Tim Foley’s short sixty-minute play is a satirical spin on the film franchise Jurassic Park. Boxed up and packaged in such way that the actors themselves physically and figuratively fight it out in true dinosaur style. Set within a financially stricken university the Dean calls in Jay an academic in palaeontologist to his office. Jay is faced with being laid off due to academic losses, poor performance, scandal and anything the Dean could put upon him.

Peebles Orchestra was founded by Claire Garnett, MBE, in 1976. Claire was its guiding spirit for forty-two years before she handed over this tremendous pool of talent to the chair, Chris Dubé. Claire has been fundamental in establishing a solid musical base in Peebles. She founded Peebles Players for people with disabilities and music for dementia in care homes. Her legacy does her proud.

For those who are resisting the total takeover of tinsel, they may find comfort in a date with America’s spookiest family. The Addams Family packs lots of nostalgic charm for those who loved the various TV shows and films. In this adaptation, everyone’s favourite young goth, Wednesday, has a nasty shock for her family that, for once doesn’t involve the usual collection of weaponry and torture devices – instead she has fallen in love and, to the horror of the kooky clan, he and his family are ‘normal’ – and guess who’s coming to dinner?

Director Olivia Fuchs and Choreographer Marcus Jarrell Willis combine perfectly with this fourth major collaboration between Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre delivering an all-too prescient take on Handel’s celebrated Biblical operetta whose themes of chastity, integrity, and corruption are explored in terms of power, gender, and judgement. Susanna (Anna Dennis) and Joacim (James Hall) celebrate their love for one another while her father, Chelsias (Matthew Brook), shares in their happiness, before Joacim is called away on business leaving Susanna with a sense of foreboding.

Spanning past and present, Apphia Campbell’s Through the Mud explores racism in America during the Black Panther movement as well as Black Lives Matter. Filled with a gospel and blues soundtrack, sung live by the performers, this is a show with a strong message but some struggle of identity. With only two actors, we follow the stories of Assata Shakur (Apphia Campbell) during the civil rights movement and Jim Crow laws while flipping back and forth to Ambrosia Rollins (Tinashe Warikandwa) a college student wrapped up in the Black Lives Matter protests in 2014.

It is the 1960s in Georgia, USA. In Savannah, five young women – a journalist, a nurse, a housewife, and two teenaged sisters – form a gardening club. Only, they have no intentions of discussing petunias or pesticides. This in fact will be a cover for drug dealing as they try to get their hands on (and distribute) birth control pills.

From the fantastic minds of Wonder Fools comes Òran, a contemporary retelling of the famous greek myth of Orpheus. Fresh from its 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival run, this piece, written by Owen Sutcliffe and directed by Jack Nurse, has embarked on a new tour. Òran (Robbie Gordon) has a difficult relationship with his parents, particularly heightened by the loss of his older brother.

L’Indiscipline is a mad show full of creativity and promise and an exemplar of what fringe theatre is all about. The play focuses on the Salpetriere hospital and its celebrity doctor Jean-Martin Charcot. We begin in a lecture, ourselves as the audience, as Charcot and his assistant Gilles demonstrate their various patients, turning their mental disorders into a psuedo-scientific circus show.

Inspired by England’s notorious witch trials of the 17th century, Rebecca Brewer’s Coven tells the story of Jenet Device in 1616 Pendle, Lancashire, who at nine years old accuses her family of witchcraft. Over two decades later, she finds herself imprisoned for the same crime amongst wrongfully accused women, forcing her to confront her painful past, her beliefs, as well as her identity.

After Sunday is an intimate and thought-provoking production set within a secure hospital where the characters join a Caribbean cooking group. Through this unique setting, the play allows us to explore how individuals cope with the emotional and psychological challenges of being in such an environment, especially when their stay has no defined end. The production sensitively portrays the complex emotions of those trying to find meaning and comfort through cooking, an activity that not only passes the time but also becomes a form of therapy.

A Scouse Christmas Carol – Liverpool’s Royal Court It may not be what Dickens had in mind when he wrote A Christmas Carol but A Scouse Christmas Carol directed by Mark Chatterton hits the mark providing laughter and mischief in the Royal Courts festive offering. Kevin Fearon has taken the traditional story by Charles Dickens shaken it up and given us a mix of ghosts, live music, humour and a murder mystery all delivered with heart, wit, warmth and festive fun.

The 2025 tour of Miss Saigon has descended upon Manchester’s Palace Theatre, a moment I approached with a mixture of excitement and nerves. This musical is, without question, my unrivalled favourite of all time. Having seen it over 50 times, I know the script, staging, and emotional landscape inside out. So, would this new version soar like a phoenix… or fall short?

I’m pleased to see Richard Parker getting another opportunity to direct a production at the Forum Theatre, Romiley, having made his directorial debut with NK earlier this year with what was probably my favourite show that I have seen this year, namely “Teechers” by John Godber. It was always going to be a difficult task to bring to the stage an adaptation of such an iconic and well known film with amazing stars (Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katherine Ross) but I must say that the director and cast have done a great job with the interpretation of the characters.

Phyllida Lord’s classic production, designed by Anthony Ward, is one of the longest running at Opera North having been in their repertoire since 1993. James Hurley’s current revival is big on the comedy but sadly fails to hit the high notes that this staple of the operatic calendar deserves. With the action transposed to late 1950’s Paris, we meet four struggling bohemians living in a garret: a poet, Rodolfo (Anthony Ciaramitaro); a painter, Marcello (Yurly Yurchuk); a philosopher, Colline (Han Kim); and a musician, Schaunard (Seán Boylan), who arrives having had some good fortune and they agree to celebrate by dining at Café Momus.

Thankfully avoiding the stereotype of the modern Mancunian, with their bucket hat, Adidas tracksuit and simian stroll, writer Duncan Battman has succeeded in producing a new piece of writing that celebrates the values of Manchester without ever resorting to cliché, displaying its innate humanity through six stories of the people who have made their lives here. Rather than being presented with the rather austere format of six separate monologues, Writer/Director Battman chooses to fragment and overlap the stories onstage, the first three being set on a tram heading into the city centre with the trio after the interval moving the action into a city centre pub.

Limp Wrist and the Iron Fist at Brixton House Theatre was nothing short of electric, a play that’s not just important but gloriously entertaining. It’s funny, heartwarming, and unflinchingly true to the lives it represents. Each character feels like a facet of what it might mean to be Black and queer today: tender, defiant, exhausted, and alive all at once.

“What are we going to do about all the men?” It’s a broad question that lacks any tangible answer, and “millennial, middle-aged theatremaker” Olly Hawes isn’t concerned with providing an answer. Instead, his new solo play Old Fat F**k Up occupies space within and around the question, tackling the meaty subjects of masculinity, fatherhood, and inherent violence. As Hawes clarifies at the top of the show, staged in an intimately small traverse that brings us right into the world he’s creating, this is not a stand-up comedy show.

An old man goes to see a psychiatrist in Switzerland complaining of deep depression. The psychiatrist tells him to go see Grock, the greatest and funniest clown in all of Switzerland. No one could see Grock and not come away delighted, entertained and inspired, he says. Grock takes all the worries off us for a few hours every night, he says.

The Hero’s Journey is the narrative equivalent of gravity; invisible, inevitable, and always pulling the story forward. Joseph Campbell mapped it out in The Hero with a Thousand Faces: an ordinary person is yanked from their comfortable, familiar world and dropped into a crisis that forces them to grow, guided (and occasionally scolded) by a mentor figure. They return changed, a little battered, a little wiser, and now capable of saving the very world they once fled.

Considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, Frank Capra’s wholesome tale of community, love and redemption has become a staple of the Christmas movie selection. Adapted by Mary Elliot Nelson, tonight is a reimaging of the tale of George Bailey who, contemplating ending his life following the collapse of the business and town that he has given up his own dreams to keep afloat, is given a glimpse of what life would be like if he had never been part of it.

John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers the Play is sure to be a great night out for anyone wanting to have a good laugh. I was delighted to see John Cleese’s name on the programme, wondering whether he had any part in the plays production. His is the first name you see on the programme, down as adapted for the stage by. What a difficult task that must have been, trying to keep fans of the show happy with the expected gags, but also making sure it works on stage.

The Cast ‘Shine’ with a heart of pure gold! A STOS production worthy of its 125 years anniversary! With title changes including ‘The Official Take That Musical - Greatest Days’ and a TV talent show, a UK tour and finally the result of these changes, what you see today – as STOS Theatre Company bring - The Band A new musical by Tim Firth with the music of Take That - to the Sheffield Lyceum in their 125th anniversary year.

Danny Partington’s Lewd and Lascivious Acts is a heart wrenching love story wrapped in an unflinching examination of the brutality experienced by members of the LGBTQ+ community at the hands of the Nazi regime. It’s 1931 and Freddie (James Sprague) and Paul (Evan Watkinson) have just met in Berlin’s famous Eldorado club. The chemistry between the actors is palpable, with Sprague’s earnest and vulnerable sincerity contrasting beautifully with Watkinson’s more flamboyant and captivating presence.

Many times, actors get labelled as icons, legends and titans of their craft. Richard Burton was someone who would be extolled as such yet tempered by opinions that his was a wasted talent, squandered in the depths of a bottle of gin and never truly realised on account of his untimely death at the age of 58. Resurrecting the man via Mark Jenkin’s rich and lyrical script is a tall order for anyone, especially where they are required to hold their audience through a long monologue.

In Erstwhile Media’s final play of their “One Dramatic Night” at Augustine United Church, we saw Rhona O’Donnell star in Cosette Bolt’s one-woman play (Parent)ified. Based on Bolt’s own experiences, this play was heartbreakingly raw, looking at the impact abusive parenting has had on our protagonist’s life as she is forced to step up to the plate and raise her younger sister, putting her own life on hold.