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2005 in the North WestDateline: 27th December, 2005The north west, as always, has brought us a rich and varied programme of theatre in 2005. The following are my picks from the productions that I saw and reviewed during the past year. The Royal Exchange brought us an excellent Romeo and Juliet with a young cast and a slick and very funny production of Neil Simon's early play Come Blow Your Horn, both from director Jacob Murray. The Library gave us a very funny The Safari Party by Tim Firth, Oldham Coliseum did an excellent job with a flawed play with David Auburn's Proof and Bolton's Octagon brought us a superb production of Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane. I hate to have to come down to a single 'best' production, but if I have to name one I am going to be completely subjective and plump for one that I came out of feeling as though I'd had a great time and that received no recognition from other local awards. While not a great play, Mark Babych's production of Jim Cartwright's Eight Miles High with a superbly talented cast of actor-musicians at the Octagon had such a fantastic atmosphere that watching it felt like being at a rock festival without the usual discomfort and bad toilets. In my view, this production was vastly superior to one set in a similar era that actually received a nomination for 'best musical' at the recent Manchester Evening News Awards. For touring shows, we have just had a visit from the new Miss Saigon that has all the elements of a new West End show with a top quality cast rather than a show that has been cut down for touring. The National brought us a slick and well-performed production of Alan Bennett's The History Boys and also an interesting new play Elmina's Kitchen, written by and starring the very talented Kwame Kwei-Armah. Told By An Idiot and the Lyric Hammersmith brought us a wonderfully imaginative adaptation of Philip Pullman's children's book The Firework-Maker's Daughter. One of the biggest highlights of the year, though, must be David Lan's production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun for the Young Vic, which was superbly performed and incredibly moving. Again, though, I'm going to go for a production that has been otherwise unrecognised in local awards. Cornwall's Kneehigh has developed a unique style of theatre that is imaginative, funny, poetic, accessible and visually stimulating, and its recent production of Tristan and Yseult fitted right into this style and was very entertaining. The company had a very mixed audience cheering for more at the Lowry, and deserves much wider recognition. David Chadderton
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