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Showing posts from 2021

Isla – 18th October 2021 – Theatr Clwyd

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I have a love hate relationship with technology. When I was at university in the 90’s, those around me worked on computers whilst I had an electronic typewriter that seemed to have a mind of its own. I think I was nearly 30 before I finally succumbed to enter the modern age and buy myself a laptop. When I was driving somewhere new, I would study my map book – I would work out which route I was to take and write down the major junctions I needed on post-it notes which I’d stick to my dashboard…discarding each one as I travelled along my hosen route. Now of course it’s much easier, I never bought a Satnav but I have become reliant on Google Maps on my phone…or as I call it Satnav Woman.  Satnav Woman is brilliant...until she isn’t. She can tell you which route to take and then reroute if there’s an accident or heavy traffic ahead, but she can also be a bit slow telling you where to go, or perhaps a little unclear in her meanings. And then there are the times when she just won’t listen. I

Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourn– 12th October 2021 – Theatr Clwyd

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Three married couples. Three kitchens. Three Christmas parties. Yes, I know it’s October and I’ve mentioned the “C” word, but forgive me, this was another of those long-awaited productions delayed by covid that I’ve been itching to see and believe me it could have been worse; when the tour started in Derby they were having Christmas in June! Sidney Hopcroft doesn’t have much going for him, he’s uneducated, charmless, a local tradesman, but he has a will and a desire to succeed. His wife Jane is the typical suburban 1970’s housewife, lacking ambition and maintaining a spotless home. And I do mean spotless. The play opens in the Hopcroft’s kitchen and Jane is cleaning. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Everything must be perfect tonight; somehow, Sidney has persuaded her to throw a Christmas Eve party to impress his bank manager and a local architect. As the celebrations begin, unsurprisingly, these three odd couples all end up in the kitchen – I mean this is a party and all the best parties

Being Mr Wickham – 8th October 2021 – Theatr Clwyd

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Back in 1995, the BBC made what I would consider the quintessential adaptation of Jane Austin’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. The six-part series elevated actor Colin Firth to fame when he set hearts a flutter whilst striding out of the lake at Pemberley as the dashing Mr Darcy, wet white shirt dripping and clinging to his torso. The foil to Mr Darcy was George Wickham, played by Adrian Lukis, a man who shared his history with Darcy. Wickham was a charming militia officer who manged to attract the sympathy of the heroine Elizabeth Bennett. She believed Darcy to have mistreated Wickham in the past and it took the interaction of her aunt to forewarn her that the path to happiness was most certainly not to be found in George Wickham. As the story continues, the aunt’s warning plays out and it is revealed that Wickham is a manipulative cad. He is a wastrel, a compulsive liar, a seducer and live the life of a rake…in fact Jane Austin doesn’t really have anything nice to say about the m

The Hound of the Baskervilles – 21st September 2021 – Theatr Clwyd

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After the last 18 months, we all could all do with exercising those chuckle muscles a bit and where better to do it than by watching live theatre? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated adventure has been given the most glorious comic transformation by the Original Theatre Company. The world-renowned detective Sherlock Holmes and his ever-faithful sidekick Dr Watson are tasked with unravelling a mystery regarding the untimely death of Sir Charles Baskerville. Rumours abound that there is a cursed giant hound roaming the moors which surround the Baskerville home, so it is up to Holmes and Watson…or should that be Watson and Holmes, to use their wit and guile to save the remaining Baskerville heir from succumbing to the same fate that has befallen Sir Charles. This ingenious adaptation combines wonderful comic performances by all three cast members who take on a variety of roles throughout the evening. Serena Manteghi plays a whole host of colourful characters, she is a delight as

Dial M for Murder - – 27th September 2021 – Theatr Clwyd

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Retired champion tennis player Tony Wendice (played by Strictly Come Dancing winner Tom Chambers) wants to murder his socialite wife Margot (X-factor finalist Diana Vickers.) Not only has Margot been unfaithful to her husband by having an affair with crime writer Max Halliday, but she’s also sitting on a small fortune which her husband needs to get his hands on the because he’s broke. Whilst he may have several trophy’s lining his front room shelves, he was playing tennis in an era where tennis players weren’t paid. Many people will be aware of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film version of Dial M for Murder starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, however, it was BBC television that first aired a production in 1952; the same year that a theatrical version was also performed. As I loved Hitchcock’s version, I was rather excited to finally watch this play; I’d bought tickets pre-covid when the tour was first announced, but unfortunately the production had to be postponed several times until it

Missing Julie - by Kaite O'Reilly - Theatr Clwyd 17th Sep 2021 (Preview)

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Theatr Clwyd - 2020 Regional Theatre of the Year. It’s easy to see why. During the darkest days of the pandemic, the theatre not only got involved with the local community, but it continued to strive to help creatives in the industry. An opportunity to stream several free online readings whilst the theatre curtain remained drawn was also grabbed. On 5/11/2020, a reading of Kate O’Reilly’s brand-new play Missing Julie was aired. Over a coffee in the theatre, the foundations of relocating Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie to post-war Wales had begun to take shape. Performed by Sophie Melville (The Missing, The Pact); Tim Pritchett (Casualty, Black Mirror); and Victoria John (Miranda, Little Britain) I enjoyed the reading and looked forward to a time when the play would grace the stage of Theatr Clwyd. Set in a Welsh stately home in 1921, just after the First World War, Missing Julie is described as a modern adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Whilst the story has moved to a century

Grayson’s Art Club – Manchester Art Gallery (August 2021)

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For people of a certain vintage, they’d come home from school, be handed a glass of Kia-Ora and sit and watch Take Hart with the aroma of fish fingers, chips and beans wafting in the air. For the uninitiated, Take Hart was a BBC children’s TV programme about art, presented by a chap call Tony Hart, who had a Plasticine animated side-kick called Morph. Unlike progressive UK Governments, Tony could see the benefit of encouraging children to be creative. He would demonstrate small-scale projects you could easily try to recreate or adapt, and large-scale projects on the studio floor, or a beach which you’d just watch in amazement. There was a special part of the show “The Gallery” in which young viewers could send in their own artwork and if they were lucky, Tony would select their work and it would be shown on the TV. The reason for my trip down memory lane is that during lockdown, Grayson Perry, one of Britain’s leading artists, took this idea one step further. No longer just the domain

A Splinter of Ice – Theatr Clwyd

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📅 Sat 12 th June – Fri 25th June Running time 2hrs 10 mins (inc interval)   Betrayal. “I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” – E.M.Forster Moscow, February 1987, two of the greatest 20 th Century novelists Graham Greene and the Soviet spy Kim Philby are reunited. Philby had been Greene’s supervisor and friend at MI6 30 years earlier, but at the time of the meeting Philby had long been exposed as a communist double agent and was living in Moscow with his final wife, Rufa – a Russian memoirist. I had seen several advertisements on social media for The Original Theatre Company’s online recording of the production, and I was on the verge of buying a ticket when I spotted that the play was touring and coming to Theatr Clwyd. Whilst online plays have been a salvation throughout the pandemic, there is nothing to beat the feeling of sitting in a theatre watching a

For The Grace Of You Go I by Alan Harris – Theatr Clwyd

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📅 Sat 12 th June – Fri 25th June Running time 1hr 15 mins   Jim’s life is going nowhere. He spends his days topping pizzas with pepperoni. He thinks he has found the answer to his problems whilst watching the film “I Hired a Contract Killer.”All he has to do is get someone to kill him. What on earth could go wrong with that? This is my second post-Covid show at Theatr Clwyd and on first sight the stage is an assault on the eyeballs, all acid green, bubble gum pink and sunshine yellow. But don’t let the Crayola crayon set fool you, Welsh writer Alan Harris has delivered a darkly comic play with a poignant message running through it. The tale is a three-hander, focusing on Jim, excellently played by the haunting Rhodri Meilir (Hidden/My family) who, following the death of his mother, has been suffering from the mental health condition, depersonalisation disorder.  As part of a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) pilot scheme, Jim has been selected to work on the production