North of England

David Cunningham

North West Reviewer

Studio

The impact of COVID lingers on with most of the Manchester production houses keeping their studio facilities in darkness. It would be unreasonable, therefore, to pick a best studio show as, to the best of my recollection, have only seen two during 2022 so really, they would be the best by default.

Fringe

Manchester’s fringe was, by comparison with other cities where the fringe sector seems to have come roaring back, a bit on the quiet side. Still, 53two hosted a few blinders with If This Is Normal, combining the Millennial angst of Sally Rooney with a David Mamet-style look at the subjective nature of sexual consent, and Julie the Musical, being such a raucous, intoxicating celebration of the life of Julie d'Aubigny, it might have better been categorised as a party.

Drama

Some new drama (well, new to the region) actually made a welcome appearance. The adaptation of Brief Encounter at Bolton Octagon had previously been staged in a full bells and whistles version by Kneehigh Theatre. The Octagon’s more austere approach better suited the period and illustrated the drab background from which passion lifted the characters, making the play an intoxicating, compelling demonstration of the power of love.

The Royal Exchange’s adaptation of John Ajvide Lindquist’s Let The Right One In acknowledged and challenged the classic elements of the vampire myth to give a production which was both brutal and tender; suggesting there are worse monsters than vampires in society.

Comedy

As with studio productions, there wasn’t a lot of comedy around this year. Tim Foley’s Electric Rosary at The Royal Exchange would, however, have been a stand-out even if there had been greater competition. With themes such as sacrifice and the worrying impact of technological advancement, the play was eccentrically charming and very funny with an excellent cast.

Musicals

Musicals, offering the glamour of showbiz and an easy escape from grim reality, were the type of show that bounced back quickest from COVID. Inevitably, Disney’s The Lion King at The Palace, Manchester, devoured all competition in term of sheer jaw-dropping spectacle.

As always, however, Hope Mill proved it is possible to offer high-quality entertainment with considerably fewer resources with Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella setting a very high standard for the 2022 festive season and continuing to demonstrate the venue’s knack of finding musicals which have previously been overlooked in the UK. After a number of challenges getting the show to the stage, including postponement due to the COVID pandemic and an injury to the lead actor, it was a pleasure to see the effort was worthwhile.

There was also the off-centre (hardly surprising considering the source material) Girl From The North Country written by Conor McPherson making totally unexpected use of songs by Bob Dylan to produce an exhilarating show.

David Chadderton

Editor / North West Editor

2022 was a year in which I saw mostly homegrown rather than touring shows, but there was certainly much that I enjoyed across Greater Manchester.

The Octagon in Bolton had a year that started interesting then got better and better. I’ve picked two of their productions for my highlights of the year: the brand new musical adaptation of best-selling novel The Book Thief, which I hope will be seen again before long, and Emma Rice’s adaptation of Brief Encounter, which became much more intimate on the Octagon’s stage than Kneehigh’s production felt when it visited The Lowry in 2009, with an honourable mention going to One Man, Two Guvnors.

The Royal Exchange had an intriguing take on Ibsen that worked well in Nora: A Doll’s House by Stef Smith and Bruntwood Judges’ Prize winner Electric Rosary by Tim Foley was a really good comedy that lost its way for me when it tried to become something else, but my pick of its season has to be Let the Right One In, which was an intense and gripping couple of hours.

There wasn’t very much at all to tempt me to HOME this year. RashDash’s Oh Mother was an original and entertaining examination of parenthood in this talented company’s distinctive style, but my pick has to be Les Enfants Terribles’ slick and beautiful retelling of the Baba Yaga myth in The House with Chicken Legs, the company’s first new production for a few years and its first to open in Manchester during its twentieth anniversary year (I also spoke to Oliver Lansley and James Seager from the company for the BTG podcast).

While I’ve heard a few complaints about high ticket prices at Hope Mill Theatre of late, this is a theatre that continues to impress with the quality of its productions. This year, it produced a rare revival of Sondheim’s Passion with Ruthie Henshall leading an impressive cast, but my highlight of its programme was the UK stage première of Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, although it would be a close-run race for the best festive production in the region between this and the National Theatre’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, which took up residence at The Lowry for Christmas and New Year to open a national tour.

This was also the year I returned to the Edinburgh festivals for the first time in four years, despite the obscene cost of accommodation. I saw some great shows from performers I knew I could rely on, such as Rich Hall, John Hegley, David O’Doherty, Luke Wright, Pip Utton, Peter Straker and BTG’s own Richard Vergette, plus The Man Who Planted Trees was definitely worth revisiting, even after all the times I’ve seen it.

However, the shows I’d like to pick out for a special mention are August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned featuring a spellbinding hour-and-a-half solo performance from Lester Purry as the author, Mischief Theatre’s riotous spin-off comedy magic show Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle, the wonderful Jonny and the Baptists’ latest satirical comedy music show Dance Like It Never Happened, always intriguing Tim Crouch with another piece that leaves you pondering over what it was saying long after you leave the theatre, Truth's A Dog Must to Kennel, and a fully-staged performance at the Book Festival, This Is Memorial Device, taking me back to the ‘80s music scene in the perfect location of The Wee Red Bar with a tour de force performance from Paul Higgins.

Also at the Book Festival, I saw some great talks from people from the world of theatre and entertainment, including Alan Cumming, Brian Cox, Armando Iannucci and Charlie Higson, plus a staging of part of Sarah Smith’s Hear No Evil that combined speech with subtitles and signing very effectively. But on a completely untheatrical subject, I enjoyed The Paleo-Adventurers with palaeontologists Steve Brusatte and Thomas Halliday so much that I watched it again online after I got home.