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Articles by Dave Porter
Two by Jim Cartwright: Review
For people of a certain vintage (your reviewer, for one), Brookside holds a special place in their heart. So it’s apt that the new production of Two at Shakespeare North should feature two of the show’s stars, Michael Starke (Sinbad) and Sarah White (Bev McLaughlin).
Dancing at Lughnasa: Review
A huge bodhran hangs over the set of Dancing at Lughnasa like some leaden sky settling down on the inhabitants of this village in Donegal. Together with the fiddle it represents freedom from the cares of everyday life, a chance to dance and escape. For sisters Christina, Agnes, Rose and Margaret another kind of freedom comes with their treasured radio, when it works that is. They daydream their way through their chores listening to crooners transmitted as if from another world.
The Taming of the Shrew: Review
If you’re not a fan of audience participation, this show is probably best avoided. The cast mingle with the audience queuing up outside the theatre to get in and once inside anyone sat in the first few rows is seen as fair game for some friendly – and risque – banter from members of the Bella’s Club. With the cast dressed in outrageous attire costumes and a burlesque pole taking centre stage, we can see that the shock troops of drama have arrived: this is basque country.
Love's Labour's Lost: Review
There are so many songs in this production, at times it seems like the characters barely have time to break into dialogue. This frantic take on Shakespeare’s romantic comedy takes a full-throttle approach to adaptation, with gags galore, pratfalls aplenty, manic costume changes, and bittersweet musings on the fate of the lovelorn.
Alice in Wonderland: Review
It’s a mad, mad world – and sometimes feels increasingly so as we head towards the festive season – but none more so than in Wonderland, the magical underworld kingdom created by Lewis Caroll more than 150 years ago.
Stones in his Pockets: Review
When it first premiered in the 1990s, Stones in his Pockets caused a stir. A winner of two Olivier awards for best new comedy and best new actor, the play by Marie Jones has played consistently in the West End as well as endearing audiences abroad. It’s not hard to see why. The play is a raucous satire on the colonising grasp of Hollywood which turns a nation’s tragedy – in this case Ireland – into saccharine content for the masses layered with blarney and ‘oirish’.
Twelve Angry Men: Review
Everyone loves a court room drama – at the moment on TV you can watch televised trials in Scottish courts and listen in on juries in a mocked murder trial. Tie this in with our current obsession with true crime and you can see why resurrecting 12 Twelve Angry Men on the stage is a clever move. The 1954 play originated out of writer Reginald Rose’s own experience as a juror in New York where he says: “We got into this terrific, furious, eight-hour argument in the jury room”.
Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! Review
Reunions rarely work, whether school reunions, band reunions or – this case – resurrection of a much-loved comedy classic. For many people the iconic series Drop the Dead Donkey was synonymous with associated with alternative programming Channel 4. It was topical, funny, larger than life and anarchic. One of its writers, Andy Hamilton said recently that he and co-writer Guy Jenkin were allowed into the Channel 4 newsroom for a day to get a glimpse into the mechanics of broadcast journalism.
Romeo and Juliet at The Royal Exchange: Review
Time flies past like arrows, Shaw said. With Shakespeare, it’s words which fly past us like arrows. Some hit their target, a lot don’t, yet the sheer thrill to the senses such words arouse is difficult to ignore. And when they do land in your consciousness, they leave an indelible mark. With Romeo and Juliet, the plot is well known enough to us that we don’t have to worry too much about Shakespeare’s gluttonous language – we can simply revel in the story itself.
R.O.S.E Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar and Young with Ben UFO: Review
“Are you a fan of Ben UFO?” a friendly young woman asks as we walk into New Century Hall. I confess I’m not and make it worse by adding, “I have heard of him.” This is true (I think) but makes me about as cool as my dad would have been if he’d told me he’d ‘heard of’ Led Zeppelin.
Benji Reid Find Your Ees
Manchester Academy was packed out with a noticeably diverse audience on Thursday night for Find Your Eyes, a piece produced by Factory International for MIF and centred on creative powerhouse Benji Reid. Reid defines himself as a ‘choreo-photolist,’ a word he coined to describe the unique fusion of theatre, photography and choreographed movement in his work; Find Your Eyes is a raw, honest and often surreal exploration of this fusion of genres.
Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet: Review
In many ways Romeo and Juliet, bursting with the passion and energy of youth, feels like the perfect ballet for an innovative company like Sir Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures to stage. And if you think there are no new ideas to be mined from Shakespeare’s timeless story of star-crossed lovers – think again. The production opens with the drop of a blood-red curtain to reveal two, young, lifeless bodies on a mortuary slab.
John Grant Sings the Songs of Patsy Cline with Richard Hawley and Band: Review MIF – Quays Life
John Grant singing the songs of Patsy Cline with Richard Hawley and his band was always going to be a great opening act for Manchester’s newest venue, Aviva Studios. Heralded as part of Manchester International Festival, the musical pairing is not as off-key as might first appear: Grant has the southern lineage to Cline and Hawley the musical one.
Kagami: Review MIF 23
There is a moment during this performance when projections – at that point astral projections that give you the feeling you are floating in space – when I catch myself thinking … this is wonderful, but I need to focus on Ryuichi Sakamoto. Only… not only am I not in space… it’s also not Sakamoto. Remove the glasses and I am in a darkened room, in Granada Studios; a space empty, save for other audience members, moving around the room, equally lost in this strange sculpted moment.
Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play: MIF23 Review
Martin Thomasson reviews the world premiere of Kimber Lee’s award-winning play at The Royal Exchange For much of its two hour running time (no interval), Kimber Lee‚Äôs Bruntwood Prize winning, ‚ÄúUntitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play‚ÄĚ is an anger-fuelled, sardonic rant against western cultural stereotyping of Far Eastern people (particularly women).
Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom
As Strictly Ballroom the Musical quicksteps into The Lowry on its first ever UK tour, it begs the question: what took it so long? Itâs more than 30 years since Baz Luhrmannâs film version dazzled critics and audiences alike. And the ongoing TV success of BBCâs Strictly almost guarantees that a stage show about the competitive world of ballroom dancing would be a hit.
The RSC's Julius Caesar: Review
It was 11-years-ago when I last saw the RSC perform Julius Caesar at The Lowry. What changes the world has seen since then! In this new production, Atri Banerjee brings us a very different production for a very different time. Yet Shakespeareās play, that has captured imaginations with its universal themes of political tyranny, backstabbing, and bloodshed for more than 400 years, still holds the power to reflect those aspects of human nature that time doesnāt alter.
Interview with Strictly Ballroom stars Kevin Clifton and Faye Brookes
Starring in the UK’s first ever tour of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom is a childhood dream come true, Kevin Clifton and Faye Brookes tell Quays Life: When Kevin Clifton was 10 years old he watched the film of Strictly Ballroom and, as a budding competitive dancer, immediately saw himself in the character of Scott Hastings, recalling: ‚ÄúHe was a hero to me and such an inspiration.‚ÄĚ Growing up in the village of Waltham, near Grimsby, Kevin was being taught ballroom and Latin by his...
Vardy V Rooney, The Wagatha Christie Trial:
The football metaphor was just too good to pass over, I suppose. And so it goes with Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial. As we enter the plush auditorium of The Lowry the crowing chants of a Saturday afternoon crowd can be heard pulsing from the speakers. Curtain up (or should that be kick-off?) and onto the stage arrive two match commentators who, if this was a tragedy, would be the perfect stand-in for a Greek chorus.
REVIEW: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead with Kathryn Hunter
Being cast alongside Kathryn Hunter can’t be an easy job for an actor. I speak here not of her personality – of which I hear only only positive reports.
Kontemporary Korea - Korea National Contemporary Dance Company: Review
As part of the Festival of Korean Dance 2023 – produced in partnership with The Lowry and several other UK venues – the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company bring a double bill to the Quays Theatre. Rows of the theatre’s seats are removed to allow the stage to be expanded into a huge white square, which seems to glow of its own accord. In the aptly-titled first work, Mechanism, six dancers seem like parts in a well-oiled machine.
How to get involved in Manchester Guitar Festival
Manchester Guitar Festival returns to the Stoller Hall for a second year with headline performances from Eric Bibb, Miguel Pérez and Aquarelle Guitar Quartet. And this year there are lots of opportunities for everyone to get involved. Carmel Thomason chats to Vicky Ciaputa, creative engagement manager at Stoller Hall, to find out more. What can we expect at this year’s Manchester Guitar Festival?
World-class, specialist dance school the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) at The Lowry, is recruiting
World-class, specialist dance school the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) at The Lowry, is recruiting young dancers for its Autumn intake. Carmel Thomason talked to CAT Manager, Sally Wyatt to find out more: Why is it important to have a scheme like Lowry CAT? Sally: “The Lowry CAT scheme allows young people to pursue their dreams of a career in dance as part of a broad and balanced education.
Mother Goose with Ian McKellen: Review
Sir Ian McKellen may or may not be a real wizard, but he is certainly a knight in shining armour for theatre. I’ve seen many a Christmas pantomime, more recently Easter pantomimes, but never before a pantomime that spanned both seasons, with no gap in between. Mother Goose opened in Brighton early December before a Christmas run in the West End.
REVIEW: Of All The Beautiful Things in the World at Home, Manchester
Questions concerning who should be permitted to write about certain topics and, more pointedly, which actors should be allowed to play certain roles have become increasingly vexed in recent times. I donât wish to poke my finger into wounds that are already deep and tender, but it does strike me that, underneath these disputes, lie quite profound matters regarding the purpose of drama. Other than serving as a modern âopiate of the peopleâ, what might drama be for?
Review: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Royal Exchange Manchester
Structurally, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has more than its fair share of problems. As Gore Vidal perceptively noted, the first act should not work: it is long and drawn out and relies heavily on exposition. And at more than three hours long, the play requires a show of stamina from the audience. But in this production at the Royal Exchange by Roy Alexander Weise, time is not an issue.
REVIEW: New musical retells a story that sparked a revolution.
Move over Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and the rest of Henry‚Äôs wives ‚Äď there‚Äôs a new queen in town. Cake: the Marie Antoinette Playlist gives the notorious French queen the Six treatment in this gig musical that fuses pop, rap, contemporary ballet, rave and hip-hop.
Shakespeare's classic is reimagined with Tracy-Ann Oberman as Shylock at Home
War in Europe, the far right in the streets with their dog whistles, and a sharp rise in anti-Semitism: it‚Äôs not hard to see parallels between the inter-war period and today‚Äôs political landscape, where Putin invades a neighbouring country on the pretext of getting rid of ‚Äėfascists‚Äô. Some would see it as a brave decision by actor Tracy-Ann Oberman and writer-director Brigid Larmour to relocate The Merchant of Venice to London‚Äôs East End during the Battle of Cable in 1936.
Win tickets to the immersive Faulty Towers the Dining Experience
We are giving away a pair of tickets to the 25th anniversary celebration of the Interactive Theatre International’s Faulty Towers the Dining Experience on Thursday 2 March 2023. The tickets come with a 3-course meal and 5-star comedy inspired by the BBC classic series, Fawlty Towers. The show will play at Manchester’s Hotel Brooklyn on Portland Street, with performances from 24 February – 12 March 2023.
Spring and Port Wine with Les Dennis: Review
Of the two generations represented in Bill Naughtonâs Spring and Port Wine, the older one (the parents) have departed this world and even their children will now be in their eighties. So, much as Boltonians love their adopted son (Naughton moved to the town aged 4, from County Mayo in Ireland), any revival of his work begs the question – does this tale of a domineering father, his devoted wife, and their four adult children, have anything to say to a contemporary audience?
Review - Quays Life
Crowded Room’s Edith reconstructs the 1922 trial of Edith Thompson, one of the last women to be executed in the UK. Directed by Madelaine Moore, written by Harriet Madeley and developed with women at HMP Styal, this production uses court transcripts from the trial to expose the bias that condemned Edith for the murder of her husband.
Wasteland - Gary Clarke Company: Review
I often find it difficult to take dramas about miners seriously; mostly because of the famed Monty Python parody featuring the son who comes home from Barnsley to visit his London family: an inspired juxtaposition, given the former is now a coal miner, whilst his resentful father is a famous playwright. āCoal mining is a wonderful thing father, but its something youāll never understand!’ Perhaps thatās true of many of us not born into a coal mining culture.
Ellen Kent’s Madama Butterfly: Review
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly continues to pull the crowds; partly, of course, because of the maestro’s music, but also because it is a simple, truthful story, based (albeit at some creative distance) upon real life events. The entire opera is set at the very beginning of the twentieth century, with a single set – a small, paper and bamboo, traditional Japanese house, on a hill overlooking Nagasaki harbour.
Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of): Review
When writer and director Isobel McArthur was commissioned to produce an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, it came with a word of warning: make sure it connects with a Glasgow audience. The advice must have worked not only for a Scottish audience if the reaction from Manchester’s theatregoers is anything to go by. A standing ovation was given to the cast, with one person behind me saying they were crying with laughter at the end.
Senator Bob Menendez says he's staying put
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez said Friday amid a federal investigation that he has always behaved appropriately in office. The New Jersey Democrat spoke Friday night in his home state. A person familiar with a federal investigation into Menendez's relationship with a Florida doctor and political donor says the Department of Justice is expected to bring criminal charges against him in the coming weeks.
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