Shakespeare

Electric Dreams

★★★★☆

After really enjoying Saving Shakespeare: Murder, Magic & Mayhem by A Place For Us CIC (you can read our review here), we were excited to see what they would do with an 80’s music filled performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, titled Electric Dreams. Held amongst the ruins at Norton Priory, and featuring classic 80’s tracks such as Tainted Love, Sweet Child o’ Mine, and Total Eclipse of the Heart, this show kicked off the Halton Pride celebrations with a bang!

Saving Shakespeare: Murder, Magic & Mayhem

★★★★☆

Developed by A Place For Us CIC in 2022, Saving Shakespeare is an energetic frolic through some of Shakespeare’s most iconic works.

The premise of the show is William Shakespeare, or Will I Am as he refers to himself, has arrived at court to perform his latest production. Unfortunately, Will has forgotten the script, and none of the actors have turned up. His only hope are two women who aren’t even legally allowed to act. Over the course of an hour, the trio cobble together a show to perform for Elizabeth I using the scenes they can remember from other works. Covering Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night the production is a joy from start to finish.

Lights On Lights Off

★★★★★

As part of their programme to celebrate The Bard’s birthday, Shakespeare North Playhouse’s production of Lights On / Lights Off is a remarkable exploration of The First Folio. Utilising Elizabethan style rehearsals, local actors, and improvisation, Lights On / Lights Off is a production made up of a scene from each of the 36 plays that make up The First Folio; 18 of them with the theatre lights on, and 18 of them by candlelight with the theatre lights off.

Macbeth

★★★★☆

Double, Double, toil and….yakuza?

The Scottish play is possibly one of Shakespeare’s best known tragedies, telling the tale of Macbeth’s rise to power and his attempts to retain that power against a backdrop of murder. This production of Macbeth by Imitating The Dog was unlike any other production we have ever seen, and completely modernises the play in a way that Baz Luhrmann did for Romeo and Juliet in the 90’s.

Transporting the play to Estuary City, a gritty neon world that invokes images of London and Tokyo, this version of Macbeth incorporates video technology, modern language and a violent noir backdrop to stunning effect. Throughout the production, two cameras capture Macbeth and Lady Macbeth on the stage. These images appear on screens above the stage, and in combination with the sectional staging give individual perspectives of the action on stage. With background films projected onto the staging, Imitating The Dog have created a cinematic masterpiece within a live theatre environment. Our favourite example of this was Lady Macbeth riding a subway train to meet Macbeth. The camera focussed on each of them individually to set them apart on stage whilst being only metres away from each other, whilst also delivering the feeling of motion through the subway train; incredibly creative and effective.

Richard III

★★★★☆

Set against a backdrop of Morris dancing, and following her critically acclaimed production of Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe, Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh brings a powerful performance of Richard III to the Liverpool Playhouse for a limited time run.

Given that Richard III is the second longest of Shakespeare’s plays, and that this was the first time we’d been to watch a performance of any of The Bard’s historical plays, there was a slight apprehension that we wouldn’t enjoy the performance. Within the first scene, we knew that wasn’t going to be the case and we were about to watch something special.

Comedy of Errors

★★★★★

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and features an almost Parent Trap style mix up of identical twins. In the original play, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse visit Ephesus and end up confused with the Antipholus and Dromio that live there, leading to a lot of slapstick, declarations of love and a commotion around a necklace.

A new, modernised version produced by Shakespeare North Playhouse and Stephen Joseph Theatre transports the action to the 1980’s and the towns of Prescot and Scarborough where each theatre is located. This self-described “more or less” version by Elizabeth Godber and Nick Lane has, by their own admission, been “messed about with”, and now features classic 80’s songs, shell suits, and a return of the War of the Roses.