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As You Like It – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Nikolai Foster Reviewer: John Roberts The Public Reviews Rating: ★★★★☆ In the well kept grounds of Chester’s Grosvenor Park, The Open Air Theatre returns in its custom made intimate outdoor theatre for a second year, again under the artistic directorship of local lad Alex Clifton. Keeping in line with the vision from the previous year [...]

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Pericles – Open Air Theatre Regents Park, London

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Natalie Abrahami Reviewer: Livia Brown The Public Reviews Rating: ★★★★☆ Of all the excuses given to me by different dates for standing me up in the past, “I’ve got the chicken pox” really does win for originality. But this time however, when the date is your eight-year-old brother and his mother tells you she’s been [...]

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The Beggar’s Opera – Open Air Theatre Regents Park, London

Writer: John Gay Director: Lucy Bailey Reviewer: Ian Foster The Public Reviews Rating: ★★½☆☆ The Beggar’s Opera written by John Gay in 1728 was the first example of the ballad opera, perhaps the forerunner to today’s jukebox musicals in folding in pre-existing tunes to a satirical narrative that poked fun at the ever-popular Italian operas that were all the [...]

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Brandon Hill, Bristol

Lord Chamberlain

Director: Andrew Normington Musical Director: Jonathan Yesten Thomas Movement: Darren Royston Reviewer: Lucy Thackray The Public Reviews Rating: ★★★★★ The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, created in 2004, claim to do Shakespeare the way it was meant to be: travelling, musical and all-male. Shakespeare himself was an actor and writer for the original LCM for a third of his career, and [...]

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Lord of the Flies – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London

Writer: William Golding Adaptor: Nigel Williams Director: Timothy Sheader Reviewer: Richard Loftus The Public Reviews Rating: ★★★★½ In a time where political figures have used fear to lead countries into wars of terrorism, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre presents a powerful and gripping production of William Golding’s Lord of The Flies, adapted by Nigel Williams. The political references, however, [...]

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RACHEL LYNES: From pillar to Post It

This is my story of Post It notes. It begins at the end of a year playing a lead in a National tour of an Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical and it ends today…because today is as far as I can see right now My first Post It was a small pink square, which I stuck [...]

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Hercules – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester

Writer: Helen Eastman Composer: Alex Silverman Director: Alex Clifton Reviewer: Jane Dawson The Public Reviews Rating: ★★★★½ A new adaptation of the tale of the 12 Labours of Hercules, written for a family audience and performed in the perfect setting of Chester’s Grosvenor Park on a beautifully designed and crafted bespoke stage, also used for Much Ado About Nothing. [...]

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Much Ado About Nothing- Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester

Writer: William Shakespeare Composer: Alex Silverman Director: Edward Dick Reviewer: Jane Dawson The Public Reviews Rating: ★★★★☆ Much Ado About Nothing is a brave choice as a first (open air) theatre production for Chester Performs. Possibly Shakespeare’s least performed comedy, it’s not particularly well known (despite the Kenneth Branagh film) and because it’s mainly in prose, the language is [...]

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