Old Granada Studios, ManchesterFilm, performance and table-tennis workshops succeed for varying durations over Quarantine's seven-hour mortality sequenceDying a death on stage is nothing new…
Coliseum, OldhamThis revue-style tribute to Dame Gracie Fields wastes little time in celebrating the singer's highlights but shies away from the more turbulent timesYou wait almost 40 years …
Royal Court, LiverpoolThis drama about corruption among Liverpool dockers is as powerful as any Arthur Miller, with a Brando-esque performance by Andrew SchofieldIn the summer of 1970, Alan …
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsLucy Bailey's production, based on a new adaptation by Michael Eaton, gives the most theatrical of Dickens's novels the frightful drama it deservesThe most the…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeAmanda Whittington doesn't put a foot wrong with this warm-hearted story about competitive dancersThe combination of Amanda Whittington " a writer with an uncomm…
Liverpool PlayhouseWith lyrics from Armitage and showstopping arrangements by Iain Johnstone, Told By An Idiot fashion an irreverent musical about a 17th-century atheistTold By An Idiot's sh…
Northern Stage, NewcastleKevin Wathen's gimlet-eyed enforcer returns home to avenge his brother's death in a production that brings in period music and a Hamlet-style ghostIn normal circumst…
Theatr Clwyd, MoldRobert Hastie's intense, eloquent production includes a masterclass in filthily inappropriate humourTennessee Williams' febrile family drama has not wanted for attention re…
Pontio, BangorThis epic adaptation of T Rowland Hughes's tale of the Penrhyn Quarry strike shows that the fight against oppression speaks with a common tongueThe University of Bangor owes it…
Octagon, BoltonWith its parade of eccentrics, this is a riotous follow-up to Jim Cartwright's 1989 homage to the traditional northern boozerJim Cartwright's homage to a traditional northern …
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeIt's full-scale farce with flat caps as Barrie Rutter takes on Shakespeare's shambling antihero for a third time with Northern BroadsidesNot even Shakespeare see…
Workers once came from all over the world to work in Lumb Lane. Now the defunct Bradford mill is being used to stage their storiesLumb Lane was, for a long time, Bradford's most notorious ad…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterMargaret Edson's Pulitzer-winning play " about a woman with late-stage ovarian cancer " is given an authoritative revival by Raz Shaw"True wit," according to Alexan…
Anna Jordan launched her own theatre company while holding down a day job licensing fruit machines. Now she's scored a huge hit with Yen, a tender play about two abandoned boys and their als…
Crucible, SheffieldThird Angel's show about women's experiences of birth is based on two years' worth of interviews with parents and professionals, and leaves a strong impression of an NHS m…
Signal Box theatre, YorkBerwick Kaler's 37th pantomime takes in the Costa Brava, the neolithic era and some novel wildlife, all from a trackside tent at the National Railway MuseumThe pantom…
Octagon, BoltonSarah Esdaile's production gives Roald Dahl's script a few modern twists without losing any of the original story's charmThe big news in BFG-land is that Mark Rylance is brush…
Curve, LeicesterFearless and faithful adaptation of Roald Dahl's diabolical story adds an electrifying new score and really delivers on its 'stupendously scary' promiseIf Roald Dahl were a n…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeTheresa Heskins gathers a jolly band of outlaws for a rousing version of the legend that never lets the facts get in the way of a good storyWriter-director There…
York's railway museum tracked the city's most notorious baddie, Lee Haven Jones was an intense prince in Theatr Clwyd's Hamlet and CBeebies' Justin Fletcher stole the show with Mr Tumble in …
Crucible, SheffieldThe scaled-down version of Kern and Hammerstein's musical is still a big beast and Daniel Evans' final festive show laudably refuses to beautify an ugly subjectJerome Kern…
Lawrence Batley theatre, HuddersfieldA collaboration between Tell Tale Hearts, the circus company Pif-Paf and a class of nine-year-olds adds extra coal-mining, jazz-playing crocodiles to the…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsThe musical adaptation flies higher and farther than ever before thanks to scintillating choreography, precipitous video design and a fluid steampunk setIan Fl…
Curve, Leicester Lionel Bart's undisputed high point is performed with gusto by an impressive cast, young and old " plus a barking mastiffIf Lionel Bart were composing Oliver! today, he'd al…
Dance City, NewcastleThe Scottish Ensemble and Andersson Dance team up for an infectious, sonorous dance interpretation of the Goldberg VariationsThe composition of Bach's Goldberg Variation…