this month's
Ink Pellet contains
A Final Haunt
After 33 extraordinary years, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black will haunt the stage of the Fortune Theatre for the final time, as the production ends in the West End on Saturday 4th March 2023. PW Productions announce that after 33 extraordinary years in London’s West End, the theatrical sensation that is Susan Hill’s THE […]
Reaching for the Moon
Susan Elkin paid a visit to Half Moon theatre in London’s East End to chat with CEO Chris Elwell about their extensive education outreach and innovative theatre programmes. Half Moon Theatre sits in the heart of Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, spitting distance from the DLR and mainline station. Formerly a pretty […]
National Youth Theatre Rep Company
The National Youth Theatre’s Rep Company is celebrating its first ten years and Susan Elkin paid a visit to learn more. Each year a group of fifteen or so talented NYT members, aged 18 to 25, are selected by audition to join this company. In just a few months they rehearse three shows, many of […]
Apprenticeships
An important and often overlooked route into the industry, especially for many non-performing roles. Susan Elkin has some suggestions. Theatre is like an iceberg. For every role on stage there are probably at least half a dozen technicians you can’t see. And the industry has been telling us for decades that there are skills shortages […]
School Shows
Never underestimate the power of a school production – for every single person involved. When you meet former students, sometimes from decades back in my case, it’s usually taking part in Oliver! or A Midsummer Night’s Dream that they reminisce about with shining eyes. Most importantly it’s a terrific bonding exercise. We hear a lot […]
New Perspectives
With three separate Lucian Freud exhibitions currently on, Graham Hooper took time to visit and here is his review of these contrasting shows. LLucian Freud would have been 100 this year, and that’s a good excuse to look back over his life and work, but especially his work, as the two have a rather nasty […]
Grandad Anansi – Half Moon Theatre
Predicated partly on Black History Month, Elayne Ogbeta’s muliti-layered play presents Grandad (Marcus Hercules) and his primary school age granddaughter, Abi (Jazmine Wilkinson) in his garden. Like everything else in this show, the garden designed by Sorcha Corcoran, is beautiful with lots of colour, light and plants that Grandad knows by name and talks to. […]
Theatre Review – The King of Nothing – Little Angel Theatre
Ben Glasstone’s charming, witty account of The Emperor Who Has No Clothes works well for two main reasons. First it is one of the most perceptive stories ever written, dealing as it does with vanity, self delusion, conformity and truth. It’s both topical and timeless. Second, we have a cost of living crisis and the […]
Book Review – Activist
by Louisa Reid Published by Guppy Books Cassandra, narrator of this powerful verse novel, is a reluctant sixth former in a prestigious mixed school, formerly all boys, where toxic culture simmers. Driven by her own experience, and by nature a feisty “shouter” she campaigns forcibly for acknowledgement that some of the boys at school treat […]
Book Review – A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers: Reorienting Classroom Literacy Practice
by Maya Pindyck and Ruth Vinz, with Diana Liu and Ashlynn Wittchow The thrust of this detailed, well-researched, quite academic book about the poetry in classrooms is that we shouldn’t teach students to search for meaning so that “the poem becomes a specimen for examination under the microscope of interpretative practices”. Instead we should experience […]
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.
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Predicated partly on Black History Month, Elayne Ogbeta’s muliti-layered play presents Grandad (Marcus Hercules) and his primary school age granddaughter, Abi (Jazmine Wilkinson) in his garden. Like everything else in this show, the garden designed by Sorcha Corcoran, is beautiful with lots of colour, light and plants that Grandad knows by name and talks to. […]
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Woman in Mind (1985) is a searing tragedy whose many comic moments only highlight the plight of the central character. Susan (Jenna Russell) is a middle class, middle-aged vicar’s wife losing her mind. The reason doesn’t matter much. What we’re watching is a mind being taken over by dementia. Her delusions take the form of […]
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Ben Glasstone’s charming, witty account of The Emperor Who Has No Clothes works well for two main reasons. First it is one of the most perceptive stories ever written, dealing as it does with vanity, self delusion, conformity and truth. It’s both topical and timeless. Second, we have a cost of living crisis and the […]
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This is a magnificent show. Chichester has a strong track record of productions, particularly musicals, which then transfer into the West End. I shall be very surprised if this one doesn’t soon join the list. It pounds along with very familiar Gershwin numbers, such as Embraceable You and Naughty Baby. Bobby Child (the ever-fabulous Charlie […]
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Perhaps we need an occasional, unashamedly populist show with catchy melodies to cut through the tuneless intensity and darkness of most 21st Century musicals? Identical is based on Erich Kastner’s 1949 novel, The Parent Trap. Identical twins Lottie and Lisa were separated in infancy and brought up by their divorced parents. Neither knows of the other’s existence […]
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Two young women meet and gradually fall in love. Katie (Erin Siobhan Hutching) is profoundly deaf and a user of signing. Alana (Lara Steward) gradually learns it. As they get to know each other better they shift between oral language and signing because Katie can speak a little. The issues come thick and fast. One […]
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Written and directed by Potted Panto/Potted Potter duo, Daniel Clarkson and Richard Hurst, The Pirate the Princess and the Platypus is a witty, song-strewn send up of fairy tale conventions with a feminist twist – complete with a frog puppet demanding to be kissed. A Princess (Teegan Hurley – strong) does not need to sit […]
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This is a play firmly rooted in real life. Overtly about the playwright’s parents and grandparents, even the names are unchanged. As one long dead character says just before the end “Then am I here in someone’s dream? Someone doesn’t want me to have gone” to which the rueful reply is “My son is writing […]
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It’s an enjoyable show which bubbles along but never quite comes to the boil. Given the huge cast and the high production values it feels oddly understated in places. Nonetheless, Amara Okereke is a star turn as a splendid Eliza. She has a wonderful knack with long howls and shrieks suspended on slow dipthongs – […]
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This sparky, funny, beautifully acted, 80-minute open air version of Much Ado makes the chemistry between Beatrice and Benedick clear long before the play opens. Why else do they keep singling each other out for verbal abuse, mockery and word play? Verity Kirk’s Beatrice, “born to speak all mirth and no matter” is feisty, cross, […]