A Small Mind At The Theatre

Tambo & Bones , first performed in 2022, is a deliberately provocative play by Dave Harris, currently performing at Royal & Derngate, one of the co-creating theatres of this touring version. It is a powerful piece created in three acts that does not shy away from controversy and offence. However, does that all culminate in a piece of theatre worth your attention? Our opening sees Tambo and Bones, two black entertainers, named in history from names inspired by their accompanying instruments (here the tambourine and bone castanets) tasked with entertaining a white audience in the Minstrel show they find themselves involved in. Following their discovery, from a moment of audience observation, that everything is not what it seems, Tambo and Bones embark on a crusade of fighting back at history that has seen them trodden down. Writer Harris doesn't mince his words in describing the power whites have held over blacks for centuries. Without question, moments are deliberately uncom...

The 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express is perhaps one of Agatha Christie's most famed novels from a vast catalogue she produced, and it has been made for film and TV many times. However, it is perhaps a surprise that it took until 2017 for the story to finally appear on the stage, adapted for the stage by American playwright Ken Ludwig. When it was staged in 2017, it became Christie's classic character Hercule Poirot's first appearance on stage in over 75 years. So, as the play eases into the Milton Keynes Theatre station on a lengthy UK tour, does it live up to the classic work? As a brief introduction to the piece, we, Hercule and the usual collection of Christie characters find ourselves in 1930s Istanbul boarding the famed train of the title. Soon after, one of the passengers is dead, and it is time for Hercules's "little grey cells" to do their work. Murder On The Orient Express  benefits from a large and strong cast led by Michael Moloney in the cl...

Written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, the play Ghost Stories has had great success since its first staging in 2010, with runs in the West End and a previous UK tour in 2020 and overseas. So, it is no surprise that a further tour has launched for 2025, reaching Milton Keynes Theatre this week. The pedigree for the show is also strong, written by Dyson, the unseen part of the legendary The League of Gentleman team, and Nyman, a man of many talents and perhaps most relevant for this show, as a long collaborator with magician Derren Brown. Stagecraft ideas for his work provide many tricks in this stage show. Without any spoilers, the story sees a sceptical Professor Goodman out to debunk the paranormal and using three apparent hauntings – as recounted by a night watchman, a teenage boy, and a businessman awaiting his first child as his basis for a lecture. However, has Goodman finally met something he can not discredit? Running as a speedy one-act 90-minute production, any tension the...

Richard O’Brien’s anarchic, surreal, and often incomprehensible musical, The Rocky Horror Show , has captivated audiences for over fifty years now. With this new tour, it feels as fresh and unpredictable as if it had just emerged from O’Brien's vivid imagination yesterday. While another review might seem unnecessary given the countless dressed-up fans who fill every theatre it visits, let’s go ahead and write one anyway. The Rocky Horror Show follows the adventures of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple. On a dark and stormy November evening, they run into car trouble and seek refuge at a mysterious castle reminiscent of Frankenstein’s. There, they encounter the eccentric handyman Riff-Raff, the outrageous scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter, and a host of other bizarre characters. What unfolds is a science fiction B-movie narrative that is at times coherent and at other times bewildering — yet somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter. I first saw The Rocky Horror Show in 2019 and exper...

It is now a remarkable 32 years since the first Horrible Histories book reached the shelves, and since that first Terry Deary book, suitably for this show, The Terrible Tudors , the children's entertainment franchise has become a historic event of its own. Since 1993, there have been 23 books, several TV series, a game show and a film. During those years, the Horrible Histories franchise has also graced the stage for several past shows, and here, now at Milton Keynes Theatre, comes a joint pairing of Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians on alternating performances. The question though, is it a deserving part of the famous franchise? A categoric yes is an answer to this neat, fast-paced show, written by original writer Terry Deary and directed by Neal Foster, who also co-wrote the show. Performed by a cast of three, it entertains and thrills throughout. The level of comedy scares, and, most importantly, education is pitched perfectly, as the series has become famous for. The cast...

Middle Ground Theatre has been creating unique and intrepid adventures for the stage since the late eighties, and with Dial M For Mayhem! , they take those experiences and bring to the stage a brand new play within a play now arriving for a week run at Royal & Derngate. Written by Margaret May Hobbs and directed by Michael Lunney, Dial M For Mayhem! has much to admire. Still, sadly, for every good joke, amusing set piece and chaotic moment, there are too many periods of flatness, stilted sequences and, especially during the first act, too many slow scenes which either tread the same old ground or bring nothing new to the proceedings and then fail to flow into the next leaving it often disjointed. The cast does their very best, though, and the characters they bring to the stage are entertaining and perfect for this farcical play, but they lack depth despite the script trying desperately at times to give them one. The attempt to create character also comes at the expense of the farc...