Barney Norris Oldham Coliseum Company Oldham Coliseum 18 April 2019 - 4 May 2019; 2hr 5min inc interval The Coliseum essayed dementia not too long ago in the fascinating, fragmented but ultimately award-winning story of The Father. While that was a rather brittle play, full of fear and anguish, Barney Norris's 2014 first full-length play covers the same initial ground seen through a lifetime of love - both that of the two main characters, Arthur and Edie, and that of Norris for his grandparents, the inspiration for the play. Norris suggests the play was written to counter the anger and distress from which many modern plays stem. So yes, this is ultimately a much more sentimental journey, but in being so it achieves a level of decent humanity that ultimately makes it, if not more satisfying, then certainly more palatable. Arthur (Robin Herford, quietly bluff and worried what the future might hold) and Edie (Liz Crowther, better than I have ever seen her before, a lovely portrait of affection, homeliness and humour) have been together for decades, but both are worried that, Edie being on the early slopes of dementia, they might not be "together" for much longer. Slightly estranged (by way of having a wife they don't get on with) son Stephen (Ben Porter) engages lost soul Kate (Kitty Douglas) as a home help for the pair until she works out what she wants to do with her life, and the three get along well, the young woman finding an obvious affection for the couple. Complications arise when Stephen's wife throws him out, and his clumsy attempts to woo Kate are rejected after he upsets her new-found niche, but basically this is the story of warm humanity coming to terms with its own - and our - frailty. That it is a play about dementia - that visitor disruptive of ordinary life - needn't concern potential audience members who might not be keen on being reminded of what might lie in store. The whole subject is handled without sugar-coating anything, but with the perhaps easy notion that love will conquer all fears. What's wrong with it? Despite Chris Lawson's assured direction, the play is a couple of hours of chat: little happens and anyone keen on action will be disappointed. On the other hand this is a stimulating dialogue on the nature of love and life for the vast majority of us; not the confrontation of obstacles and grasping ambition, but of steering a quiet course through troubles and coming out the other side (like Arthur and Edie, despite disappointments; unlike their son, who has a nice life but throws it away). It describes a life of familiarity and affection rather than argument (or indeed, excitement), of simply enjoying a life together. It's a sweet, sad couple of hours that doesn't put the world to rights, but makes you feel a bit better about it. #RobinHerford #LizCrowther @barnontherun #Visitors

Liz Stevenson Junction 8 Theatre in association with the Dukes, Lancaster Chorley Town Hall 16 April 2019 - 20 April 2019, 80min no interval A luv letter to Lancashire, deftly crafted out of hours of conversation with 500 of its inhabitants, and edited into 80 minutes of lovingly-acted verbatim theatre. Where else might you hear such homespun yarns – using brightly-coloured balls of unspun cotton to link many of the characters – than in the county that owes much of its heritage to the fine but resilient thread? The play is taking its stories back to the half-dozen locations around the county where participants were interviewed, late last year. Director Liz Stevenson has skilfully woven the narrative out of rich reminiscence, sometimes dark despondency, but all with a hefty helping of native humour. A range of voices, ages and attitudes are all delivered by three consummate performers. From teenage aspiration to elderly resignation: a one-time millworker recalls the din of the weaving sheds; a knit and natter group in Blackpool reckons it could solve the Middle East crisis. Someone loves Euxton, almost as much as someone else detests Skelmersdale. And casual racism creeps in wherever you are... But when a violin-playing Iraqi asylum-seeker sings the praises of Lancaster, he plays directly upon your own heartstrings. His words are delivered by Roberta Kerr, a familiar character actor from the region’s theatres, and one whose shape-shifting skills are matched here by fellow performers Matthew Durkan and Natasha Patel. In an age of anxiety and of brooding over Brexit, this play also reminds us that what unites us is always stronger than what divides us. Liz Stevenson is half of the siblings behind Chorley-based Junction 8 theatre company, and at the age of 29 is about to become artistic director of Keswick’s Theatre By The Lake. Lancastrians proves she has her heart in the right place. The banner above Chorley bus station proudly asserts that Lancashire is “the place where everyone matters.” Or should that be natters? #Lancastrians #TheDukesTheatre #Junction8Theatre

Pete Brooks and Andrew Quick, after Joseph Conrad imitating the dog Quays Theatre, The Lowry, Salford 16 April 2019 – 18 April 2019; 2hr 20min with 20min interval This production was criticised by my colleague David Upton on its previous showing in Lancaster for the quality of its sound and the lack of complete lip-sync when the actors are projected in real-time on screens above the stage (sometimes with prepared background images, sometimes in distortion or left-right reverse, or more than one of those at once). It’s all very clever technically, but it can be annoying when it doesn’t seem to be working 100 per cent as planned. Maybe the effect of some voices coming over both in natural sound and, occasionally, altered in timbre and with a bit of reverb from the sound system at the same time was all intentional, to make a point – but I wondered whether the fact that the sound technician is also the stage manager had something to do with it. A bit too much for one man to do? And anyway, what was the point? imitating the dog (or IMITATING THE DOG, as the company also projects itself: all upper case or all lower seems to be OK, but not both) is pretty keen on making points, so you can’t be sure. This version of Conrad’s story of finding an expat colonialist gone bananas in the Congo presents the story in an imaginary post-conflict, dystopian, back-to-the-dark-ages Europe, with the investigator a sane Congolese from a seemingly prosperous, modern and un-war-torn society in the DRC – a sort of ‘history could have turned out different’ approach. Oh, and she’s a girl. It’s an interesting fantasy, but we could have done without all the interjected earnest reconstructions of the pre-production discussions on the issues involved… suggesting it’s really about the present day, and 'Farage and Boris Johnson and… Trump’. It isn’t – and the thing about history is that it’s what actually turned out, not what might have. I wonder how many of the creatives have actually seen Africa from the ground up. The technical issues didn’t really bother me, though in the end the only thing that was done consistently was to present the adaptation as if making a film, with the screenplay directions dictated to the audience as camera angles were set up. Better to make a real film, perhaps. In the multi-character, five-strong cast, Manchester-trained Keicha Greenidge is private eye Marlow (funny name, eh?), and she and Matt Prendergast have the lion’s share of the play and chew it up very well between them. #HeartofDarkness #imitatingthedog

Based on the Paramount Pictures film written by Bruce Joel Rubin Music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard Bill Kenwright Productions Palace Theatre, Manchester 16 April 2019 - 20 April 2019; 2hr 30min inc interval Ghost The Musical first materialised at the Manchester Opera House in 2011, where it had an extended try-out pre West End. I thought it a brilliant slice of theatre, though much of my excitement was generated by the staging, which involved complex video screens and projections, very cutting-edge stuff. The story worked well too, I thought, but the score, apart from Unchained Melody - lifted straight from the original film - wasn’t memorable, still isn’t, and that’s perhaps the main reason the West End run managed only a year or so. The current tour is of a much-changed production. But first, for those who aren’t up to speed… Sam and Molly are walking back to their New York apartment one night when Sam is murdered. Molly, deeply in love with Sam, is distraught and in mourning long after the funeral. Meanwhile, Sam is still trapped between this world and the next, reluctant to pass fully to the other side while he is aware of Molly being in terrible danger from the same hoodlum who shot him. He sets out to rescue her, with the help of a back-street psychic. The film, with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, is still hugely popular and this stage version shouldn’t disappoint its fans, since it manages to be a musical with the plot of a thriller that mostly holds the attention, draws you in and makes you want to know what happens next. The staging now is nowhere near as impressive as the first time around and an already non-too-subtle enterprise has been further coarsened by hammering things home too forcefully - partly the fault of over-loud and shrill sound. That said, most of the rest is good. It’s strongly cast, with Niall Sheehy and Rebekah Lowings as Sam and Molly fully equal to the demands of the high-octane vocals. Sergio Pasquariello as the treacherous friend makes a particularly strong third lead and Jacqui Dubois is amusingly excellent too as Oda Mae, the dubious psychic enlisted by Sam to help him contact Molly. That central quartet is well supported down the line by Earl Adair as the hospital ghost, Lovonne Richards as the aggressive subway ghost and Jules Brown as the hired murderer. There aren’t many thriller/gangster musicals around, The Bodyguard being the only other I can think of (coming to the Palace for Chrismas), and both have a similar basic appeal. Sentimental slush, some might say, but manipulated with skill to provide an entertaining night out. #ghostthemusical #unchainedmelody #patrickswayze #potterswheel #kenwrightproductions

Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents Royal Exchange Company Royal Exchange, Manchester 6 April 2019 - 25 May 2019; 2hr 30min inc interval They've pushed the chairs back, or at least taken out the front row banquette seats, to give this greatest of musicals all the room it richly deserves. Trying to contain it all within the cylindrical confines of the Royal Exchange might not have seemed the obvious location in the first place, but director Sarah Frankcom's audacious move pays off handsomely and actually reveals several more facets to the show, rather than impinging on its scale. Seen so up-close and personal, it's very nearly a West Side Selfie, and if the intention was to introduce the sublime suite of music from Leonard Bernstein and erudite Stephen Sondheim lyrics to new, younger audiences then it pays off handsomely. The added bonus is that such an intimate production also allows a fuller appreciation of Arthur Laurents’ script. The production also gives you a sense of the edginess and raw energy that must have accompanied the original Broadway performances in the late 50s, when many had doubted it would prosper. Aletta Collins has devised a whole new choreography to fit the size and shape of the Exchange stage and while some will baulk at interfering with Jerome Robbins’ original concept, it loses none of the potency and with the closeness, often achieves a genuinely thrilling sense of risk - especially in the fight scenes. In young Mexican actress Gabriela Garcia the production has found a pretty and witty Maria who can also capture all the muddle between adolescent love and young womanhood. Like many of the large cast of young performers she is making her debut here as well as, like the others, a name for themselves. A Mexican flag, waved by supporters in the audience, turns into a virtual Mexican Wave as the audience rise for a standing ovation. A nice touch that the 10-strong band, contained in an off-stage compartment, also gets to share in the rousing walk-on after the show’s finale. Don’t miss the opportunity to see it all for yourself. #WestSideStory #RoyalExchange #StephenSondheim #LeonardBernstein

Ishy Din Tamasha Theatre, Kiln Theatre, Live Theatre Oldham Coliseum 11 April 2019 - 13 April 2019; 1hr 55min inc interval Ishy Din is the former Middlesbrough taxi driver who wrote the award-winning play Snookered, presented during the Coliseum's year away from home in 2012. So he is, you might consider, one of the few writers who would have no trouble getting members of the audience home after his latest work, set in the office of a taxi firm. Also, that he's taken his own sweet time - seven years - to arrive... But here he now is, and the first thing to say is that Approaching Empty, directed by Pooja Ghal, doesn't have the youthful energy of his former, first stage play - though retains Din's terrific sense of character, dialogue and place and is more complex. Set amidst the death and funeral of Lady Thatcher in 2013, in a fictional town in the North East, Kings Cars is a victim of the ruthless business practices of the Thatcher era, and is sinking. Its owner and manager embody the polarities of the era. Owner Raf (Nicholas Khan) admires Thatcher's decision to discard old industries in favour of new ones, while his lifelong friend and manager Mansha (Kammy Darweish) espouses more honourable business ethics: do unto others... But over a couple of weeks, Mansha seems to be on course to emulate his friend and employer. When Raf announces he is about to sell to the local taxi mogul, Mansha takes his chance to do something with his life, and with employees Sully and Sameena buys the business from the clearly over-extended Raf - little knowing that Raf is cheating him to pay his debts. So honour gives way to ruthlessness - a business method much-admired by Raf - until with a couple of second-half twists, Raf gets his own comeuppance and an even greater business ruthlessness - intimidation - takes over the business. It's an interesting plot, though the Thatcher thing is much in the air without actually contributing anything, and the final shakeout leaves virtually all those who tried to better themselves poorer and not all that much wiser. But where the plot is a little woolly, the characters are very strong: Mansha runs the firm as an honourable man, not a bully; Raf is the opposite, keeping the workers down. His son Shazad (Karan Gill) seems a little weak but has still been cooking the books for dad, while drivers Sameena and Tully are feisty and stand-up for themselves without, like the play, achieving very much. The evening is packed with Din's lively dialogue - some honed no doubt from years in similar taxi offices - while the energy level, while not as high as that of Snookered, is still more than a match for most plays of its kind. #ApproachingEmpty #IshyDin #KilnTheatre #Tamasha

Senor Serrano Devised by Alex Serrano, Pau Palacios and Ferran Dordal Viva Spanish and Latin American Festival HOME 9 April 2019 - 13 April 2019; 65min, no interval It’s quite a week for Barcelona in Manchester, with its football team emerging triumphant and its leading avant-garde theatre company at HOME as part of the venue’s Viva! Spanish and Latin America Festival. Senor Serrano has a following in these parts thanks to a sell-out a couple of years ago, and the group is back with a typically quirky show of ingenious mixed-media, offering another irreverent outlook on life. Kingdom uses live video and live music, mixed with footage from big screen King Kong films to tell its own unique version of the history of capitalism. Bananas feature strongly as the energetic cast of actors, musicians and dancers take a look at consumerism, commercials, multinationals, shortages and much more. Thanks to a mistranslation from the Latin, you’ll be interested to learn it was a banana that started all the problems in the Garden Of Eden, not an apple... So bananas and King Kong - in the quirky logic of Senor Serrano - are two beasts that need to grow, symbols of capitalism, a system that devours resources and can’t stop, even as it pushes us all towards extinction. In the process of presenting the analogy, you might well feel you get to know rather more about the history of bananas than you really need to. In 1890, no one in the West had even seen one, but by 1920 the world had gone bananas for them and the industry around them encapsulated the capitalist system as it ruthlessly swept all before it. King Kong? Virility and overwhelming force, the true ally of the banana as it pushes ever onwards. But enough of the serious stuff, the show is nothing if not irreverent as scene after scene projected on the big screen at the back of the stage is created live on a table-front stage by the cast manipulating miniatures - massively magnified to produce treks through jungles and much more. An appealing quintet of eccentrics keeps the mix ever-fresh and makes for an amusing hour or so of techno clowning. #SenorSerrano #Kingdom #Viva2019

Book and lyrics Gerone Ragni and James Rado; music Galt MacDermot Aria Entertainment, Senbla and Hope Mill Theatre Palace Theatre, Manchester 8 April 2019 - 13 April 2019 and UK tour until August; 2hr 30min, inc interval Famed these days more for the revolution it spearheaded in what is allowed on a British stage – virtually anything, but in this case nudity and swearing - Hair launched in London in 1968 and opened a UK tour at the Manchester Palace a year later. I remember it well and contrary to the popular saying, I was really there and it was, at the time, pretty sensational. I’ve since seen the occasional revival and each time it emerged, sadly, as little more than a period piece rather than the barrier-breaking experience it first was. It’s back at the Palace, based on a generally much-liked production that originated just across town at Manchester’s admirable Hope Mill Theatre, but recast and restaged for larger venues. I didn’t see it at Hope but on this larger stage, for me it again proves it’s a show best admired for what it did, rather than what it is. To grasp what it is/was all about you need to appreciate the sensational real-life 1960s background: man on the moon; Cuban missile crisis; Kennedy assassination; free love; Greenpeace and the Vietnam war to name just a few. It was pretty unbelievable and it was out of this morass that young New York actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni conjured Hair, more a Happening, a disjointed, thinly-scripted ramble, rather than a strictly-organised show. The current production tries for that spontaneity but doesn’t succeed. Director Jonathan O’Boyle has made one or two attempts at adding present-day references (there’s something about Trump on voice- over that I missed at the beginning) but actually it’s still 1967, the Age of Aquarius, and the East Village hippie tribe is hoping to change a world that very much needs changing, practising free love and uniting in protest. While the Vietnam war overshadows everything, the tribe presses for peace and love in a time of social unrest. On a simple set of multi-coloured ribbons, with a five-piece band perched aloft, the appealing and energetic cast does its best with what, too frequently, is material I didn’t really want to see. If I was O’Boyle I’d have cut big chunks (particularly in the second-act hallucination scene) rather than adding bits I don’t remember, to highlight the good bits. Despite an often very quiet audience - until the obligatory cheers and standing at the end - there are still plenty of good things, even though I often didn’t like the new arrangements of the score and found key moments I still treasure (I could once have recited every lyric on the LP) rushed or inaudible. But it’s a very capable cast. Jake Quickenden (Dancing On Ice 2018 champ) is the rebellious Berger, leaping about in a thong. There’s Hollyoaks’ Daisy Wood-Davis as love interest Sheila, who has a strong and very sweet soprano, used to moving effect in Easy To Be Hard, and Paul Wilkins is particularly outstanding, both vocally and character-wise as Claude the potential draft dodger. I don’t know what commercial considerations led to Hope Mill touring this show rather than the far superior production of Spring Awakening, but I hope it puts enough in the coffers to bring back the latter sometime soon. #hair50UK #hopemill #jakequickenden

Based on the book by Julia Donaldson & Alex Scheffler, adapted and directed by Mike Shepherd, music and lyrics by Johnny Flynn Rose Theatre Kingston & Freckle Productions Chester Storyhouse 5 April 2019 - 7 April 2019; The Lowry, 7 June 2019 - 9 June 2019. Making a timely debut on the stage following a beautifully-adapted and well-received television appearance at Christmas is Zog - the well meaning if clumsy dragon featured in Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s best-selling children’s book (disclaimer - we are big Zog fans in our house!) Large in size and keen in nature, Zog is eager to win a golden star at Madam Dragon’s school - where dragons learn all the things dragons need to know. Zog tries very hard as he bumps, burns and roars his way through school - but luckily plucky Princess Pearl patches him up ready to face his biggest challenge yet, a duel with Sir Gadabout the Great! Zog has a really interesting creative team. Freckle Productions has form when it comes to successfully bringing the work of Donaldson and Scheffler’s books to the stage, having produced Stick Man (which we saw and loved) and Tiddler, among others. Kneehigh founder and artistic director Mike Shepherd adapts and directs, with set and costume design by Katie Sykes. The design is really effective - and nicely references Scheffler’s beautiful illustrations. Clever and expressive puppets by Lyndie Wright mix with Sykes' witty shabby-chic costumes, with a functional scaffolding rig as a backdrop. The show has an interesting original folk score by award-winning singer-songwriter Johnny Flynn, but it admittedly lacks a winning earworm like Stick Man or What the Ladybird Heard. A talented, humorous and likeable cast of five (Emily Benjamin, Robert Ginty, Elliot Mackenzie, Dixie McDevitt and Euan Wilson) portray multiple characters, as well as a fantastic mix of instruments, including banjo, guitar, double bass and drums. This new stage production will no doubt appeal to fans of previous book-to-stage adaptations of Donaldson and Scheffler’s work, like The Gruffalo and Stick Man. But those who expect a faithful retelling of the book might go away a little disappointed. There is barely any of Donaldson’s beautifully-balanced language at all, just snippets here and there. It makes you wonder what the point is of adapting the book if you’re not going to include the much-loved language. The design is really effective, and nicely references Scheffler’s beautiful illustrations, but all things considered I’d have preferred less interpretive movement and a bit more of the Zog I love. It wasn’t quite Donaldson and Scheffler’s Zog for us, but I applaud any attempt to make intelligent and original theatre for children, and there is lots to enjoy - evident from the engaged response from the small audience members. The show returns to the North West with a Lowry visit in June. By all means head to dragon school and make up your own mind. For more information visit www.zoglive.com #Zoglive

Ralph Vaughan Williams and Ursula Vaughan Williams, after Bunyan Royal Northern College of Music RNCM, Manchester 31 March 2019 - 6 April 2019; 2hr 30min, inc 20min interval The Royal Northern College has come up with a fine piece of theatre with this year’s spring opera. They last did Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress in 1992, and I saw it then, but it’s a great piece for a conservatoire to tackle, with multiple supporting roles as well as the main one of the title, and some excellent opportunities for gifted performers to shine in them. This production has all that – particularly in the ‘Vanity Fair’ scene that opens the second act – but it has much, much more. The story has been re-interpreted as an allegory of a soldier’s life from the First World War – a soldier who is shell-shocked and has to battle with his memories of the horror as much as the hypocrisy and opprobrium of those back home, but triumphs in the end. It works remarkably well, and Jonathan Cocker’s concept and direction are inspired. He’s helped by a haunting single-set design concept from Bob Bailey (the vivid period costumes are his as well) in which the foxhole in the trenches of the opening transforms to a field hospital, a town in Blighty or the long hard, road to Zion as required. It could be Vaughan Williams’ own memories of the Great War brought to life: he served as a medic after volunteering in early middle-age, and chose the story himself for what many consider his best full-length opera, working on it for years before its post-World War II premiere. In this production the angels are nurses and those who point the way to salvation are doctors and their aides; Pilgrim’s armour is a tweed suit as he seeks rehabilitation, Vanity Fair is a gathering of grotesques beneath the flags of patriotism, and Mr and Madam By-Ends are the callous wealthy. The battle with Apollyon presents the dragon as a human phalanx but looking horribly like a huge artillery piece, and the dead emerge from the set to haunt the hero even while his soldier mates wander fearfully in the war-torn landscape. It’s also excellently sung. The RNCM seems to have a glut of extremely good male singers at the moment, and there are many different chances for individuals to shine. I saw baritone Edward Robinson in the title role and have nothing but praise for his performance, and likewise with Liam Mcnally’s appearance as the writer in the prologue and epilogue. William Kyle was powerful as the Herald (here a Mr Mayor back home); Kamil Bien impressed with a mature tenor timbre in his roles as Interpreter (in this case a medic) and Messenger in the wartime hospital scenes; Steffan Owen stood out for his singing and his characterisation as Lord Hate-Good (now, with the text as cue, a be-wigged and merciless judge). There were excellent performances, too, from Stephanie Poropat, Lucy Vallis and Rhiannon Doogan as the Shining Ones, Stephanie Maitland as Madam By-Ends (with Ryan Davies as Mr), and a whole variety of roles in Vanity Fair. David Parry pilots it all with a sure hand in the pit, and the chorus singing – they’re trained by Kevin Thraves – is magnificent. #RNCM #VaughanWilliams #PilgrimsProgress

Charlotte Keatley London Classic Theatre Oldham Coliseum 2 April 2019 - 6 April 2019; 2hr 20min with interval After all these years, Charlotte Keatley's 1987 Contact Theatre masterpiece - still the most widely-performed play by a woman and yes, I reviewed that first production - remains an object lesson in creating powerful, vibrant theatre out of very little. Four women, one set, a few secrets, four generations and remarkably little background gives us at once a story of one family and, I suspect, a story that resonates with many women, about the love-hate relationship between mothers and daughters. The four generations are Doris (Judith Paris), married in 1924, her daughter Margaret (Lisa Burrows), married in 1951, Margaret's daughter Jackie (Kathryn Ritchie), born in 1952, and Jackie's daughter Rosie (Rebecca Birch), born in 1971 and brought up as Margaret's daughter, Jackie's sister. The plays follows them all across the years, from Doris's teens to Rosie's, not chronologically but dipping in and out, relating both events that change the course of their lives and feelings that speak of personal sacrifice, with the resulting fallout for each woman along the way. One thing I recall about the initial production was that for all its family trauma it was presented with a light touch, with revelations left to add their own weight rather than being a life-sapping drag on the lives involved. Times have clearly changed, for Michael Cabot's production for London Classic Theatre - this is the last-but-one date on an autumn-winter tour - takes things rather more seriously. I must confess in the first scene I thought I was going to hate the whole evening, so unnecessarily serious and dramatic was the tone for what was simply four children playing. But the play warms considerably through the first half and positively glows with daughterly affection in the second, as Jackie reveals who Rosie really is and why she couldn't raise her, and we see how the oldest and youngest family members draw closer together in the face of tragic events. Keatley's surface simplicity of expression here belies a great depth of emotion and feeling. Everything takes place on a single set (by Bek Palmer) that mixes jumbled furniture with a wire fence and other evocative images of life in Oldham, London and Manchester locations, and frankly the writer has never produced anything better. After a slightly shaky start this My Mother Said... proves to be a more than sufficient tribute to a play that started in the North West but is now known throughout the world. #CharlotteKeatley #MyMotherSaid #LondonClassicTheatre

Based on the novel by Paula Hawkins and the Dreamworks film, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel A Simon Friend, Amblin Partners and Josh Andrews presentation Lowry Lyric theatre, 1 April 2019 - 6 April 2019 and touring, final date Blackpool Winter Gardens 19 November 2019 - 23 November 2019 2hr 10min, including interval I haven’t seen the film but I have read the paperback, on a sun lounger about four years ago, with gin and tonic on hand. So my memory of it isn't that clear - you know how it is. But from what I do remember, much of the action takes place on a train as it whizzes past a house next to the railway line. So how do they manage that on stage? Plenty of people obviously want to know - first night at the Lowry was a sell-out. It’s a particularly difficult play to review because so much depends on its twists and turns and it would be unfair to give too much away, but here goes… Rachel travels on the train every day past her old house, pondering her former life married to Tom and fantasising about a couple who live a few doors away and seem to have a perfect life. Rachel has lost her marriage and her friends. The fantasy she is building about the couple has become her only escape, until tragedy strikes and the young wife from the supposed perfect couple is missing…. It all becomes pretty complex as what is basically a good old-fashioned psychological whodunnit, with a modern twist, plays out over a pretty intense couple of hours or so. Samantha Womack (EastEnders’ Ronnie Mitchell, etc) is the girl with a rail card, a drink problem and an unhealthy, voyeuristic obsession with other people’s affairs and she gives a pretty powerful, ambivalent, performance. Is she simply a psychologically damaged observer, or is she the killer? Womack keeps you guessing. There’s support from Adam Jackson-Smith as Rachel’s estranged husband, ex-Corrie’s Oliver Farnworth as the husband of the missing wife and Kirsty Oswald as the missing Megan, but performances are somewhat variable, though the lines they have to deliver and the situations in which they find themselves get clunkier and clunkier as matters progress. The train scenes? Actually there isn’t anything like as much time on board as I seem to remember from the book and it’s achieved, of course, quite effectively with sound, projections and lighting. The production as a whole, with its wheeled-on room sets, isn’t massive on the huge Lyric stage, but the full width of the available space is utilised quite cleverly and everyone is miked, which as I’ve been banging on about for some time, is absolutely essential for a play in a large theatre these days, making a huge difference to audience involvement. The production has its faults and you can be more aware of them than you ought to be while you’re watching it but the time speeds by rapidly. You always want to know what happens next and you can’t always say that about a night at the theatre. #GirlOnTheTrain #Dreamworks

Mark Morris, Ethan Iverson Mark Morris Dance Group Lowry Lyric 29 Mar 2019 - 30 March 2019; 1hr 5min, no interval I read the news today – and 'oh boy' sounds like an understatement. So there’s still a lot about the Sgt Pepper album that seems bang up to date (though by now there are probably far more than 4,000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire)... Mark Morris’s Pepperland is a short burst of glorious fantasy that captures the spirit of that classic album in design and dance. At some points it literally brings it to life – the roll-call of the characters imaged on the sleeve for instance, and the narrative version of Penny Lane. At others it’s more an evocation of the primary colours of that sleeve, the everyday dress styles of the mid-sixties, the dance styles of the period and the world of analogue, experimentation, innocence, optimism and uninhibitedness. But it is also very selective. Penny Lane wasn’t on the album actually (though could have been) – Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, She’s Leaving Home, For the Benefit of Mr Kite and Lovely Rita, to name some of my favourites, are all left out. Instead the show’s score is an alternation, almost, of arrangements of the title song and of With a Little Help from my Friends, When I’m Sixty Four, Within You Without You, Penny Lane and A Day in the Life, with newly-composed tracks by Ethan Iverson – each inspired by or related to one of the Beatles' numbers. I think the score itself could be a classic. The re-arrangements pay skilful tribute to the sound world and imaginations of George Martin, McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr, and the new compositions are creations in their own right and sometimes so fascinating you want to just listen and come back to the dancing another time. They are played live by a brilliant little ensemble of sax, trombone, theremin, piano, electronic keyboard and percussion, with Clinton Curtis coolly delivering the Beatle track vocals. I love the way the vocalist is literally singing out of key at the start of When I’m Sixty Four (and the rhythmic games that follow), and there's enough pure counterpoint to make any classicalist happy as a sandboy. But it is also a dance show, shot through with imagery that makes this member of the Sixties generation feel they’re back again: simple, angular, quirky and above all cheerful. Dreaming and wishing seemed to be all you needed then (and love, of course - easy). Turning someone on could mean what you wanted it to mean, so let's all sit and contemplate nirvana. The sheer precision of the ensemble dancing is almost art concealed by art, but it's key to the whole thing and its impact. They say that if you were really there in the Sixties you won’t remember anyway. This is the next best thing. #Pepperland #MarkMorris

David Mamet Ambassador Theatre Group, Act Productions, Glass Half Full Productions and Rupert Gavin Opera House Manchester and touring 25 March 2019 - 30 March 2019; 105min, inc 20min interval Depending on which survey you read, estate agents come in around number five in the UK’s most hated professions (as it happens, usually a place or two better than journalists). But that’s in the UK and this is America. It is to be hoped nothing over here happens like it does over there in Mamet’s scorching look at desperate real estate sellers who stoop to anything to close the deal. It’s set in Chicago, in an office of four cut-throat salesmen desperate to off-load undesirable real estate on to unsuspecting punters. They’re scrambling to get to the top of the leader board to win a Cadillac, and their fate is largely in the hands of office manager Williamson, who doles out the leads they follow to try to clinch their deals. They despise him while they depend on him - and he, it seems, despises them right back. Mamet’s over-arching and underlying theme is American capitalism, but when it is up there on stage it’s a lot more personal than that. The intense concentration on the plight of individuals and the taut, high drama of just how far they will go when pushed, is what appeals to audiences. It’s a gripping modern classic. This production, by wizard young director Sam Yates, is based on his West End staging of a couple of years ago. It’s been recast, but with such quality players there are no complaints on that front. It’s a terrific ensemble. Mark Benton is Shelly ‘The Machine’ Levine, his genial outer shell hiding his fear that he’s lost his touch. The panic glimpsed behind his eyes goes away, to be replaced by his old gushing self as the plot unfolds in the second half Nigel Harman’s hotshot Ricky Roma is as smooth as silk at first, reeling in a punter at the end of the first scene, but proves to be hiding a lethal mix of menace and outright aggression as the second act throws everything up in the air. Yates paces everything pretty much perfectly, with the cast handling Mamet’s trademark staccato dialogue as if to the manner born. The set, by Chiara Stephenson, is a huge Chinese restaurant with red lanterns and well-stocked bar in the first act, then an office in turmoil, with incredibly detailed chaos strewn across it in the second. It is quite astonishing that they have decided to tour such a massive construction. The stagecraft involved in changing one for the other during a 20-minute interval is quite remarkable. #Glengarry #DavidMamet