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A Pretty Sh*tty Love by Katherine Chandler – 12th July 2022 – Theatr Clwyd

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" Hayley and Carl. Carl and Hayley. Finding love in the heart of the pretty shitty city. Hayley wanted to fall in love - that was the goal - to find her prince. Because life's about love. Only love. She never found it though, she never looked in the right place. Then along came Carl." Katherine Chandler’s latest play is not for the faint hearted. Based on a real-life event which shook Wales, the play is about dreaming of love, living in fear and ultimately finding the strength to pull yourself out of the abyss. Whilst the play contains strong language and descriptions of physical, mental, sexual and drug abuse, it is actually a wonderful piece of theatre taking you through the highs and lows of Hayley’s life. Set in Swansea, South Wales in 2016, the play runs for about an hour with no interval. It is split into five sections which run fluidly from buried, monologues, letters, strikes and back around to buried. Hayley (Danielle Bird) is a 30-something waitress who ju

Boeing Boeing by Marc Camoletti – 26th May 2022 – Theatr Clwyd

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Set in Paris in 1962, Marc Camoletti’s play Boeing Boeing is a magnificently funny tale about how Bernard, (John Dorney), a successful architect, juggles his complicated love-life, whilst not really caring that he is dragging both his maid and old friend into the chaos against their will. Bernard has three fiancées, Gloria, Gabriella and Gretchen. All three work as flight-attendants for different airlines, and with the help of his long-suffering housekeeper Bertha, he has so far managed to keep each woman unaware of the other’s existence due his carefully scheduled routine.  Bachelor Bernard thinks settling down with one person would be too much of a challenge, therefore why not have the best that life can throw at you? Two partners would be a bit boring, four partners too much juggling required, but three? Three is perfect…or so it seems. As careful as Bernard’s calculations are, he can’t stop technology and the launch of a new super-speed jet is about to throw all his high-precis

Celebrated Virgins: A Story of the Ladies of Llangollen by Katie Elin-Salt – 24th May 2022 – Theatr Clwyd

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Thanks to the TV series Gentleman Jack, many people now know the life story of Anne Lister, (3 April 1791 – 22 September 1840) but hers was not the singular tale of an 18th century lesbian. By the time of her death in 1829, Eleanor Butler had been living with Sarah Ponsonby in Plas Newydd, Llangollen, for half a century. Cast out by society and forced to leave their homes in Kilkenny, Ireland, Eleanor and Sarah assumed residence in the Welsh town of Llangollen where they became minor celebrities. What is known about the Ladies of Llangollen is that they were two Irish women who met in 1768 who absconded from their hometown with their maid, Mary Caryll. They ended up in Plas Newydd, Llangollen, where they lived together for 50 years entertaining various visitors of Georgian society, including the Duke of Wellington, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron. Whilst their story may not be known outside of the area, those from around Llangollen tell the story with pride. These were two ladies who

Catch Me If You Can by Jack Weinstock & Willie Gilbert – 28th March 2022 – Theatr Clwyd

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As a kid growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, I can’t say I watched that much TV. In fact, I don’t think we got a colour TV until the end of the 80’s. I think I was the only child in school not to know what colour Posh Paws was on The Multi-coloured Swap Shop, and who understood what Ted Lowe meant when he uttered his immortal phrase about “the pink is next to the green” on a live snooker commentary.   Whilst I’d hear all the hoo ha about Dallas and Dynasty in the school playground (and of course that major news story, who shot JR Ewing) I never watched either show; as a family we didn’t watch soap operas, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t intrigued to watch TV legends Patrick Duffy, Bobby Ewing in Dallas, and Linda Purl, Homeland, if they were appearing on a stage near me! Now, before we start with the review, let’s make something clear, this Catch Me If You Can is NOT a stage production of the 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film, this is a very different beast of a story! The play is based on

Washington Irving’s - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Phillip Meeks – 8th March 2022 – name of theatre

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I love, love, love the comic book effect programme for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but that’s pretty much where my love for this production began to run out. “Don’t pass by. Stay forever.” Beseeches the sign outside of Sleepy Hollow, but this is not a place you are likely to linger. The show is loosely adapted from Washington Irving’s short story, and unlike Tim Burton’s film starring Johnny Depp, it remains true to the original in that it follows the arrival of schoolmaster Ichabod Crane (Sam Jackson) to the superstitious hamlet of Sleepy Hollow. The Headless Horseman represents a past that never dies, but always haunts the living. Journalist and biographer Washington Irving, born in 1783, created arguably the earliest of the American-made horror creatures…The Headless Horseman. Ichabod Crane, a young man from the city of Boston, arrives in the backwater of Sleepy Hollow to open a school, but in reality he has a darker motive for coming to this small hamlet. Irving was obsessed w

The Da Vinci Code, from the novel by Dan Brown – 15th February 2022 – Theatr Clwyd

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I’ve read Dan Brown’s thriller regarding Catholic conspiracy and murderous Opus Dei monks, I’ve watched Ron Howard’s film adaptation, and now here I am watching Luke Sheppard’s theatre adaptation. You would be forgiven for thinking I am a mega-fan of Dan Brown, but you’d be wrong – much like the Harry Potter books, I only read the Dan Brown novels because I didn’t want to miss out on what everyone else was raving about. I was intrigued to see how all the complex plot twists and turns would be negotiated on the stage, (plus Danny John-Jules, best known for Red Dwarf, was due to tread the Theatr Clwyd boards!) The curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris, Jacques Sauniere, has been brutally murdered. At the side of his body are a series of baffling codes, and more importantly, a message to the police to find the symbologist Prof. Robert Langdon. Nigel Harmon (Eastenders) played the role of Robert Langdon, the professor and symbolist, and Hannah Rose Caton played his fellow fugitive and po

Same Time Next Year by Bernard Slade – 8th February 2022 – Theatr Clwyd (Anthony Hopkins Theatre)

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1951, and a chance encounter in a Californian hotel leads to more than just a passionate one-night stand. George and Doris are two happily married people…the problem is, they’re not married to each other. This chance encounter is the start of something, and as the title of the play makes clear, the couple agree to meet up once a year, in the same place, for a no-strings-attached fun and frivolous fling. And so begins a love affair that will continue for 25 years.  The opening scene perfectly conveys the awkward embarrassment of George, a New Jersey accountant, and Doris, a bored housewife, as they wake up and realisation dawns on them that they have committed adultery three times in one night. George can’t even get Doris’s name right! You can’t help but laugh and squirm in your seat as George and Doris, played by Kieran Buckeridge and Sarah Kempton realise they have thrown their marriage vows into the wind for a night of drunken debauchery. Or have they? They don’t feel guilty, and vow