Theatre & Arts
Northern Ballet’s adaptation of Madame Butterfly, running until March 10th is a delicate and powerful mixture of classical ballet mixed with traditional Japanese dance. Artistic Director, David Nixon, threw all of the emotion of this effecting opera into the physical movement of dance, resulting in one of the most expressive ballets I have ever seen. The story follows a young girl who, after the suicide of her father, is forced to become a geisha. During this time she is sold to marry an American soldier, with whom she falls in love. During his absence at war she bears his child...
Our Theatre Editor, Kirsty Hulse, takes us through March’s key openings in Leeds. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming reviews. The Grand Theatre Madame Butterfly 29th February – 10th March 2012 After a hiatus of ten years, The Grand Theatre plays host to Northern Ballet’s acclaimed Madame Butterfly. The Leeds stage will be graced again with the intricate set of a Japanese villa in this story of true love, beauty and betrayal. Puccini’s score sets the perfect backdrop to this timeless mix of classic and Japanese style dancing. Chess 13th March – 17th March 2012 Following the successful production of...
Starring Leslie Ash and Brooke Kinsella, All the Single Ladies follows the lives of three women with very different histories and outlooks on men. At one end of the spectrum there is Liz; seven times married and divorced with an appreciation of sex, material things and her freedom. Then there is Orla, a rather desperate character who has been pandering to a man she’s lived with for eleven years with the agreement that he occasionally sleeps with her (amid his other regular flings). We then have Alison, a young and recently widowed squaddy’s wife with swearing children. The set design...
Written from the viewpoint of an often ignored working class majority and staged against the backdrop of a variety show, the historic and recently renovated City Varieties could not have played a better host for the politically charged Big Society. This variety performance, set in 1910, heralds back to a day in which the country was ruled by aristocracy and makes parallels between then and the present day, in light of recent government cuts and the increasing gulf between the rich and poor. The fourth wall is demolished as the audience sit in on and participates with a 1910 music hall,...
On Thursday 19th January TQS Magazine made a dash in the rain to Leeds Art Gallery for the announcement of the Northern Art Prize 2011/12 winner. The event was a bustling, vibrant affair, with over 500 of Leeds’ who’s who (and a few of us commoners) in attendance. Fitzmaurice was shortlisted amongst three other artists – Liadin Cooke, a mixed media artist, who’s work included a brass pole wrapped in green wax, James Hugonin, an abstract painter who produces large scale works comprised of thousands of coloured marks over detailed grids, and Richard Rigg, an artist that manipulates everyday objects...
I have a confession. I’ve never see a Fred Astaire film. That’s my disclaimer: any forthcoming appreciation of Tom Chambers is in no way a slight on the world’s most famous tap dancer. Matthew White & Howard Jacques’ production of Top Hat opened in Leeds last Tuesday following runs in Canterbury and Edinburgh. Its opening runs were evident in the seamless production and impeccable performances all round – clearly very well-rehearsed. When Yank ladies’ man Jerry Travers (Chambers) comes to England to perform in Horace Hardwick’s new revue he’s determined to remain free and unattached until he encounters the dynamic Miss Dale Tremont (Summer Strallen)....