The Suitcase, The Beggar & The Wind
It’s hard to know what to make of this 40-minute production, set on the platform of a railway station in a nameless, timeless town. It has hints of absurdism and it’s occasionally surreal, but a lot of it feels unintentionally obscure. Perhaps it’s a comment on the moments of decision that define our lives; or perhaps it’s something else entirely. I’m simply not sure.
Review by Richard Stamp published on Sunday 14 July | Read more
Tropez!
In 1960’s Saint-Tropez, a self-described gigolo who yearns to be a movie star meets a brassy American woman with a shady past. Together, they plan the heist of the century: the theft of the world’s second-largest diamond from under the very noses of the Riviera elite. But Georges the gigolo isn’t very good at this, while Frankie the burglar prefers to work alone. The scene’s set for a zany multi-character comedy, where all the roles are performed by last year’s Buxton comedy award-winners, Nathan & Ida.
Review by Richard Stamp published on Sunday 14 July | Read more
Without Malice or Ill Will
PC Geoff Marsh was a police officer in South Yorkshire - but before that he’d been a miner since he left school, participating in the strikes and industrial unrest of the 1970s. As the miners’ strike of 1984 escalates, he found himself on the other side to his former colleagues, culminating in his presence at the infamous battle of Orgreave.
Review by Stephen Walker published on Wednesday 10 July | Read more
Woman On Fire
Woman on Fire looks at the story of the most militant of Suffragettes from the perspective of one of the fiercest of all. The unsung Edith Rigby from Preston was prepared to riot, bomb and even plan the murder of the Prime Minister to gain the vote for women.
Review by Stephen Walker published on Monday 8 July | Read more
The Riot Act
Rob Johnston’s script is a timely reminder that the Riot Act isn’t just something your mother threatened you with (and then sent you to bed early). Before it passed into metaphor, it was a piece of legislation that enabled the authorities to treat protesters as felons - subject to dispersal by any means necessary, including mortal force. It is also sobering to be reminded, in this bicentenary of Peterloo, that the use of extreme violence against working class demonstrators did not end then.
Review by Stephen Walker published on Monday 8 July | Read more
Green Knight
It's true what they say about less being more. This superlative piece of storytelling theatre could barely be any simpler: it's just one woman, a few unremarkable chairs, and a smattering of props which she carries on in a bundle. But that's all performer Debbie Cannon needs to spirit us away, to a colourful world of knights and giants – where her character, a woman who's known both poverty and nobility, finds herself at the centre of an age-old story.
Review by Richard Stamp originally published at the Buxton Fringe in 2018 | Read more
Old Bones
Making a bet with the devil rarely turns out well. But James Napier, the protagonist of this gently haunting one-man show, has reason to believe he can buck the odds: for he carries a secret, a secret he dared believe would give him the upper hand on Old Nick himself. Needless to say, he should have been more careful what he wished for. Today, he's here to tell us how he won his gamble, and then how it all went wrong.
Review by Richard Stamp originally published at the Buxton Fringe in 2018 | Read more
Gratiano
Some of my favourite Fringe shows are the ones which re-imagine previously side-lined characters, considering them in interesting and unique ways and lending them an amplified voice. Ross Ericson has managed to take Gratiano – a largely un-appreciated character from The Merchant Of Venice – and give him not only a new lease of life, but a thoroughly memorable one at that.
Review by Richard Stamp originally published at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 | Read more
She Wolf
"The history plays are super-boring," complains Queen Margaret of Anjou. And she should know: Shakespeare wrote her into four of them, including one scene – in Richard III – set when the real Margaret was dead. This quick-witted, irreverent one-woman shows aims to reclaim her true life story, and uses it to make adroit and important points about women's experiences in our own day.
Review by Richard Stamp originally published at the Brighton Fringe in 2018 | Read more