchestra and surtitles that translate the original Italian libretto for a…
THERE’S a fashion for adapting films into stage shows to be performed by actor-musicians – capturing the cinematic atmosphere at the same time as involving the audience. You won’t see a better example than Sean Foley’s The Man in the White Suit, on stage at Bath until 21st September and opening in London later in…
THIS production is a near-perfect example of a modern musical making maximum use of all the latest theatrical technology. It has taken weeks to reorganise the stage and auditorium of the Bristol Hippodrome to accommodate the staging and lighting effects, which are presented flawlessly to help make the production a visual treat. Add to that…
BEHIND every great story, there are the facilitators whose work is both indispensible and invisible. That’s the idea behind Isobel McArthur’s brilliant reworking of Jane Austen’s classic. If you have ever gathered a group of friends, layed out all your clothes and performed a play, swapping characters as the script demands, you’ll get the picture….