
Music and Lyrics: Frank Loesser Book: Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows Artistic Director: David McNeill Musical Director: Simon Hanson Choreographer: Geoff Steers Reviewer: Helen Jones The Public Reviews Rating: 



Stage Experience have auditioned and cast one hundred young people between the ages of ten and twenty one, then given them ten days to rehearse before appearing before the audience at the Palace Theatre in Frank Loesser’s musical Guys and Dolls. Amazingly, it works brilliantly. Loesser’s famous musical, based on the stories of Damon Runyon, is set in the seedy side of New York in 1950 and tells of the romances of two couples. Miss Sarah Brown helps run the local Save Your Souls mission, Miss Adelaide is the star of the local revue, Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson are gamblers. The score is filled with some of Loesser’s most well-known songs including Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat and Luck Be A Lady. This cast of youngsters shows real talent and includes several potential stars of professional musical theatre; in fact a couple of them are already working professionally. Rebecca Lake’s delicate looking Sarah Brown is sweet voiced but truly shows her acting ability and timing during the scene in Havana where Sarah is under the influence of rather a lot of rum. Fifteen years old Ryan Hunt, while still looking much too young to be a convincing grandfather, is confident in his role and shows a beautiful singing voice in his one solo number. Ben Davies is a charismatic Sky Masterson but somehow just lacks that ability to convince me he’s a hardened gambler. However, he gives a skilled performance which is engaging to watch. Mark Bayliss as Nathan Detroit has that gambling-addicted look down to a fine art. Combined with his accomplished acting and a stunning singing voice, Bayliss makes himself [...]
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Writer: Dave Simpson Director: Helen Parry Reviewer: Rebecca Mickler The Public Reviews Rating: 



In front of a red curtain and lonely spotlight; on walks Jack Bailey. He is accompanied by his almost faithful Pianist whilst singing a pub singer version of ‘She’ by Elvis Costello and sports a Mullet Pat Sharp would have been proud of, a gold sequined shirt, white blazer and white socks. I thought I was in for a long night, until he started telling Jokes. Dirty ones. It’s 1985 and Jack Bailey is hosting the annual ‘Miss Goldengate’ beauty pageant at his Salfordian Working Men’s Club. The already ‘local personality’ Bailey has invited some very important guests in the hope of upping his profile and makes sure the girls in the pageant know about his efforts before they go on. Cooped up in a dingy back room, the girls and one guy dressed as a girl all have their own agendas for showcasing themselves. These agendas become spectacularly apparent as the play unfolds. Mark Sheals is hilarious as Jack Bailey as he compares the pageant, insults the girls, and gets far too close to them for comfort. Equally, Katie McArdle plays the clumsy, ditsy Karen well who is seen as the odd one out by the other, more experienced girls. Raving Beauties, written by Dave Simpson, is a multi-faceted play that has you laughing and cringing at Bailey’s misogyny and pervertedness one minute while smacking you in the face with each girls own personal turmoil the next. As an observant writer, Dave Simpson is able to present an entertaining but sensitive view to the audience on the subject of gender inequality. This version of the play, produced by Broken Echo theatre company, has managed to encompass it’s snappy dialogue while adding fantastic character acting performed by the whole cast. [...]
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Writer: Dick Curran Director: Clare Howdon Reviewer: Jo Beggs The Public Reviews Rating: 



On the remote Farne Islands is a tiny warden’s hut and inside sits Peter (Mark Frampton), modern day hermit, escapee from the real world, a man at home in nature yet tortured by its fragility. As he awaits his daily boat-loads of twitchers and tourists he becomes ever more detatched, increasingly moody, his social skills slowly slipping away. When city girl Nicola (Katy Slater) arrives, with her bird book and M&S Sushi, she’s everything Peter seems to be escaping from. She doesn’t know one species of Tern from another and it’s a definite mistake to reveal that she’s writing poetry about mermaids as part of her creative writing course. Her week on the island as a stand-in tour guide is going to be the longest week on Peter’s life. But Nicola is determined to enjoy herself and Peter’s grumpiness isn’t going to stop her. As the week goes on and their reasons for turning their backs on reality emerge, an uneasy friendship develops. But they’re not alone. As well as thousands of seabirds, there’s Ellen (Claire Dean). Ellen is Peter’s boss, and she watches every move he makes. Islanders is a real success, Dick Curran has created a wonderful little world – a claustrophobic bubble set in a bleak wilderness, and all the production elements come together beautifully to create it. A simple but effectively realistic set, lovely black and white film of the Islands and a collage of sound evoking memories from the past are set alongside Clare Howdon’s no-nonsense, pacy direction to create Peter’s world. This little hut is his castle, and he is the undoubted king. Strong performances from all members of the cast make this a very enjoyable play but Mark Frampton inhabits its fascinating central [...]
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Writer: Sean Gregory Director: Richard Vergette Reviewer: Jo Beggs The Public Reviews Rating: 



During her mother’s wake, Alice stumbles into the house next door, home to the rather sinister Mr Melks, only to find Melks vanished and a trunk full of cassette tapes on which he has, over many years, recorded the comings and goings of her family through the flimsy walls. The initial shock of the situation soon turns to fascination and when her sister comes to find her, they embark on a journey back through the sometimes mundane, sometimes funny and sometimes painful episodes of their lives. Alice (Louise-Clare Henry) is the one who stayed whilst older sister Jude (Joanne Smart) took off to college, got married and detached herself from the family. There’s a lot of resentment on both sides and it all comes out as moments from their past are relived through the contents of the tapes. Hearing conversations from the past gives the girls a chance for belated apologies, an opportunity to reassess their memories and make some more mature assessments. The father who left seems an altogether more sympathetic character, their mother less uptight and proper. Suddenly the creepy guy with the microphone next door seems to have had a less sinister purpose. Once you put aside the practical questions (what normal person would remember the actual dates they had certain conversations on? Just how did he make these high quality recordings through the wall anyway?) and embrace the dramatic device, the play takes on a slightly repetitive rhythm as one family secret after another is revealed, but there are just enough twists and turns to sustain it for its full hour. Rather less convincing is the play’s strange and clunky pace. Starting with disjointed, unemotional delivery it soon veers into lots of clichéd shouting and arm [...]
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