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Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Lucy Bailey Reviewer: Mary Tapper The Public Reviews Rating: The wonder of Shakespeare is that with a skilful director a play can be interpreted in an entirely fresh way and different ideas brought to the fore. Lucy Bailey is a clever woman and this Taming of the Shrew is a delightful romp, skirting carefully [...]

Director: Stephen Daldry Music: Stephen Warbeck Reviewer: Poppy Helm The Public Reviews Rating: Almost fifteen years since I studied An Inspector Calls at school myself, another generation of teenagers cram giddily into The Lowry to do the same – a testament to both the longevity of J.B. Priestly’s original story and the lure of Academy Award winning director [...]

Author: Noel Coward Director: Caroline Leslie Reviewer: Ann Bawtree The Public Reviews Rating: This play turns around three main characters, Otto (Kieran Hill) a painter, Leo (Gyuri Sarossy) a playwright and Gilda (Marianne Oldham) Muse to both of them. At one point in the play one of them describes their relationship very accurately as “three way spiritual ping-pong”. [...]

Writer: Happystorm Theatre Director: Sarah Meadows Reviewer: Tracey Lowe The Public Reviews Rating: Following its successful, but all too brief, run at Crypt of St Philip with St Stephen in Salford earlier this year, The Crypt Project finds new life as part of the Re:Play Festival. The concept alone is enough of an audience draw, offering a rare [...]

Writer and Director: John Godber Reviewer: Ann Bawtree The Public Reviews Rating: Some one once said that there is nothing in this world which does not have its funny side.The tragic situations sometimes arising from debt are particularly poignant at this time of year when the ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge seems to haunt every third theatre in the [...]

In the second installment of this new series, Lucy Thackray meets Neil McPherson, artistic director of the Finborough Theatre. Neil McPherson is all about balance. He is refreshingly upfront about his limitations  – “I’ve tried directing and I have no interest in it whatsoever; I have an actor’s mind, so I sit there thinking ‘I [...]

Writer: JB Priestley Director: Stephen Daldry Reviewer: Ann Bawtree The Public Reviews Rating: “An Inspector Calls” is described by John Good in his comprehensive programme notes as venerable and “an old warhorse” of a play and so it is. It is also possibly Priestley’s best known and probably most performed and enjoyed work. Feeling that audiences might, after [...]

Writer: Laura Stevens Director: Katie Lewis Reviewer: Ian Foster The Public Reviews Rating: The Firewatchers, a new play by young playwright Laura Stevens, offers a neat counterpoint to the jingoistic male-dominated Three Days in May, by presenting an altogether different experience of the Second World War, from the perspective of two very different women stationed for the night [...]