Arts Fidelio: English National Opera: Review A musically profound production of Beethoven’s only opera with some fine singing, wrapped in this metaphorical maze of cold confusion it fails to offer the gasp out loud moments promised, although there are challenging and physiologically complex hues to the directors interpretation that are relevan By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts BRIEFS: THE SECOND COMING: London Wonderground: Review The boys and their acts are well balanced throughout the night with some very funny ensemble numbers built around funny themes, and there’s few dull moments with a quick turn over and some loud pumping music this is a show heavy on the spectacle, sequins and spangle, and if the acts doesn’t interest By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts Stephen Fry-supported play about Noël Coward coming to Marlborough Theatre Just Some Theatre Company present their upcoming touring production of Coward, a speculative play about the life of playwright, performer, musician and wit (not to mention prominent LGBT figure) Noël Coward and his relationship with a struggling young actor named Leonard, set in the lively and osten By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts I Wanna Be Loved by You: Pink Fringe: Review A great night out, great festival well done Pink Fringe, it’s so good to go out and have such an astonishingly good value night entertainment and it all be so wonderfully LGBT and excellent. By Eric Page • 3 min read
Books THE LOST BOY, the Doodlebug and the Mysterious Number 80: Stevie Henden : Book review Highly recommended and just the most perfect book to take away on holiday with you. The book is full of great camp and fun characters and it’s a believable love story between two very different men who struggle to accept that love and then cherish it when they do. Heart-warming in lots of ways. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts Queers Dig Time Lords: Book review This is a great collection of essays, crisscrossing the timelines and plot lines of the Dr Who universe and holding up characters and stories to the bright pink light of queer perspective and seeing what shines through. It’s insightful and curious reflections of the nature of this televisual institu By Eric Page • 4 min read
News The Noise next door: Komedia: Review This is rock improv, these five gents worked very hard throughout the night to delight the crowd, worked well together as an improv troupe, sharing the space and mostly handing the best lines over the next lad up and occasionally shamelessly hogging the limelight. By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts Beautiful Thing: Theatre Royal: Review To celebrate its twentieth anniversary year, the award winning play has an uplifting and heart-warming new production directed by Nikolai Foster, designed by Colin Richmond and starring Suranne Jones. Beautiful Thing is a glorious urban love story between two young men coming to grips with their sex By Eric Page • 2 min read
Music The Perfect American by Phillip Glass: ENO: Review This portrayal of Disney from the book by Peter Stephen Jungk’s is one of a driven myopic racist man who is determined to make his name live on down the centuries and to sell the world an odd fantasy idea of backwoods American all sweet-as-apple-pie and creepy as hell in a Stepford way. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts The Wau Wau Sisters Last Supper: Spiegeltent: Festival review This was a delightful and charming show full of fuax crudity, clever post feminist deconstructive humour, filthy foul mouthed asides and some pretty impressive acrobatics and trapeze work too, it’s not often this critic ends up on stage dressed as a Satyr, balanced on a semi naked lady’s feet, deep By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts Less Than Kind: Theatre Royal: Review It’s with some sense of foreboding I approach a ‘lost’ work of art in any medium: it’s a truism that their respective authors didn’t release them into the wider world for a reason. Sometimes it’s due to writing something scandalous for the time (like Forster’s posthumous gay-themed Maurice) but usua By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts Between: The Marlborough: Review Oskar Brown’s two-hander has a lot going for it: the actors – Brown and Nicholas Campbell – have the charisma and technical skill to absolutely engage the audience’s attention. The writing is sharp and delivers a pretty compelling hour of theatre. By Eric Page • 1 min read
