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Every generation harbours the misguided belief that it alone has truly discovered sex and that hitherto it was a purely functional affair. Rachel Mars kicks this myth resoundingly into touch in her new show Your Sexts are Sh*t: Older Better Letters. Indeed, juxtaposing sexts with steamy love letters dating back to the 18th century, Mars … More Your Sexts are Sh*t: Older, Better Letters – Royal Exchange Studio

“The barber shop is a lighthouse, a beacon … where men come to be men.” Barber Shop Chronicles is a wonderfully warm, vibrant and funky piece of theatre. Colourful and witty, with an irresistibly foot-tapping musical score, it nevertheless manages to probe some really dark and thorny issues around masculinity, relationships, culture, language and politics. … More Barber Shop Chronicles – Royal Exchange (with Contact Theatre)

Director Emma Rice’s adaptation of Angela Carter’s Wise Children is a deliciously extravagant and bawdy celebration of all things theatrical. The many and various strands of Carter’s epic tale – spanning a hundred years of tragic and hilariously messy family relationships – are all woven together by the characters’ love of the stage, from dance-hall … More Wise Children – HOME

“If the war ends, I’ll be fucked!” says Mother Courage in Anna Jordan’s new adaptation of Brecht’s 1939 Mother Courage and Her Children. And this pretty much sums up the tone and message of the play: a gritty, profanity-rich treatise on war as a brutal, de-humanising capitalist enterprise benefiting the elite at the expense of … More Mother Courage and Her Children – Royal Exchange

1n 1998, Kenneth Alan Taylor directed A Different Way Home at Oldham Coliseum, with Roy Barraclough taking on the challenge of playing the two siblings, Leslie and Maureen. Taylor reports loving the play from the moment he first saw the television version. Bringing it back to his home theatre twenty one years later and playing … More A Different Way Home – Oldham Coliseum

Slapstick is a joyous piece of daftness that should be on everybody’s Christmas ‘to see’ list. Five prodigiously talented Dutch musicians (Werelband) fill the stage with madcap sketches invoking a number of stage and screen traditions – but with just enough quirkiness to make it all feel entirely fresh. The pre-set establishes the mood. As people … More Slapstick – HOME

“Totally awesome” was the verdict of my 11-year old companion on Doctor Dolittle at the Lowry Theatre. His sister (aged 8) responded with an even more succinct “Wow!” For a family Christmas show, this feels like ‘mission accomplished’ for the Lowry Theatre. And rightly so. The story of a gauche doctor who decides that his … More Doctor Dolittle – The Lowry

The Royal Exchange takes its Christmas obligations seriously. Last year, they treated us to the delights of a jazzed-up Guys and Dolls and now they are looking to put a smile on everyone’s face with Mel Brooks’ hilarious show, The Producers. And it works wonderfully (most of the time.) The familiar story of a failing … More The Producers – Royal Exchange

Nathaniel Hall is HIV positive. He was diagnosed two weeks after his 17th birthday, following his first sexual encounter. It took him 14 years to tell his mum. And yet, barely a year later, Nathaniel Hall stands in front of a packed audience at Waterside to tell his story. And it is delightful and devastating … More First Time – Waterside

In a previous life (well, some decades ago), I spent several frustrating years enmeshed in an abstract academic study of the political concept of ‘community’. Every political theorist I examined seemed to have a different notion of ‘community’ and to be using it to support a different political end. Turns out I should have just … More The Mysteries – Royal Exchange