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Jane Eyre At The Rep, Birmingham – Delicious Gothic Melodrama
You have to feel for Jane Eyre, one of the most unlucky heroines in classic literature. Her life was one of low after low, orphaned soon after birth, hated by the family who took her in but saw her as a cuckoo in the nest, sent away to a school where she was treated brutally, losing her best friend to consumption and ill treatment, and when she finally breaks out as a governess and falls in love with her boss, the mysterious, and let’s be honest, rather strange Mr Rochester, her plans for true love are thwarted by the maniacal tendencies of the first Mrs Rochester, not so safely locked…
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Brassed Off – Totally Brilliant
It’s the much loved film which tells the story of the Grimley Colliery Band as they fight to keep their pit open in 1994, whilst simultaneously trying to reach the Royal Albert Hall in the finals of National Brass Band Competition. And now Brassed Off is a total triumph for the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre as their first in house production in over 40 years proves to be a brilliantly funny and absorbing piece of theatre that doesn’t shy away from pulling punches. I absolutely loved it. The beauty of Brassed Off is that it has a wryly funny, often hilarious Northern humour that contrasts so strongly against the stories of…
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Blood Brothers at the Wolverhampton Grand
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Dating Ideas for Culture Vultures
Dating used to be so simple. You would meet someone, in a pub, or a club, maybe even at High School and you would go on a series of dates and decide whether you liked the person enough to make it a more permanent attachment. Maybe you would meet that special person at work, or on a train traveling to work and a relationship would develop. These days, things are very different and one of the main ways to meet someone is through online dating sites. This is for a range of reasons, with the rise in divorce meaning there are more over 50s dating, the sort of people who…
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The Crucible at the New Alex Theatre – Powerful and Brilliant
The 1950s were strange times in America. The Second World War was over, but a Cold War emerged, and with it an aura of paranoia and hysteria that saw the country turning on itself, trying to weed out anyone who was a Communist, and therefore, un-American. Senator Joe McCarthy started his witch-hunts, which saw innocent people jailed, destroyed, their lives ruined by (often) false accusations, with people encouraged to name names. It was against this backdrop that America’s celebrated playwright Arthur Miller wrote his masterpiece ‘The Crucible’. a savage indictment of the modern day witch hunts played out through the Salem Witch hunts of the 17th Century. Last night, the…
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Funny Girl – Just Incredible At The Birmingham Hippodrome
Last night I was in the audience at the Birmingham Hippodrome to watch ‘Funny Girl’. I left feeling privileged to have watched one of the great modern theatre stars playing a role that she has made her own. Sheridan Smith is sensational as Fanny Brice, and ‘Funny Girl’ is a masterpiece. I was mesmerised from start to finish. ‘Funny Girl’ is the story of the rise of 1920s star Fanny Brice, and of her love story with the gambler and con man Nicky Arnstein. Fanny is a theatre natural, a funny girl who can also bring the house down with the beauty of her voice. Told that she was not…
