A fine cast sent adrift: SALT – fEast Theatre
“This strip of saltmarsh, not quite the land, not quite the sea”: the wet, uncompromising North Norfolk coastline forms the setting for Jeremy Page’s 2008 novel Salt, newly adapted for…
Fascism, fun and fury: Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Dario Fo
Before the glitzy, transient landscape of Fake News, we had the sinister reign of “alternative facts.” Dario Fo’s sardonic, wisecracking black farce, performed at the Sewell Barn Theatre in Gavin…
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…
Kill or be killed: Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, ETO
English Touring Opera gives Gluck’s reformist masterpiece a suitably blood-spattered outing in a production which keeps the opera in touch with its classical roots. Gluck’s reform agenda stands out proudly: his…
A Tale of Two Tannhäusers: Theater Freiburg at Norwich
Theater Freiburg don’t usually tour, so this journey to the Norwich Theatre Royal is itself a pilgrimage of a kind. The camaraderie and team spirit stirred up by the unusual…