Skip to main content

Northampton Theatre Preview - September 2016

With the Summer downtime coming to an end for the theatres of Northampton, the curtain is ready to rise again on a new season of shows in the town.

Top pick at Royal & Derngate has to be the return of the hit adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities. Adapted by Mike Poulton and directed by the R&D artistic directer James Dacre, this version first seen in 2014 plays for seven nights in the Royal before setting off on a national tour.
Dates in Northampton are Saturday 10th to Saturday 17th with matinees on Wednesday, Thursday and the second Saturday.

For those wanting to revisit the turbulant times of the 1989 political world, there is a chance to see Jonathan Maitland's touring Dead Sheep. Telling the story of the ramifications of Geoffrey Howe's sacking at the hands of PM Margaret Thatcher and her eventual downfall at the hands of this "dead sheep".
It stars Steve Nallon, Paul Bradley and Graham Seed and runs at the Royal & Derngate between Monday 19th and Saturday 24th with matinees on 22nd and 24th).

Those instead wanting to relive memories of their childhood or with offspring of their own to introduce to the world of a classic, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang lands at Royal & Derngate.
Starring Jason Manford, Phill Jupitus, Claire Sweeney and Carrie Hope Fletcher, Chitty is grounded at Derngate between Wednesday 21st and Sunday 2nd October (matinees on 22nd, 24th, 25th, 29th, 1st and 2nd).

On the amatuer dramatics front The Playhouse Theatre starts its 2016/2017 season with Ron Hutchinson's Moonlight And Magnolias running between Tuesday 20th and Saturday 24th. This tells in a farcical way the true story of the troublesome development of the classic movie Gone With The Wind.

If you are after some stand-up in September, Royal & Derngate have several opportunities. Visiting on their tours are Sean Lock, Sue Perkins and Miles Jupp, while the regular mainstay Screaming Blue Murder has two nights in September in the deepest Underground at R&D.

Monthly improv group The Same Faces has their evening of made up shananigans on Saturday 24th at The Black Prince. While if some lighthearted storytelling is for you, the monthly Feast Of Fools meets on Wednesday 7th with an Open Mic evening, venue NN Cafe.

Music nights in the month include Squeeze and Leo Green's Sounds Of The '50s, both at Royal & Derngate.

Finally this month's beyond Northampton pick goes to And Then There Were None at Leicester's The Little Theatre. Featuring Northampton Am-Dram regular Robin Armstrong, this version of the Agatha Christie classic from Leicester Drama Society runs between Monday 12th and Saturday 17th.


Full diary of events:

Wednesday 7th - Feast Of Fools Storytelling at NN Cafe, Guildhall Road
Wednesday 7th - Squeeze at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Thursday 8th - The Simon And Garfunkel Story at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Friday 9th - Joan Collins at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Saturday 10th-Saturday 17th - A Tale Of Two Cities at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Saturday 10th - Sounds Of Philadelphia & Motown at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Sunday 11th - Northampton Musical Theatre Company - Family Fun Day at Great Houghton Cricket Club
Sunday 11th - Chas & Dave at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Tuesday 13th - Sean Lock at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Thursday 15th - John Lodge
Friday 16th - Leo Green's Sounds Of The '50s Live at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Friday 16th - Screaming Blue Murder at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Saturday 17th - Sue Perkins Live! at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Monday 19th-Saturday 24th - Dead Sheep at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Tuesday 20th-Saturday 24th - The Playhouse Theatre: Moonlight And Magnolias at Playhouse Theatre, Clare Street
Wednesday 21st-Sunday 2nd (October) - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Saturday 24th - The Same Faces at The Black Prince, Abington Square
Wednesday 28th - Miles Jupp at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Friday 30th - Lennon Through A Glass Onion at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road
Friday 30th - Screaming Blue Murder at Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road

Popular posts from this blog

Review of The Rocky Horror Show at Milton Keynes Theatre

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...
Read more

Review of Dial M For Mayhem! at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

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...
Read more

Review of Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors at Milton Keynes Theatre

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...
Read more