Cold snap: The Wolves of Willloughby Chase, Maddermarket
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is a children’s novel, rather than a play: accordingly, the Maddermarket’s Christmas staging, using an adaptation of Joan Aiken’s book by Russ Tunney, keeps our…
Desperate to live the truth: An Ideal Husband, Oscar Wilde
It is a strange and fascinating inversion of life by art that, as Oscar Wilde’s own life unravelled towards its final, dark ruin, his dramas became ever lighter and funnier.…
Melodic, comic, colonial: Franz von Suppé’s A Trip to Africa
A sense of real excitement surrounded the revival (and UK premiere) of Franz von Suppé’s A Trip to Africa at the Maddermarket Theatre, the culmination of several years of work…
Adventure on the opera horizon: Preview of Franz von Suppé’s A Trip to Africa
Any great opera experience is, to some extent, a process of discovery. Whether I find myself reimagining a familiar piece thanks to incisive direction, noticing an aria afresh due to…