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Writer: Alexander Ostrovsky in a new version by Samuel Adamson Director: Jacqui Honess-Martin Reviewer: Harry Stern The Public Reviews Rating: It is 1878 and Mother Russia is changing. The age of aristocratic patronage is under threat and the middle classes rise to create the next age – the age of bourgeoisie. The merchants are on the march. Centuries-old, [...]

Writer: Anton Chekhov, in a new translation by Helena Kaut-Howson Director: Helena Kaut-Howson Reviewer: Selwyn Knight The Public Reviews Rating: There is some mystery around Chekhov’s first full length play, written around 1878. There seem to be contemporary references to a play called Fatherlessness, written especially for Maria Yermolova of the Maly Theatre. This appears to have been [...]

Writer: Herman Melville, adapted by Sebastian Armesto Director: Sebastian Armesto Reviewer: Lizzie Kirkwood The Public Reviews Rating: Herman Melville’s 1851 novel ‘Moby-Dick’ is an epic tale of revenge and obsession. Ishmael, a sailor who wants to experience life aboard a whaling ship, embarks on a voyage aboard the Pequod. The ship is commanded by the vengeful Captain Ahab [...]

Writers: Alastair Brett and Sian Evans Director: James Robert Carson Reviewer: Ian Foster The Public Reviews Rating: In the midst of the Troubles, the 1988 shooting of three Provisional IRA terrorists outside a petrol station in the rocky outcrop of Gibraltar might have just been one amongst many atrocities but a number of factors conspired to turn it [...]

Writer: Tom Wells Director: Phil Minns Reviewer: Sally Cinnamon The Public Reviews Rating: The creative explosion happening on the theatre scene in Manchester means the welcome addition of producer, writer and owner, Sally Lawton’s Houldsworth Rep Theatre. Tucked away in the Northern Quarter, it’s an interesting space which incorporates theatre, acting classes and workshops. The latest event is [...]

Writer: Leyla Nazli Director: Mehmet Ergen Reviewer: Elizabeth Vile The Public Reviews Rating: Confined to a hospital bed after a near death experience Selma is visited by a mysterious and terrifying nightmare. With the audience seated on two sides of the stage Arcola Theatre’s production of Mare Rider is a surreal, magical and disturbing tale of myth, change, [...]

Writer: Dea Loher Director: Samuel Miller Reviewer: Lettie Mckie The Public Reviews Rating: The name of Olga Benario is not an overtly famous one. However her heartrending story of imprisonment, torture and eventual death in Nazi controlled concentration camps is all too familiar. Based on the real facts of her life as a German-Brazilian communist militant Olga’s Room [...]

Music: Marvin Hamlisch Lyrics: Craig Carnelia Book: John Guare Director: Mehmet Ergen Reviewer : Jonathan Baz The Public Reviews Rating:   If the aromas of this country’s recent nasty episodes of cheque-book phone-tapping journalism could be distilled they might be ironically labelled the Sweet Smell of Success. This show from Marvin Hamlisch, he of blessed memory, is a [...]