Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, which is at Theatre Severn until Sunday 7th of January “Well, we’ll have to do it again then, won’t we. OOOH!” … as they have been doing now for a dozen years. This is the twelfth time that Evolution Productions have brought Brad Fitt and his fabulous …
Chris Eldon Lee review “Eric’s Pride and Prejudice”, which is at The New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 9th December. I’ve been to a couple of David Graham’s Christmas shows before – and to preserve my credibility as a supposedly professional critic, I have been tempted to wear a false beard and dark glasses …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Nutcracker’, which is at The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 27th January. Imagine a picture-perfect Christmas scene, Victorian of course. A parlour is lit by flickering amber oil lamps … with a beautiful, traditionally dressed tree in the middle that reaches right up to the ceiling. Its sweeping …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Constant Companions’ which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcasle-under-Lyme until Saturday 4th November. My absolute favourite Ayckbourn plays are the ones in which he toys with time and introduces Androids to highlight human inadequacy. In ‘Constant Companions’ he does both. This very morning Rishi Sunak has been speaking about …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews the revival of Astley’s Astounding Adventures, which is at the New Vic in Newcastle-Under-Lyme until Saturday 21st October. Oh! What a Circus! Oh! What a show! Five years ago, The New Vic at Newcastle under Lyme produced a show to beat all others. It was stupendously skilful, hilariously funny, and breathtakingly …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Macbeth’, which is at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn until Saturday 16th September. It was good to welcome professional Shakespeare back to the main stage at Theatre Severn and to see the stalls filled with attentive students. What Daniel Taylor Productions gave them was a crystal clear, no nonsense, version of the Scottish …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Brian Friel’s “The Faith Healer” which is at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 9th September and then tours widely, including Wolverhampton Arena Theatre on October 24th. I love Theatre-in-the-Round. It is quite simply the most natural form of theatre there is. Without the complications of wings and sightlines and …
Chris Eldon Lee review ‘The Killing of Sister George’, which is at The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 13th May, “The sacrificial cow descends the white spiral staircase.” I doubt if that final stage direction actually concluded the script that the German-born playwright Frank Marcus wrote in 1965, but this new production is …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Hotbuckle Theatre’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ which is touring widely; including Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn on May 10th and 11th, Condover, Ironbridge and Lilleshall. Sixty stalwart souls squelched through stair rods of rain to witness the premiere performance of Hotbuckle Theatre’s latest production. And the warmth of the show soon dried them off. …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Northern Broadside’s “Quality Street”, which is at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 25th March and then touring. Rather like a box of chocolates, this production of J M Barrie’s ‘Quality Street’ is stuffed with rattling good surprises…making it one of the most enjoyable ‘Northern Broadsides’ productions I have ever …
Winter Holiday Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury until Saturday 18th February Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, March 4 and 5 Review by John Hargreaves If high-level children’s play is imaginative, creative, problem-solving, risk-taking and deeply co-operative, the children in Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons stories sure knew how to do it. Much the same can be said for …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Ladies Day’ which is at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until February 25th They have a very particular accent in Hull. Refined Yorkshire. People make ‘Fern Curls’ to each other. And in this new, updated production of ‘Ladies Day’ the cast get that – and everything else – just right. …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews “Shakers : Under New Management” which is at the New Vic in Newcastle Under Lyme until Saturday 29th October Three actors, three bar stools and that’s it. But it’s what you do with such meagre resources that counts. And for the past 50 years Hull Truck Theatre Company – and its …
Chris Eldon Lee review “Family Album”, which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-Under-Lyme until Saturday 22nd October. ‘Family Album’ is Alan Ayckbourn’s 87th play … and one of his very, very best. It is an absolute masterpiece of character observation and theatrical construction. Unsurprisingly, he returns to themes of human frailty and utilises …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Card’, which is at Fenton Town Hall until Saturday 9th July. This wonderfully celebratory piece of theatre has a great deal going for it … not least, the brilliant (if obvious) casting of the fabulous Gareth Cassidy as Denry Machin, ‘The Card’ himself. This man is the ultimate comedy character …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Tom, Dick and Harry which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle Under Lyme until Saturday 9th July. My wife is German. She has been living in England for almost 40 years and has never understood why the English are so obsessed with telling and re-telling and telling again the …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Hotbuckle Theatre Company’s production of ‘Great Expectations’ which is touring widely. It is a measure of the high regard in which Hotbuckle Theatre is held that the good folk of Condover last Saturday night eschewed the penalty shootout of the FA Cup Final and the tumult of the Eurovision Song Contest …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Jane Eyre, which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme until 28th May So, there I was – settling down to review yet another small-cast adaptation of ‘Jane Eyre’. After all, Charlotte Bronte has plenty of fans. She sells tickets. People like straight-forward adaptations. This should be a gentle enough …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Happy Jack’, which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle Under Lyme until Saturday 30th April. It’s not often you get a stage play that is also a ‘page turner’. Watching ‘Happy Jack’ is like thumbing the pages of an old family photo album … keen to see the next …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews “Cluedo” which is at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn until Saturday 16th April If you like, I can tell you who did it right now. The Butler did it. And by that, I mean he completely stole the show. Jean-Luke Worrell has been recruited from the highly successful “The Comedy About A Bank …