We’re kicking off 2020 with a powerful thought provoking production from Royal Exchange Theatre. Cuttin’ It is a story of FGM and the issues this complex and often controversial topic seems to raise. This is also a story of displaced communities and – at the heart of it that aged old tale – of teenagers just growing up and coming to terms with their place in this world.
It’s been a while since I watched something that has been so brutal as Mother Courage and her Children at the Royal Exchange Theatre. These are words that I do not use lightly. The Exchange’s latest offering is a stark adaptation of German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht famous play of the same name. It is a bold reimagining by Anna Jordan, set in a dystopian future, one which allows its star turn, Julie Hesmondhalgh, to cement her reputation even further, but by the end you are left bereft and disconsolate.
So it’s goodbye to January, who departs with its usual lack of fanfare and it being the month that most people tend to go into some sort of self imposed hibernation, and hello to freezing February as we get set to batten down the hatches as the winter chill continues to rear its unwelcome ugly head. Never fear, dear readers, for we can warm ourselves by cosying up to the delights that wait in store for us in Manchester finest theatres and entertainment venues.
The Royal Exchange Christmas offerings have become a must see fixture over the past few years. They become renowned for dispensing with the more traditional Christmas razzle dazzle that you’d be accustomed to seeing theatres put on at this time of year. Their past hits have included such classics as Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls, Neil Simon’s Sweet Charity and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. It is this well travelled musical road that Royal Exchange once again venture upon with another Broadway inspired show as its showpiece Christmas production – their version of Mel Brooks’ The Producers.
There’s a reason why so many theatre productions are obsessed with the classics. It’s because the source material has proven itself to be a crowd pleasing surefire hit, which has probably won an award or two in the process. Therefore, they become rich pickings for theatre producers as they give fresh perspective to an aged old text. In Death of a Salesman you have such a magical classic, and in Royal Exchange – with Sarah Frankcom at the helm – you have producers looking to cast the same spell over Manchester’s theatregoers.