Red Dust Road – Review

September 16, 2019 Comments Off read Reviews, Theatre

I’m not sure exactly when the word “dramedy” entered the popular consciousness of people’s lexicon but it seems that dramedies have been around for a lifetime. Mixing comedy and drama has become vogue and that is certainly the case for the heavyweight production from HOME and the National Theatre of Scotland, Red Dust Road. A play that centres on the memoirs by Scots Makar Jackie Kay, it tells the story of Kay’s journey from being an adoptive mixed race child to her search for her real parents, bringing into sharp focus issues such as race, sexuality and parenthood.

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The Jumper Factory – Review

September 12, 2019 Comments Off read Reviews, Theatre

I personally blame Porridge. Their cute array of loveable rogues. Fletcher. Godber. Even the bad guy, Harry Grout, is played with a sentimental kitsch that has the audience guffawing in sentimentality. In fact there’s a whole host of dramas that give prison life a bit of sappy saccharine schmaltz. Think Shawshank Redemption. Green Mile. Heck, even Midnight Express is packed with maudlin idealism. So, when the Jumper Factory comes along, a play about what it really is like to be inside prison, it shatters our dewy-eyed illusions.

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Freeman – Review

June 25, 2019 Comments Off read Reviews, Theatre

Incoming Festival 2019 is a celebration of the best emerging theatre companies from the UK and beyond and is currently showcasing a week of shows at Home Manchester. If anything sums up the spirit of this festival then it would be Strictly Arts – a young, black-led theatre company – and their production of Freeman, which examines the unspoken link between mental health and systemic racism. It was an evening of brutality intertwined with beauty that left the audience totally and utterly blown away.

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Scottee: Fat Blokes – Review

March 21, 2019 Comments Off read Reviews, Theatre

As an honorary member of the Fat Blokes club I was particularly looking forward to Scottee: Fat Blokes at HOME Manchester and giving it the rebellious middle finger to the world for all fat blokes everywhere. However, what I thought would be light hearted was anything but. Indeed this turned into a show that championed those men who are fat, through the personal testimony and killer dance moves of four ordinary blokes who ‘appen to be on the chubby side.

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Spark Plug – Review

February 15, 2019 Comments Off read Reviews, Theatre

Spark Plug sums up everything that is good about theatre in this part of the world. You have a Manchester based theatre company, Box of Tricks, that is a launchpad for the next generation of playwrights showcasing the region’s most exciting voices. In David Judge, you have a writer from Fallowfield whose autobiographical work has more than a nod to the places we have grown accustomed in this old town as well as to the faces we would no doubt recognise in our everyday lives. All of this being brought to you by HOME, which continues to provide a sanctuary for the region’s up and coming talent. What more could you ask for in a production?

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