“Bronte” by Polly Teale
Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

“Bronte” is a story about the turbulent lives of the Brontë sisters and their family. The year is 1845,their brother, Branwell Brontë, returns home to Haworth, West Yorkshire, in disgrace, having been dismissed from domestic service following an affair with the mistress of the house. As Branwell descends into alcoholism and insanity, bringing chaos to the household, his sisters, Anne, Charlotte and Emily, begin to write... Polly Teale's play is a glimpse into the lives of Yorkshire's most famous daughters and their real, and imagined world as their fictional characters come to haunt their creators.

The Brontës are arguably the most well known family of authors; Jane Eyre is said to be the most read book in the English language, second only to the Bible. Polly Teale asks, and tries to answer, the question of how three Yorkshire sisters were able to change the voice of literature and creates history for female authors in a time of social upheaval and Victorian housewifery.

The three sisters have diverse personalities, which are shown by their novels. Therefore it is vital that the actors do them justice and provide an idea of what life was like for them.Guess what, the three actors did just that

Lucy Theobald plays the eldest, Charlotte, and is the maternal influence in the home, shifting between youthful excitement and desperation at her younger sisters

Emily Brontë is one of the most mysterious of authors, It’s quite surprising that such a young woman was able to write a tale of the darker side to human nature without having that kind of life experience. Charlie Osborneplays Emily carefree and lively, as one would imagine her creation Cathy, but weighed down by disappointment until she becomes a tortured, unpredictable woman longing to return to her childhood.

Probably the least known sister is Anne Brontë, the youngest of the family and the one whose works had a more political and social edge to them. Played by Abigail Mahony, this is her first production for the Lace Market Theatre and as she loves historical drama, this is right up her street.

Daniel Potts (Branwell) and Daniel Bryant (Patrick Bronte) , are strong supports as brother, literary protagonist, father and husband.Dan Potts also makes his debut Lace Market Theatre performance and again what a wonderful debut, engaging to the last as he slips rapidly into paranoia and madness. Daniel Bryant, as always puts in a sterling performance, reliable as ever.

Kayleigh Lupton (Cathy) is another first timer for the Lace Market Theatre and shows a lot of confidence in this smaller, but significant part. Looking at Kayleigh's eyes on stage, you can see she enjoyed the part and is hungry for more, and I for one can't wait to see what's next for her.

Damian Frendo (Heathcliffe and Arthur Huntingdon). Another lesser but important part in the play, Damian makes an appearance about half way through the second act, but as always, the dashing Damian stamped his personality and twinkle on the part of Heathcliffe.

Stephen Herring (Rochester and Bell Nicholls). Stephen has two more contrasting roles here, following on from playing Snug and The Lion In Midsummer Night's Dream. Love the comedy as Rochester.

Cibele Alvarenga (Bertha). Wow! Clad in scarlet, she really is the scarlet woman in this play. Knowing Cibele, I think she loved playing this part. Not only is it a very sexy role, red really suits her and the crazy mad acting was fun to watch as well.

Directed by David Dunford, and possible the first male to direct this play, he brought out the different traits and characteristics of the sisters and the alcoholic brother. The second half with the violence in was spectacular and quite frightening to see.

The set was designed by Linda Croston. Simple but effective but the cinematography backdrop (Matthew Allcock) made the whole set look fuller and big. Even though it may have gone unnoticed by some, I loved the coal fire effect on the right hand side of the set.

Lighting design was by Simon Carter assisted by Peter Hodgkinson, Allan Green and Rose Dudley and the sound design was by Jack Harris. Two important production pieces that gave the play that bit of a zing, as well as creating the atmosphere of the era.

Original music was composed by Aaron Connelly which was a nice touch to the play, making it a bit more personal to the Lace Market Theatre

Wardrobe by Barry Holland, assisted by Doreen Hunt and Jean Newton gave realism and style to the play.

Some may find the flash back sections a wee bit confusing until you get to know the story, but it was a nice touch to have the play start with the actors in fairly modern though non descript garb and go back in time to 1845 by way of an on stage costume change.

It's quite a racy script in parts but that does this historical drama no harm at all in my eyes.You may drift a bit with some of the longer passages of script but stick with it and act two makes up for the slightly confusing flashbacks and scene setting of act one.

Well worth a viewing, and it was nice to see the theatre so well attended on Monday night. "Bronte" is at the Lace Market theatre until Saturday 19 November 2016

"Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You" by New Perspectives
Touring Production.

Kicking off at the Bonington Theatre in Arnold, New Perspectives launch their touring production Friday night in Arnold. Adapted by David Rudkin from the M R James ghost story it tells of Professor Parkins, a professor of Ontography, and his visit to a seaside guest house where he finds an old whistle with a Latin inscription on it, warning the finder not to blow the whistle on fear of being visited....but by whom....or what?

Mark Jardine (Parkins) starts off as the archetypal Professor image, very clever with his words and, after blowing the whistle, starts to experience strange things. This rapidly manifests into a full blown visit from, something, which sends him even more rapidly into complete madness.

The two-hander is completed by Jack Wilkinson as Hobbis. Hobbis runs the crumbling guest house and you get the feeling that maybe he's in on what is happening. Whether he is or not, you never find out but there's something about him that doesn't quite ring true.

Both actors, complete opposites in their roles. One is of average intelligence and the other is more intelligent (the roles by the way, I'm not referring to the actors). One is reasonably down to earth and accepts things that happen at face value, and the other finds an explanation for any thing that questions the mind.

That again is something that I enjoyed. This play provides you with the questions and leaves you to make up your mind about the issues raised. Did the Professor imagine it all? Was he on the way to madness and did this just push him over the edge? Was what Hobbis telling the Professor all true, especially when the OCD Professor was obviously suffering from lack of sleep?

And we all know what the mind can imagine with sleep deprivation! But who was the faceless person continually running towards his room, and was he really expecting a colleague up to the guest house to stay? So many questions that the play throws up in one's fertile mind.

The play starts with a bit of cinematography to set the scene and the feel, almost like an old "Hammer House Of Horror" TV episodes from the 70's. Anthony Wise, as Uncle Monty, is telling a Christmas story to his class of boys. but would you feel safe sending your children to be looked after by such a strange "uncle"?. These sections were filmed by Joe Mee.

The angular set straight away puts you off kilter, creating an almost vertigo style feeling and is really effective to get you in the mind set of the onset of crazy.

A wonderful lighting design by Mark Pritchard which created an eerie feel with the flickering lights and back lit scenery, showing shadowy images, but of who?

I've learnt something tonight as well, a new word. Poetical machine. This is a piece of equipment that creates audio projects for the theatre, and Adam McCready designed a marvellous soundscape for this play, adding, to the lights, the needed spookiness for a chilling story.An all round brilliant job done by the technical team.

Directed by Theresa Keogh and designed by Cecilia Carey, this play which is being performed in various locations around the county is stylishly done, although in parts the Professor's wordy speeches lost me at times, it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the play.

Plus I was really impressed with the manifestation of the visitor. This will make you feel just a little on edge with the build up to this part. saying nothing else as you should go and see it yourself.

For details of the tour and where you can see "Oh Whistle" visit their website which is www.newperspectives.co.uk.

"Closer" by Patrick Marber
Nottingham New Theatre.

It starts with a meeting in a hospital between the waif-like Alice, nursing a minor injury, and Dan, a newspaper obituarist and would-be novelist. But, although they start an affair, Dan is simultaneously attracted to a photographer, Anna.

While Anna is equally drawn to Dan, she marries a dermatologist, Larry, whom she guiltily betrays him, and he who deceives her. Spread over a five year period, "Closer" tells the story of the couple's interwoven lives as they switch to and fro between the partners.

It's a dissection of modern romance which puts men and women under the microscope and looks at the sexes, caught up in a web of desire and lust as well as guilt and betrayal.

The four actors Jess Lundholm (Alice), Libby Boyd (Anna), Louis Djalili (Dan) and Jamie Watt (Larry) are hypnotic, so much so that you don't stray from them while they are on the stage, not even to look at the inspired cinematic backdrops, These themselves are mesmeric with the sped up traffic and floral scenes, and especially in the aquarium scene.

The props and the sets are minimal but really effective which also means that you concentrate on the actors and the script and not the whole surroundings.

One of the funniest scenes was again played out on the backdrop, showing an online chat room conversation between two of the characters.

Directed by Max Miller, he brings out the honesty in the script and gives a feeling of realism throughout. It pulls no punches with the language and is brutally honest where this is concerned, but that is also what makes this play so attractive. It's not afraid to pussyfoot around what it means to say.

Charlotte Sanders makes her debut as a producer with "Closer", after previously seeing her earlier in the year in the excellent Christie classic "And Then There Were None".

To say this play is about two hours long, it didn't feel that long, which to me is always a good sign with a play because it engaged me and made me feel fully immersed in the story, the characters and the actors.

There are a lot of people who work behind the scenes in this play, too many to mention by name, but the hard work paid off as this is a really enjoyable play on every level. Another Nottingham New Theatre success, again showing the talent that this city, and university have locally.

"Closer" is on at the Nottingham New Theatre on the University campus, until Saturday 12 November 2016.

"The Commitments"
Nottingham theatre Royal.

Roddy Doyle's book about a group of musicians founded by one man with a love of soul music seemed forever to get going, and that was after it took forever to start. there was a delay, due to technical issues meaning that we were left waiting for half an hour, part of that time looking at the open stage with a few actors milling about, looking almost as confused as we were.

When the musical did get started, it seemed like it was catching up with itself. speeding along which made the pace seem rushed rather than pacy.

Slowly the pace,as opposed to the speed, picked up and by the end of act one, The Commitments had turned me around and I was looking forward to what I hoped to be the best of the two acts.

Apart from Kevin Kennedy, who you may remember best as Curtly Watts in Coronation Street, I'd not heard of any of the actors. After tonight there are some of the actors I won't forget. Kennedy played Jimmy's dad, and my only criticism is that Kevin's accent seemed to keep returning to Manchester and the streets of Weatherfield than stay in Dublin.

This was my main issue because you could really tell which if the actors weren't Irish because the straying accents.

That said this show has so much energy and some brilliant soul songs that you really can't help but love this musical.

Brian Gilligan (Deco) has a fantastic voice. I was worried about a replacement for Andrew Strong from the original film, but with vocalists like Brian, I completely forgot Strong. Gilligan played and teased the audience and he had us eating out of his hands. His finale of of "Try A Little Tenderness" was absolutely superb and had us all on our feet.

Andrew Linnie (Jimmy) was equally excellent in his role in the man who got the band together and occasional peacemaker.

Loved the whole band who created a brilliant crisp sound that, once they got up and running, got every foot tapping in the place.Another case of actors having to play the instruments they use on stage and boy did they play those instruments with amazing gusto and class.

Alex Mcmorran (Joey "The Lips") was rather good as the religion spouting trumpeter who had an eye for the ladies and, being the eldest of the band, by quite a few years, also showed that the older man has a lot to give when it comes to the ladies of the band.

Talking of whom.....Amy Penston (Natalie), Leah Penston (Imelda) and Christina Tedders (Bernie) were mind-blowing as the female backing vocalists and lead singers on cracking foot-stomping songs like "River Deep Mountain High".

The other character that I loved to bits was Mickah, the "security" for the band. Played by Sam Fordham, he was wonderful to watch with his over the top security tactics, his manic choreography and his drumming skills.

The lighting was at times a bit too subdued for me but when it worked well, it worked very effectively.

It's all about the music at the end of the day and the soundtrack is full of classic soul songs. "Proud Mary", "Knock On Wood", "Mustang Sally", "Land Of 1000 Dances", "Satisfaction", "Reach Out I'll Be There" are just a few of the 24 soul classics that will get your feet tapping

Look, it was opening night and it just happened to be a packed house and even though there was a delay at the start, which may or may not have affected the actors, the cast seemed determined to make sure that they gave just a little bit more to make up for the start. they succeeded for me because they turned my initial opinion around and I ended up loving the show.

"The Commitments" is on at the Nottingham theatre Royal until Saturday 12 November 2016

"Love's Labour's Wonne" by Riverside Drama
Duchess Theatre.

Writer/Director Liz Turner has written a wonderfully funny play about what would happen if Shakespeare was introduced to the 21st Century with all its magic and wizadry like telephones and the internet.

Writer Jack Forrest (James Billington) has writer's block and he takes himself off to the old school where Shakespeare once tutored to get the creative juices flowing again. Little does he know that he gets a bit more than he bargains for when the Bard himself appears to give him a helping hand.

Shakespeare (Paul Norris) also learns a lot when introduced to the wonders of the modern world but soon wants to get back to from where he came and so, after a few little eye opening adventures, James and his "colleague" Annie (Amy Cannon), break back into the old school and send him back to his previous life, but not before Bill leaves Jack a little reminder of their time together in the shape of an undiscovered sonnet and a play deemed to be missing in "Love's Labour's Wonne"

There are some lovely character roles in the play as well as the main characters. Sarah Terry as the student Lisa, who has a bit of a crush on Jack. i loved her Taylor Swift style accent. Donna Chinn as the maid, Rose, who worked for the school owner, Lady C, played by Celia Biliau. And then there's Professor Quayle (Dave Wilson) who isn't all he seems to be either!

A brilliant set which has a room that i personally would love to spend the night in, designed by Liz Turner and Bob Baron.

Excellent lighting effects by Keith Salway and Martin Holtom, who also did the sound and the sound effects.

It's a lovely gentle comedy romp in the style of "Back To The Future" with some excellent acting from everyone involved, especially the two lead men, James Billington and an eerily Shakespeare lookalike in Paul Norris.

"Love's Labour's Lost" is on at The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 5 November 2016. Forget the fireworks, go and see this little cracker instead.

"Freak" by Anna Jordan.
Nottingham New Theatre.

Taking the form of a series of monologues which eventually merge, "Freak" tells the often painfully frank stories of Leah and Georgie as they come to terms with their sex lives. Georgie is 30 and in a downwards spiral, having just quit her job, broken up with her long-term boyfriend, Jamie,and taken a job at a strip club. Leah is 15 and is nervously anticipating her first time, and when this happens is a bit of a disappointment to her, so she confides in her best girl friend where her experimenting is taken to another stage.

As a male viewer, at times, especially with Georgie's monologues, I felt embarrassed. Not by the content of the speeches, but by the way that the male of the species sees and treats women. This play though personified the drama symbol of the two faces of tragedy and laughter, because both featured very heavily in this one act play.

There were many laughs heard from the younger male members of the audience but I have a feeling there were a few nervous laughs in there as well. Maybe some of the speech touched raw nerves?

The language was more than fruity, and may come as a surprise to some younger males to discover that women, when they get together with other women are as crude and as frank in their language as us men. But there's nothing at all wrong with that and is refreshing to hear in the theatre. That's what makes "The Vagina Monologues" such a success by giving women such a strong voice about sexuality and a stage on which to shout that voice from.

One thing that tied the two women together was the relevance of their fathers and there is one speech where Leah said that all she wanted was a hug from her father. With Georgie, her father also played a big part in her life and the loss of her father was mentioned several times and referenced as being someone who she missed. She is forever seeking male validation to make her feel worthy.

Lara Cowler (Georgie) and Kate O Gorman (Leah) are excellent in their roles and did amazingly well to learn the incredibly wordy scripts in the two weeks that they had leading up to opening night. Two very emotive actors who showed great confidence in the roles, especially as this was Kate's debut for NNT. They both brought out the emotional heartfelt side of the characters as well as the fun, comedic side.

Directed by Niamh Caines, who shone as an actor in several productions from the last season, has shown that sex isn't the rose coloured glasses, romanticised Hollywood movie myth that it's often seen as. The deconstruction of the whole female sex image is refreshing and very natural. It also shows the insecurities between the two women while they are trying to deal with their seperate lives, The insecurities though are universal and timeless.

"Freak" is produced by Lydia Smith. The lighting of this play also plays a large part in highlighting the actors and making it exciting to watch with the music sections. A really imaginative lighting design by Darcey Graham. A busy and eye-catching set design incorporated the two bedrooms of the two women.

"Freak" is a powerful piece of drama and a great start to Nottingham New Theatre's new season, It will make you think, it will make you laugh and hopefully it will get you talking as well, and if you're quite truthful with yourself, it may make you change your attitude towards how you treat people, both male and female attitudes that is.

"Freak" is being performed at the Nottingham New Theatre on the University campus until Saturday 5 November 2016.

"Beauty & The Beast" by Northern Ballet
Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Beautiful and magical. It's difficult to tear your eyes away from the stage when the Northern Ballet are on stage. The classic story of Beauty & The Beast has had several modern touches introduced which has injected humour into the piece.

We see the vain and egotistical Prince Orian who shows bad manners by ignoring La Fee Magnifique, who is in disguise. She casts a spell on him and turns him into a wild beast. Her sister La Fee Luminiere enters and tells the Beast that if he can find someone to love him as a Beast that the spell will be broken.

In another part of the kingdom, a rich man who has three daughters, the youngest, Beauty, and the two elder ones are interested in nothing more that spending money at all the top fashion shops of the day. Beauty though has no interest in this lifestyle and loves the simple, natural things in life.

The two socialites throw a party but on the day of the party, the father gets more visitors in the shape of the debt collectors who take everything they have away, including the sisters' clothes from their backs, in a big lorry, leaving them with nothing an nowhere to go.

The family come across a broken down tour bus and clothes and set up home in the much less glamorous surroundings. The father then goes into the forest to look for food and comes across the Beast who gives the man a key so that he can send his daughter to him, aiming for her to fall in love with the beast and therefore breaking the spell.

Well, we all know that there's a happy ending, as with most fairy tales, and this is no different. Not only is the ending happy but so are the audience after this show.

The dancing is exquisite, choreographed and directed by David Nixon OBE, and so are the costumes which are also designed by Mr Dixon and assisted by Julie Anderson, who also produced the costumes. There's a local link with Julie as she trained at Loughborough College of Art and Design.

The set design (Duncan Hayler) has a slight gothic touch but also has a lot of silvery 1920's glamour feel about it. The lighting, designed by Tim Mitchell, gives the ballet a very modern feel about it and splashes colour in every direction possible, adding to the visual delight of the already entrancing spectacle.

The music for the ballet is like a greatest hits of classical masterpieces starting with the magical yet gothic "Danse Macabre" by Saint Saens. You'll also recognise Debussy's section from "La Mer" and "Clair De Lune". The gorgeous tenderness and sublime "The Snow Is Dancing", also by Debussy, and with more Saint Saens to come in Act Two, you're guaranteed some beautiful orchestral pieces, arranged by John Longstaff and conducted by John Pryce-Jones.

The dancers are the best of the best, but don't expect to see too many tutus or tights for either male or female dancers. Guiliana Contadini (Prince Orian), Dreda Blow (Beauty), Ashley Dixon (The Beast), Mlindi Kulashe (Beauty's father), Rachael Gillespie and Dominique Larose (Beauty's sisters), Hannah bateman (La Fee Luminaire) and Victoria Sibson (La Fee Magnifique) were the lead dancers but everyone in the ensemble were just as hypnotic to watch.

It's always impressive to watch how graceful and easy the dancers practically float on the stage without ever looking out of breath or breaking into a sweat. Their core strength and stamina equivalent of that of any athlete, you just can't help but admire what they do.

They have great dramaturgy, easily telling the story for anyone from five to one hundred and five to understand through their dance expression.

I've urged many people I know to go and see at least one ballet, especially if they love the theatre, as I do, because this is an art form that everyone should experience, because I believe that once you've seen one ballet, you, like me will be hooked and you will thirst for more.

"Beauty & The Beast" is on at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 5 November 2016.