A Small Mind At The Theatre

The 1990 Tim Burton movie Edward Scissorhands is a classic of its genre, somewhat in a genre of Burton's own creation it has to be said, but still a classic. The innovative director has made the dark, fantastical style with broad colours and dark atmosphere very much his thing, and the magnificent world and story of Edward was the perfect fodder for Sir Matthew Bourne, dance supremo, to create a stunning dance adaptation. Bourne's show was first staged in 2005 and is here at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of a new UK tour. This tour actually provides the first opportunity to see the show on stage for nine years, and is it well worth doing so. It has to be said, that it is very different at times from the Burton film, and not just because this is dance. The story has been dramatically altered and very much lightened as well, there is, much more humour at play in this production, especially thanks to a huge development of the townspeople of Hope Springs, where Edward finds himsel...

I last saw Spymonkey on the Royal stage staggeringly in 2016, and the world and Spymonkey themselves have changed dramatically since then. The production then, The Complete Deaths (a staging of all Shakespeare's written deaths), was one of their finest moments, certainly the finest I had seen. However, here, returning to the Royal stage so many years later, with fifty percent of that company, their production of Aristophanes' The Frogs lacks much of the quality of that show and sadly dwells a little too much on life as a Spymonkey member. So, let's have a quick catch-up, Spymonkey, as it stands, now consists of the magnificent clown Aitor Basauri and his straight man Toby Park. Missing from the fab four of old are Petra Massey, gone to Las Vegas, we are told and, more tellingly, Stephan Kreiss, gone, sadly forever, following his untimely death in 2021. This is where the original story of The Frogs is delved into by Spymonkey as their mourning show, for Stephan, especiall...

2:22 A Ghost Story continues an endless rise and run of success on the stage. This play by Danny Robins was first staged as recently as August 2021 at the Noel Coward Theatre and since then the show continued to run in London for two years, moving to four further London theatres, before eventually closing in the city to embark on this tour, which began in September last year. During these runs, the cast has constantly been updated with often populist actors, and some, which are not even associated with acting. As this reaches Royal & Derngate, now even the touring cast has been swept clean and four further performers take on the incredible success of a show. This is the second time I have seen 2:22 A Ghost Story , and it is safe to say that on that first viewing, with the previous tour cast, I was not as blown away by the play as the success seemed to warrant. The aforementioned populist casting seemed to have driven a so-so ghostly tale into success beyond its quality, and with th...