theatreCat

THEY’RE BACK. SO AM I.

Well, you know by now how it is with me and Mischief Theatre. All the way from 2013’s first west end outing to the new Thespians (https://theatrecat.com/2026/05/14/thespians-mercury-colch...

WHEN THE SAGE OF SCARBOROUGH SAW THROUGH THE SWINGING ‘SIXTIES

    1969: nearly half a century ago, and this was Alan Ayckbourn’s breakthrough. Philip Breen’s direction respects the author’s taste for in-the-round production (which the Old Vic can do, since Spacey insisted on that reinvention). It achieves the famous immersion witho...

A LEGEND REBORN

On a sweltering opening night under the trees, what more can you ask than fresh life and passion flung into a famous show which had become, frankly, a bit of an eye-roll? And suddenly to find that it’s a 19-year-old understudy playing the crucial leading-lady role and doing the big (and often hackneyed) number Memories with such intensity, soaring p...

SHAKESPEARE: OUTDOOR, OUTRAGEOUS AND OPEN-HEARTED

  Start by knowing that this is a bangingly entertaining evening out under the Suffolk skies, with ragamuffin costumes and lovely ramshackle beach-huts under the great chestnut tree.  Red Rose Chain has been doing outdoor productions for years, and their venue ever has been, in recent years, this field a...

   THE SEASON BEGINS!

Not doing formal mouse-rate reviews of these, but for local eyes and visitors it’s worth nipping through the ones I can get to – this one is around all week, before moving on to Southwold and I can report that director Charlotte Parry and cast do old Oscar proud. Respectfully, and Mark Sterling’s design is beautiful, economical ...