Oklahoma! the musical is ‘mainstream’ defined, or is it? The UK National Tour, a Music & Lyrics and Royal & Derngate Northampton co-production of Oklahoma! at Wales Millennium Centre this July is classified as 'mainstream' theatre. It has mass appeal; it packs houses, and it leaves audiences feelin’ alright. But is it mainstream?…

Is Matthew Bourne a household name? I wasn't sure. It’s difficult to think of many artists who are actual household names, and I have to admit that I didn’t know him or his work until a few years ago, even though he has been in this creative business for almost thirty years, has received an OBE for his work and gained criticism like, ‘Matthew Bourne…

This review aims to reflect the graphic and very cryptic style of the production.

That is what Llais/Voice gave to me, it's how I experienced it, so it seems fitting to give something similar back:- …

Peter Shaffer’s Equus opened at the National Theatre in London in 1973 and came to Broadway in 1974. Anthony Hopkins played Martin Dysart; Thomas Hulce played Alan Strang.  I was in the audience. It was on at a conventional Broadway space, the Plymouth Theatre on W45St, but unconventionally for the time, there were a few rows of seats on the stage, to bring the audience closer to the action, and there we sat – on a Year 10 school trip.  Hopkins and Hulce, in this profoundly…

Suitably staged (and not just for seniors, but for families and young people, too) at 2.30 on a Sunday afternoon, Stepping into Spring drew a good-sized, intergenerational crowd. It was a joyful experience, and I was moved to tears of joy more than once.

Dressed in his Sunday best shorts and t shirt and straight from the surf so he said, Age Cymru’s new Chief Executive, Ian Thomas, made the introductions to this Gwanwyn Festival event: the culmination of a…

Even if no claims to impersonation have been made, audience expectations are sure to run high when dramatising a living legend. Sky high when that legend is Tom Jones, who is not only alive and well, but appears on prime time TV every Saturday night looking sharp as nails. 

Tom Jones really is one of Wales’ greatest exports, and Theatr Na Nog’s production (in partnership with RCT and NPT Theatres), Tom - A Story of Tom Jones, opened most…

Host your event at Gwdihw and you’re off to a good start gwdihw.co.uk/--it may translate as owl but Gwdihw is synonymous with good times. Any event I’ve ever been to there is embellished by its charm and innate vibe. Even non-events become one – the times I stop in on the way home for no particular reason other than to stop in and stay a while, make my day.

The purr of a…

Guy O’Donnell asked Leslie Herman Jones to reflect on her experience as a 3^rd Age Critic, considering what it has meant to her and what she feels she’s contributed.

Reflecting is an interesting process. While I was at it for this, I found myself also reflecting on the act of reflection itself, which is defined as ‘thinking usefully towards a deeper understanding of life and to the fullness of wisdom’ (Ratnaguna, The Art of…

Opening day at World Stage Design 2013 #WSD13 was like full immersion into a shark tank for someone like Jacques Cousteau. I didn’t know him personally but he impressed me as a man who, when faced with a deep blue sea full of the promise for adventure, learning, new pathways, excitement and maybe some danger, would dive right in. Jacques and I have a…

Elephants Eh?  What can I say?

I saw Showstopper’s newest musical, Elephants Eh? on Friday night at RWCMD’s Richard Burton Theatre.…

Theatre 2's intimate performance space provided an apt arena for Living Pictures Productions’ Diary of a Madman. As the audience entered in a dim light, a large man lay on his back, asleep or dead I wondered, on a square platform of plain wooden pallets, an origami bird sat on his chest. The atmosphere this created was tangible.

And it wasn’t just…