THEY - REVIEW - MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

Manchester International Festival brings artists from all over the world to use the city as their inspiration and canvas. The programme includes live music, art installations, comedy, and theatre.

They: A Sequence Of Unease was written and published by Kay Dick in 1977 and has been adapted for MIF by Sarah Frankcom, Imogen Knight, and star of stage and screen Maxine Peake. They is an eerie dystopia and in its world art in all its forms is eradicated.

In this after-hours performance, the gothic and slightly sinister John Rylands Libary is the setting for the reading of this recently rediscovered piece. The main reading room within the library is the perfect venue for this story to be told and is reminiscent of a church in many ways. Vast in height and stunning to the eye, It’s easy to see why this venue has been chosen for this re-telling.

Peake arrives to near silence and takes her seat, reading from her script, and we are immediately plunged into darkness. A striking contrast to the previously vastly lit open space with natural light. The single spotlight shines on her face as she recites the story, both as the narrator and the characters. As the narrative progresses Peake places pieces of her script gently on the ground between the captivated audience on the long narrow space she performs on. By narrating all the characters it was difficult to differentiate between each, symbolic perhaps that in one way or another we are all creators of art in some form and all alike. It isn’t until the second half of this 45-minute performance that there is a shift in intensity.

Now off script, Peake recites the cruel and torturous ways in which each character is punished for their declaration of art or love passionately. Devising a piece of theatre in a non-conforming capacity does come with its own limitations. Seamlessly bounding between characters we get a brief insight into each with just their names but are left wanting more due to the short nature of the reworked text. The piece alludes to the barbaric nature in which the characters are decimated due to their art without fully going all the way. No one is exempt from the punishments and begs the question ‘Would it be enough to go on quietly creating for yourself?’

Peake’s performance however is insightful. In the latter part of the piece, the vigour and force she demonstrates evoke raw emotion as she looks each audience member in the eyes with terror upon her face. Filmmaker Joseph Lynn appears towards the climax of the reading filming Peake in her tracks. This didn’t have the desired impact and took us away from dystopia to disengaged.

Amy Mae’s lighting design is uncomplicated but effortless. The stone arches of the library anre illuminated by spotlights as Peake moves between them, the light hitting her face like a suspect as she passes by. Movement director Imogen Knight should be commended, in what could have been restrictive static direction, given the space and material, we watched every movement Peake made with anticipation. Movements appeared nuanced but natural.

The piece written many years ago strikes a worrying resemblance to today’s society. At a time when artists around the world, continue to be censored for their ideas and have unprecedented interference due to the lack of government support. The festival prides itself on supporting thought-provoking performances and this performance indeed does that. The atmospheric piece leaves us with more questions than answers but asks us to take courage and speak the truth.

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

A PISSEDMAS CAROL – REVIEW – LEICESTER SQUARE
by Amy Rye
The infamous Sh!t Faced Showtime are back in London with a festive edition, they have taken Dickens’ classic and put a drunken spin on it. The formula is the same as other iterations of the Shi!t Faced shows, one member of the cast has been boozing, and this time it is John Milton who plays Scrooge. Before the show, half a bottle of Jim Beam, some wine, and beer have been consumed in the previous 4 hours. The rest of the cast, try to keep the show on track, also aided by James Murfitt as the compere, Charles Dickens. The … More A PISSEDMAS CAROL – REVIEW – LEICESTER SQUARE
A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE
by Ellie Preston
Spine-tingling yet heart-warming, Mark Gatiss’s retelling of A Christmas Carol truly encapsulates the haunting atmosphere of a Victorian ghost story, balanced out with enough humour so as to capture the festive season. Led by Keith Allen as Scrooge, with Peter Forbes as Marley, this show is perfect for Christmas viewing. The set design by Paul Wills is instantly captivating, containing stacks of metal cabinets towering over the theatre, moveable by the cast to allow space for other central props like doors, beds and tables. In addition to this, the puppetry design by Matthew Forbes is incredibly clever, adding creepy elements to the show such … More A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE
A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
by Tom Carrao
The title of this winner of Theatre 503’s 2023 International Playwriting Award by Roxy Cook may seem like the set-up to a joke, but the narrative that unspools is instead an affectionate, gently barbed and at base quite sobering portrait of three ordinary souls (and one restless feline) adrift in modern Moscow. There is much affable, satirical back-and-forth commentary on the accepted myths & stereotypes of the Russian spirit & soul. Beset by the indignities of age, opportunism, graft, fatigue, the characters orbit one another, doomed to play out their roles in an unjust, predatory and saturnine universe. The play opens … More A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE
by Amy Rye
Peter Pan Goes Wrong first premiered in London at the Pleasance Theatre in 2013, and earlier this year the show made its Broadway debut. Now the production is back in the West End for the Christmas season. Following on from The Play That Goes Wrong, in this production, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is staged by the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society and goes awry, disastrously so. The meta-comedy is filled with slapstick comedy, sometimes the humour may be predictable and silly, but it’s universally funny throughout – there is something for everyone here, and the laughs come thick and fast … More PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE
GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE
by George Rennie
Drawing heavily from the classic canon of the British supernatural, HighTide’s trio of contemporary Gothic narratives uses traditional storytelling formats to address contemporary themes. Directed by Elayce Ismail, reverent musical interludes accompany tales of apparitions and nighttime conjurings that speak of women from the East of England. Unfortunately, the effect is less chilling and more lightweight, with conventional structures, predictable plot twists and an over-reliance on external forces to drive narrative shoring up some of the less relatable aspects of the genre. Nicola Werenowska’s The Beach House, perhaps the cleanest of the three tales, tells of a mother and daughter’s … More GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE