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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Ruth Wilson as troubled, discontented, bored newly married Hedda is a highly charismatic actor to watch. She has a way with a cryptic half smile and a gift for eloquent stillness. Rafe Spall as the dangerous, manipulative Judge Brack is a terrific stage presence and the extraordinary scene in which he dribbles, spits and spatters […]
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Admittedly, at first, I was sceptical of how well the play could create the brilliantly magical atmosphere of the Harry Potter world in comparison to the fantastic CGI of the films. However, upon my exit from the Palace Theatre’s doors I am happy to say I was absolutely blown away by the play’s special effects […]
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The profession has bewailed the dearth of good female roles in Shakespeare for centuries. So what do you do about it? Simply forget gender and cast women in men’s roles. Enter Michelle Terry as a very powerful Henry once you see past her diminutive stature. At the beginning, during the Archbishop’s Sir Humphrey-style attempts to […]
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With the world around us becoming increasingly industrialised and commercialised, Orwell’s classic novel has stayed just as relevant to the reader even 67 years down the line. Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s theatrical adaptation of the play has arguably increased this relevance further by integrating the novels appendix into the play, giving it a very […]
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It isn’t often I see a show that really does deserve a standing ovation but Timothy Sheader’s immaculately directed, imaginative, sensitive new version of Jesus Christ Superstar is definitely on the list. A lone guitar begins to twang with louche sexiness at the opening of the overture – framed and lit on the top of […]
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Remember Joey from War Horse? Well, meet Oona the elephant. She’s full size and spectacular. Puppeted by four people, three inside her and one on her serpentine expressive trunk, she flaps her ears, rocks her head, farts and responds to everything going on around her. There’s also a magnificent tiger, pounding and snarling, a terrifying […]
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A verbatim play written by Mark Wheeller using the testimonies of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs’ friends and family. Premiere performance at The BRIT School, Tuesday 29th March 2016 In May 1997 Daniel Spargo-Mabbs was born. His parents, like every parent wondered what he will achieve, what job will he do? In January 2014 I was pregnant and my […]
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Based on the film written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, Kinky Boots is one of those gloriously English stories about (fairly) ordinary people overcoming human problems in an unlikely but theatrically spectacular way. It’s in the same tradition as The Full Monty and Brassed Off. It makes a gloriously vibrant musical and it’s hard […]
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If you feel like taking a school party to a traditional, roof-raising musical then you won’t do much better than this production of Guys and Dolls, a Chichester Festival Theatre show which transferred into the West End. It’s glitzy, funny and pulsating with energy as it sails triumphantly on to its feel good finale.
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Think again if you feel that you are not too familiar with Carole Kings music – I did, and was amazed at how many classic songs she had penned, initially with her husband, Gerry Goffin, and later, in her own right. Her story confirms that with true determination, which started at a young age, together […]