On paper, it’s red-hot. Capitalise on the Jubilee / Will & Kate / Royal Baby mania with a show starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Regina (again) backed by the writer and director of The Queen and a neat concept: a series of era-hopping sequences giving us a backstage pass to the Queen’s weekly audience with the Prime Minister.
A group of old codgers drinking in a pub. A questionable doctor and his coquettish nurse. A work-experience lad languishing in a stale newsroom. A young boy with a penchant for kicking pigs. These are the characters that populate the bizarre world of Kill The Beast’s new production of The Boy Who Kicked Pigs.
A potentially big problem for any little voice is that the production risks being unbalanced by the very thing you likely bought your ticket for in the first place: scene stealing sequences in which a mighty songstress rips forth from a delicate frame. While Jess Robinson delivers on this (and finds space to provide LV with a wry humour) all of this would to naught if there wasn’t a great supporting cast – and, for that matter – plot – to populate the world that Little Voice is so desperately attempting to avoid.
For a narrative that discusses sentimentality and romance at great length, this is a remarkably clear-headed piece.
There's a great group dynamic at work here, and it's not always the seemingly most dangerous acts that hold the audience’s attention.
This Fortieth Anniversary edition has enough tweaks on the old arrangements to make everything feel fresh and kinky.
For the first time in Trekker convention history all five captains from the TV incarnations of Star Trek were gathered for a public appearance.
Ross Noble, a man who has forged a living from going off on a tangent, brought his Mindblender show to Brighton last night.
You get the impression that if Jon Richardson worried less about the audience liking him, he'd have them eating out of his hand. Which, no doubt, would be spotless.
The Second Mrs Tanqueray remains a biting and psychologically astute piece of theatre.
