Theatre Reviews

Our theatre reviews aim to bring you the latest and best performances of plays, dance and music. Ink Pellet celebrates the country’s vibrant regional theatres – from performances of the classics and set texts, to new plays that will inspire and support you.

Once again, we have a merry band of discerning teachers who visit plays in their town (sometimes earning themselves a free programme and interval drink)to review for the magazine.

We’ll also review something you might like – just for sheer pleasure! If you would like to join our panel of reviewers, please join in or email the editor john@inkpellet.co.uk.

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird – Gielgud Theatre

    To Kill a Mockingbird – Gielgud Theatre  

    We’re used to the Christopher Sergel adaptation, approved by novelist Harper Lee, which uses child actors and stresses the piece’s literary origins. Aaron Sorkin does something different. He turns the story upside down so that we start at the trial of Tom Robinson for rape, uses it as the glue that the piece keeps coming […]

  2. Coming to England – Birmingham Rep

    Coming to England – Birmingham Rep  

    Floella Benjamin’s memoir about arriving in England from Trinidad is effectively Small Island from a child’s point of view. David Wood has turned the book into a pacey stage piece by flipping the story on its head and adding some good songs. Benjamin’s story is linear but Wood begins with her being honoured in adult […]

  3. Cosi fan tutte – English National Opera

    Cosi fan tutte – English National Opera  

    There’s much to enjoy in ENO’s new production of Cosi fan tutte with Phelim McDermott in the director’s seat and Kerem Hasan in charge in the pit. The singing is faultless with especially strong performances from Benson Wilson as a fruity Guglielmo and Nardus Williams as a wistful but powerful Fiordiligi especially in her “Far […]

  4. THEATRE REVIEW: Hamlet – NT Dorfman Theatre

    THEATRE REVIEW: Hamlet – NT Dorfman Theatre  

    This pared down Hamlet (65 mins – who needs Horatio or Gravediggers?) for young audiences has some of the clearest story telling I’ve ever seen. Sticking closely to Shakespeare’s play and using a fair bit of his language, Jude Christian’s version ensures that every child in the audience is fully involved but none is patronised: […]

  5. Jungle Rumble – Perform Productions Fortune Theatre

    Jungle Rumble – Perform Productions Fortune Theatre  

    The political message in this 45 minute show for under 7s is laid on thickly. Beware of crude indoctrination masquerading as educative entertainment. Yes of course we need to save endangered animals and to conserve the jungle but absurd, outdated stereotyping of the sort of people who once killed animals for taxidermy is hardly likely […]

  6. Hamlet – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

    Hamlet – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse  

    This is a Hamlet designed to court the young so it’s shallowly populist in places. It is punctuated, for example with inappropriate Smiths songs although I liked the occasional “profane” interjection into the text. The use-your-own accent policy grated at the beginning, but once I got used to George Fouracres as Hamlet speaking in a […]

  7. Handa’s Surprise – Little Angel Theatre (to 16 April)

    Handa’s Surprise – Little Angel Theatre (to 16 April)  

    Effectively a 35 minute opera for preschoolers, Handa’s Surprise is adapted from Eileen Browne’s much loved 1995 book. Akeyo (Rujenne Green) wants to take a gift of fruit to her friend Handa (Hannah Akhalu), but all the fruit she gathers is eaten by animals she meets on the way, so it’s fortunate that a goat […]

  8. Macbeth – Shakespeare’s Globe

    Macbeth – Shakespeare’s Globe  

    Witchery, regicide, paranoia, somnambulism and, ultimate good-guy coup – yes, it’s the Scottish play. And because this production is part of the Globe’s long standing Playing Shakespeare With Deutsche Bank project which provides free tickets for state school groups from London and Birmingham, it is neatly pared down to 90 minutes. Sarah Frankcom’s direction ensures […]

  9. Animal Farm – Cambridge Arts Theatre and touring

    Animal Farm – Cambridge Arts Theatre and touring  

    Toby Olié’s puppetry (see our interview on page 26) are what this show will be remembered for. If life sized puppets are to live, they must never be still. Designed and directed by Olié these jointed creations are magnificently controlled by a team of fourteen skilled puppeteers, they move continuously in a convincingly equine, canine, […]

  10. Beethoven  – British Library until 24 April

    Beethoven  – British Library until 24 April  

    It’s often forgotten that the British Library is a repository of manuscripts not just books and this enlightening exhibition (postponed from 2020 which was the 250th anniversary of his birth)  shows what a surprisingly wide range of Beethoven texts are held there. The famous 9th symphony, for example, was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of […]