The Playhouse, Nottingham: Michael Eaton remembers following the exploits of Victorian burglar and womaniser Charlie Peace in a Buster comic strip when he was growing up. Eaton is from Notti…
Curve Theatre, Leicester: The first half of this show is very brief at 40 minutes and still had the feel of a radio play, the medium in which David Rudkin first attempted to get inside the h…
Nottingham Playhouse: Orwell's Appendix to 1984 sets out the principles of Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. It provides the framework for this startling adaptation, so grueso…
The Theatre, Derby: This is Sarah Brigham's debut as artistic director at Derby, now a producing and receiving house. She couldn't have chosen a better play or a stronger cast, and…
The Studio, Birmingham Rep : Soweto Kinch describes this staged performance of his album, The Legend of Mike Smith, as all-immersive, something that has pushed him physically, mentally and c…
The Rep, Birmingham : The Rep has reopened with a flourish after its remodelling and attachment to the adjacent new £189 million Library of Birmingham on Centenary Square. The mass…
Kilworth House Theatre, Lutterworth: One of Mitch Sebastian's great skills is in peopling a stage so that there's always something to observe and delight on the multi-layered sets …
The Hippodrome, Birmingham: This is poetry in motion. Everything about David Bintley's 1999 production is gloriously Romantic, from the tumbling waterfall in Giselle's village to t…
Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire: The full house here is testament to the perfection of the musical offering and the quality of the Kilworth House experience. Torrential rain got its o…
The Hippodrome, Birmingham: The dancer Deborah Bull reflected on the radio last week how fortunate she had been to live her life to the sound of a full orchestra. Here's a perfect examp…
Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham: New Perspectives have an unerring instinct for what will strike a chord with the rural audiences into which the company takes its high quality theatre. Bren…
Derby Theatre : What a fine writer Lee Hall is - theatrical moments come thick and fast in this play and there is so much to savour in the dialogue. It's about cooking, sex, loss, despa…
The Playhouse, Nottingham : This is the European premiere of Matthew Spangler's adaptation, first performed in the US in 2007. It's a searing and sobering story, even harder to wat…
Royal Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon: Maria Aberg says she could not imagine directing this play with any Rosalind other than Pippa Nixon, whom she deems extraordinary. She is. She has a d…
The Sabai Pavilion, Derby : There are some rough edges to be smoothed around Glamorous Amorous, the new The Lady Boys of Bangkok tour. It delivers on sheer sizzle and flamboyance, with hundr…
The Rep (at the Old Rep Theatre), Birmingham: This collaboration between Philip Pullman and Teresa Ludovico is a marriage made in heaven. Her adaptation is so imaginative and so fluent. Scen…
The Playhouse, Nottingham: What the audience doesn't see here is as funny, riveting and important as what it does see, whether it's watching one player and invisible opponent in a …
Derby Theatre : This is beautiful. Roger Haines has scaled down Charles Strouse's Broadway musical, transposed it to the West Country of the 1950s and tailored it for Derby Theatre, whe…
Palace Theatre, Mansfield : It's always an advantage when the panto director is also the writer, because they pull the very best out of the script. And Andrew Ryan's script is a ni…
Theatre Royal, Nottingham : If all the spectacular stuff failed and the only people left to carry this show were the Grumbleweeds (Robin Colvill and Graham Walker), I reckon audiences would…
Assembly Rooms, Derby : The creative team has gone a long way to solving the difficulties of staging panto at the Derby Assembly Rooms, a venue that doesn't lend itself to live theatre.…
Town Hall, Loughborough: Loughborough's panto is always one of the fastest paced and jolliest in the region, and evil doesn't have a chance of triumphing here. But Sion Lloyd'…
The Playhouse, Nottingham: I can't remember how many times he's hung up his red shoes but Kenneth Alan Taylor just can't resist it. He's back playing the dame in his 29th…
Curve, Leicester: Paul Kerryson's production screams rebellion from the outset, with a barrage of video stills that include a smiling Jimmy Savile with a smiling Enoch Powell. The rasp …
Chilwell Arts, Nottinghamshire: There are moments of tenderness and enchantment in Mary Swan's adaptation of this well-loved children's classic, which captures the essence of the s…