I’ve been reliably informed that if I had seen the movie, I would most likely have remembered it – for good or for ill. But seeing a show ‘blind’ without exposure to its previous motion picture incarnation has its plus points, most notably not having any preconceptions or notions as to what to expect. That…
The long timeline in Leopoldstadt allows for a comprehensive narrative, spanning from 1899 to 1955 in Vienna, Austria. A cast of forty-one, including fifteen children – this is an ambitious production. Come the interval, by which point the story has reached 1924, it is obvious to pretty much all and sundry that the good times…
There are lots of reasons not to go to war – the tools of negotiation not having been fully exhausted yet, the potential loss of life, the financial expenses incurred, and the psychological impact of battle on military personnel and civilians alike to name a few. The life of Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was not one…
Just by googling Charles Darwin (1809-1882) – other search engines are available – the famous image of the scientist is evident: the sober look of a wise, bearded man with decades of accumulated knowledge. The Wider Earth could have chosen to capitalise on that familiar picture, and while some later arguments and counter-arguments about his…
Too darn hot? Well, almost. It’s certainly a very heart-warming show. Not that long after the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Kiss Me, Kate, which transferred to The Old Vic late in 2012 comes, to misquote the title of one of the musical’s numbers, another opening of another production, this time from Opera North. This…
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote about a little girl. “When she was good / She was very good indeed, / But when she was bad, she was horrid.” Such conduct seems to apply to many people in the life of Billy Casper (Simon Stallard). A large number of other characters are taken on by ‘The…
