July 1st saw the opening performance of Girl on the Train at Norwich Theatre Royal. Based on Paula Hawkins’ best-selling novel and Rachel Wagstaff’s film, Anthony Banks’ stage adaptation took on the challenges with conveying themes of isolation, memory and inertia with aptly paired-back staging, inventive costume design and thrilling employment of lighting effects. Rachel…
Arts, Venue
Pizza Shop Heroes at Norwich Theatre Royal
Pizza Shop Heroes is an hour-long piece of autobiographical theatre; the four actors on stage, Tewdoros (Teddy), Goitom, Emirjon and Syed told their stories of being refugees, their dangerous journeys to England and the displacement they feel in the UK. This isn’t the first play by Phosphorous theatre company, who have been creating exciting refugee…
Arts, Venue
The Lovely Bones Review: A sensational adaptation to the stage
The Lovely Bones is dazzling audiences with its extraordinary staging and clever representation of the plotline. Charlotte Beaumont (acting as Susie Salmon) brought Alice Sebold’s debut novel to life, taking the audience through her brutal murder. The story followed the young girl’s eyes as she watched her family from her own heaven, bearing witness to…
Arts, Venue
Review: Smash-hit musical Kinky Boots arrives in Norwich
The smash-hit musical, Kinky Boots, has arrived in Norwich for its limited two week run at the Theatre Royal, and boy was it fabulous. Set in fictional Northampton factory ‘Price and Son’, the show centres around Charlie Price who inherits his father’s failing shoe factory. After seeing the flamboyant Lola’s drag act, Charlie finds the…
Arts
Review: Romeo and Juliet at Norwich Theatre Royal
Matthew Bourne’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a genius and creative reimagining of a much-loved story. The storytelling is simply fantastic, and the dances and choreography could not be more perfect. Straying slightly from a typical Romeo and Juliet plot, Bourne sets this story in ‘Verona Institute’ a psychiatric hospital where Juliet (Cordelia Braithwaite) is imprisoned….
Arts
Shrek the Musical: A Freakishly Funny, Flawless, Fairytale
Following its previous record-breaking UK and Ireland tour, this smash hit blockbuster based on the Oscar-winning 2001 film is returning to Norwich’s Theatre Royal. Shrek the Musical promises to be a “hilarious and spectacular production, turn[ing] the world of fairytales upside down in an all-singing, all-dancing, must-see musical comedy”, and it certainly delivered on its…
Arts
The Marriage of Figaro “ended any assumption that opera is still exclusive to the upper classes”
For their opening night at Norwich’s Theatre Royal, the English Touring Opera delivered a refreshingly clear interpretation of Mozart’s much-loved opera, The Marriage of Figaro. As someone who was relatively new to the world of opera, I found the performance surprisingly accessible, as well as genuinely funny, at points leading me to laugh aloud. Fortunately,…
Arts
Frogman: a colourful, dream-like awakening to adulthood
As the audience took seat around the stage, a voiceover explained how to use the equipment, headphones and VR masks, that we would need over the hour-long session. As the voice spoke, we realised that they were not welcoming us to the theatre but, rather, to be the jury to reassess the case of a…
Arts
The Jungle Book: “Inventive, imaginative, and musically remarkable”
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, Jessica Swale (writer) tells an energetic remastering of Rudyard Kipling’s story. It’s fresh and it’s new and it leaves Disney in the dust, even rejecting to make use of the soundtrack we all associate with the 1967 classic. Not to worry though, it’s still a musical and John Stilgoe…
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