Skip to main content

Review of Sell-By-Date by Marbleglass Theatre. Returning to Northampton soon.

The excellent Sell-By-Date by Marbleglass Theatre returns to Northampton this Saturday and its original home of the Looking Glass Theatre. If you get the chance to see this, do so!



Below is my original review of the show as performed at the 2014 Flash Festival, Northampton:

"... the very dark, very funny and very powerful Sell By Date. From Marbleglass and featuring the talents of Marcus Churchill, Ashley Cook, Joseph Derrington and Sophie Murray, this was a gem. Setting the bar even higher for the week ahead.

Mixing music, dance, comedy, strong drama and in one particularly outstanding part, some very clever puppetry.

The performers in this group were particularly strong and I remember them well from their parts in Animal Farm (Animal Farm review). Whether playing the clown or deadly serious moments, they were at the top of their game. Even this early in their hopefully very successful careers.

The play itself was broke up into many parts, cleverly interchanging the aforementioned clowning, with the heavy and, yes, very emotional parts.

The previously mentioned puppetry scene was my pick for the best part. However the very rude, offensive, politically incorrect and therefore very funny, stand-up routine performed by Derrington had to be my second pick, particularly with the emotional pay-off.

I will also remember fondly the slightly ruder Two Ronnies bar scene and the best set change joke I have yet heard.

Overall this was a very clever, well written piece in need of your viewing as you may not find a better hours entertainment for a while for £6 (it is now £8!). Go see!"


Sell-By-Date was originally performed at the Looking Glass Theatre on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th May, 2014.

Tickets for the above can be booked here: https://thelittleboxoffice.com/lgt/event/view/18208
MarbleGlass can be found on Twitter @MGTheatre and they have a website at http://www.marbleglasstheatre.co.uk/
Looking Glass Theatre is in Derngate (Road), Northampton and can be found on Twitter @LGTheatre and on their website at http://www.lookingglasstheatre.co.uk/

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Shrek the Musical at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Once upon a time, there was a splendidly green ogre who went by the name of Shrek. For many years, Shrek starred in a captivating and thrilling adventure set upon a theatre stage. This came to pass following a tale told in a Dream(works) in a cinematic spectacle. His tale was told in a truly fun way, with staging sublime, and endless mirth from a nefarious baddie who in many ways came up short.  However, around the corner, there was greater evil afoot as our green friend's show was undergoing a transformation for further adventures on stage. What possible way could this evil be stopped?  Sadly, for all, it could not and the evil reigned for a full UK tour which journeys most recently to the magical kingdom of the Royal & Derngate after a long adventure across the land. So, dear reader, forgive my fairy tale preamble, and perhaps, from that you might imagine this show isn't up to much and sadly you would be right. Shrek when it toured before to Northampton was a little ligh

Review of Disney's Aladdin at Milton Keynes Theatre

Back in 1992, Disney took the age-old tale of Aladdin and did their classic Disneyfying of the story and with the genius of Robin Williams in the role of the Genie, the film remains an immensely popular one to this day. Forward to 2011 and Disney took the show to the stage for the first time and with it the classic songs from Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin with a few additions. Since then it has continued to have huge success across the world. Having now arrived at Milton Keynes Theatre on a new tour of the UK & Ireland, it is easy to see why that success continues. This is a truly epic and spectacular show, perhaps the largest that you could find outside of the streets and avenues of the West End. From the opening number as the Genie welcomes us to the streets of the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, the show simply oozes quality. Performances are top-notch with a large cast of leads and an ensemble at the top of their game. As Aladdin, Gavin

Review of Shrek (NMTC) at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Three and a half years ago, in a land far far away, in a world very different to the one we are now in, I saw the touring professional production of Shrek The Musical , it was a mixed bag of quality, tilted extremely heavily in favour of one particular character (not the one you might expect) and not firing on all cylinders much of the time. One and a half years after my last visit to the Derngate theatre, I return to see the homegrown Northampton Musical Theatre Company's own take on the very same show. Would they be able to breathe more life into the show than the professionals did in that distant land? It is a bit of a yes and no really. Pretty much all of this is done to the best possible standard, and at times, with being an amateur show you could easily forget, they all have normal day jobs. The show oozes professional quality at times. The set looks magnificent, the costumes (from Molly Limpet's Theatrical Emporium) are superb, and as ever with NMTC, the backstage team c