A Small Mind At The Theatre

Willy Russell's Blood Brothers was the very first musical that I saw live and to see the show minus this music seemed an impossible thought. This was despite the fact that Russell's story of two twins separated at birth is even minus that music a tremendous roller coaster of emotion. I have to admit that for sometime during the early part of the play I was frankly missing the music, even though the integral Marilyn Monroe song is present at the start of both acts. However mostly due to the strength of many of the performances in this production, I was finally able to get into the happy/sad story once again. At its centre is the turmoil of the life of Mrs Johnstone (a quite brilliant Katie Bunting), dispenser of seemingly endless babies which comes to a head with the news that one is to become two new babes to feed and the eventual events that leave one of them in the hands of Mrs Lyons (Barbara Jackson). Blood Brothers is a challenging time travelling story progressing t...

I have never made it a secret of my dislike of Mr Shakespeare's work. It's not so much that I hate the stories or the characters he creates, its just that my ears fail completely to attune to his language and often while watching performances, more than any other play I lean towards the production and visual aspect of the show. Therefore is was once again that during my latest Shakespeare, I watched costumes, sets, lighting and some most glorious make-up work going on. Not to say that I didn't see the actors superb work, there bodies and facial expressions helping me beyond the troublesome language and managing to take me into the story. It helped this time that I was coming at Macbeth as the first of the bards plays that I was seeing for a second time live, having seen the spectacular (and highly physical) feast that the University Of Northampton provided last year ( review here ). I therefore had a little more knowledge of the tale than I normally would. Here the Masque...