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Writer:Helen Edmundson Music:Neil Hannon Lyrics:Neil Hannon Director:Tom Morris Reviewer:Samantha Currie The Public Reviews Rating: Swallows and Amazons is currently at the beginning of a UK tour after playing at the Bristol Old Vic and the West End. Directed by Tom Morris, the co-director of War Horse, with music and lyrics by Neil Hannon. The book is, of course [...]

Music: Tchaikovsky Director and Choreographer: Matthew Bourne Reviewer: Samantha Currie The Public Reviews Rating: The Nutcracker is a perennial Christmas favourite, and the multi award winning Matthew Bourne, true to form, has stamped his own unique mark on this non-traditional presentation of the story. Nutcracker! is a highly stylised production, hugely camp in places and possibly a relief [...]

Writers: Julie Coombe and John MacIsaac Reviewer: Edie R The Public Reviews Rating: At 7:40pm on Wednesday 2nd November, the “Ti Amo” restaurant on Nicolson Street was full of smartly-dressed women, polishing off the last of their Spaghetti Gorbachev. At 7:50pm, they’d all vanished. In actual fact, they’d crossed the road to the Festival Theatre, whose glass halls [...]

Creator: Slava Polunin Producers: Matthew Gale, Jenny King, Mark Goucher Reviewer: Edie R The Public Reviews Rating: “The child’s laughter is pure until he first laughs at a clown.” Thus spake Angela Carter in 1984, and I wouldn’t usually disagree. But ‘Slava’s Snowshow’, might have struck her as an exception to her own rule. In the course of [...]

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Psyche Stott Reviewer: Howard Holdsworth The Public Reviews Rating: The story of Calendar Girls is familiar to most of the nation over the age of 21, but this production managed to bring vitality and freshness to all aspects of the play, whilst pulling the emotions of the audience across the wide open spaces of [...]

Writer: Alistair McDowall Director: Clive Judd Reviewer: Val Peets The Public Reviews Rating: Written by Alistair McDowall, Presented by Cheap Seats and Directed by Clive Judd at The Library Theatre, 5.30, was both funny, uncomfortable and compelling in equal measure. Staged as part of the Re:Play Festival 2010 and described as, “A compelling and at times terrifying piece charting [...]

Music: Sergei Prokoviev Choreography: Natalya Ryshenko, Victor Smirnov-Golovano Director: Victor Smirnov-Golovanov Reviewer: Bill Avenel The Public Reviews Rating: Classical ballet in the Russian tradition is the Moscow City Ballet company’s stock in trade and their interpretation of Romeo and Juliet did not disappoint the good sized audience at Chichester last night. One of the problems for live performers is that they [...]

Writer: Hans Christian Andersen Adaptor: Bryony Lavery Lyrics/Lyrics: Jason Carr Director: Dale Rooks and Abigail Graham Reviewer: Ann Bawtree The future of the British Theatre is safe. That is, if the enthusiasm, talent and discipline of the seventy three strong cast of Dale Rooks’ and Abigail Graham’s production of a new musical version of The [...]