OLIVER TWIST (Ramps on the Moon/Leeds Playhouse)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://leedsplayhouse.org.uk/events/oliver-twist-at-home

Available until: 20^th November 2021. Available for 48 hours after the date and time of your showing.

Oliver Twist is a really brilliant play from Ramps on the Moon and it is a very important one too. I haven’t read the book (I don’t think even Megan has read it yet and she reads Shakespeare and Jane Austen) so I don’t know how close it is to the original though it is similar to the musical. But this production is not just about turning a book into a brilliant play. It is about showing how capable people with disabilities are.

SHOWSTOPPER: THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL 24.4.21 (The Showstoppers/Islington Studios)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/showstopper-the-improvised-musical-livestream-tickets-151971263139?aff=ebdsoporgprofile 

Available until: I think it’s available till 29^th April.

The latest Showstopper musical is set somewhere I can’t tell you about because it would give away which story the Showstoppers chose but it is a really interesting place to set a musical and it was really good.

WHODUNNIT AT THE COLISEUM (Oldham Coliseum)*****

 

  

By Arran

Link: https://www.coliseum.org.uk/shows/whodunnit-at-the-coliseum-3601ab

Available until: 25^th April. You’ll receive a link when you book. It becomes active on your chosen date and remains active for 48 hours.

Whodunnit at the Coliseum is an interactive murder mystery which is set in the Oldham Coliseum. You go through lots of different options and talk to the different characters and at the end you can decide who you think did the murder. At the end of your 48 hours access they send you a newspaper article about the murderer and you get to see if you were right.

#FUTURE LOADING (Dark Horse Theatre/Lawrence Batley Theatre)****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irsjDBqbYfY&t=606s

Available until: Unknown

#Future Loading is a project where Dark Horse Theatre worked with adults and aspiring adults. In this video they interview three young people with learning disabilities or who are neurodiverse and ask them about what it means to be an adult.

60 SECOND SHAKESPEARE (Cream-Faced Loons)****

 

By Arran

Link to The Tempest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n724MPCKnE

Link to Macbeth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvaSW709vtA

Link to Romeo & Juliet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgU1lrKeZy4

Available until: Unknown

60 second Shakespeare is performed by Abey Bradbury and she performs all three of the Shakespeare plays above in about 60 seconds. The videos are a bit longer but if you take out the credits it’s about 60 seconds.

TWELFTH NIGHT (American Shakespeare Center/Blackfriars Playhouse/BlkFrsTV)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://americanshakespearecenter.com/events/twelfth-night

Available until: You can buy this on its own or in a package with A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Twelfth Night or you can buy all 3 together at a discount which sounds like buy 2, get 1 free. If you buy a package, you have two weeks to watch it. I’m not sure about if you only buy one.

I really liked this production of Twelfth Night. There are things in the play that make me sad but I think it was performed in the best way so I was less sad. There are lots of different ways you can perform Twelfth Night and I like it best when it is a comedy. I don’t know why because some of the things that happen are very serious but it was like they made all the characters as nice as they could be without making them seem not like themselves anymore.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Bristol Old Vic)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/a-christmas-carol £4.50 for A Christmas Carol or £12.99 for a season pass (5 productions)

Available until: You have 48 hours’ access to the play.

There are lots of good productions of A Christmas Carol and this one is right up there. Everything about it worked really well and it is very enjoyable even when it is your fourth Christmas Carol in a couple of weeks.

THE TEMPEST (Cream-Faced Loons/Scram Collective)*****

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ44XNvHtBk&list=PLp9ljWlQivIObncsuojJYLrGHvsp3Ypk0

Available until: Unknown

I find Shakespeare plays quite difficult because I’m not as clever as the other bloggers but I really enjoyed this performance of The Tempest. It was really fun and it was very easy to understand who the characters were and what was going on. I think it will help me to understand other productions of The Tempest better in the future too.

AN EVENING AT JOE’S: ACT THREE (Joe Allen TV London/Acting for Others/Joe Allen Restaurant)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XefWZ0R6Mgk

Link to Act 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEtPaI_0iRw&t=5s (Acts 1 and 2 are separate concerts but I thought I’d post the links in case you were wondering why I’d only reviewed Act 3)

Link 2 Act 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTL8QqaxR0Q

Available until: Unknown

I hadn’t heard of Joe Allen the restaurant before lockdown but I thought it had a nice name. One of my favourite footballers is called Joe Allen. So I watched the concerts and it seems like a really lovely place. Imogen says she’s going to go there all the time when she’s a West End star.

THE BUS STOP (Lung Ha Theatre Company/Traverse Theatre)****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/the-bus-stop

Available until: Tuesday 8^th December 11.59pm

The Bus Stop is about a man called Jack who suffers a disability hate crime. A passenger makes a horrible comment about him when he can’t get his wheelchair on the bus. Jack can’t forget about the way the passenger spoke to him and the way she saw him. People have said horrible things to me too because I can’t always talk and even a very quick comment said in a moment of frustration from someone who doesn’t know you can really hurt.

JUKE BOX 2 (Royal Opera)*****

 

 By Tommy

Link: https://stream.roh.org.uk/packages/jukebox-2/videos/jukebox-2

Available until: Sunday 29^th December 2020

Earlier in the week, the Jette Parker Young Artists (plus one former member of the Programme) performed in Juke Box 1. Each Young Artist sang the opening of three different arias or songs and audience voted on youtube and facebook for their favourite. The winning songs were all performed in full in the Jukebox 2 concert.

JUKE BOX 1 (Royal Opera)****

 

By Tommy (and some of the younger bloggers)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04nppOsfdig

Available until: The video will be available for about a month. However, if you wish to vote, you’ll need to do that before midday on Thursday 29^th October.

The Royal Opera has had a Young Artist programme for most of the current century. A small group of talented young singers spend two years working at the Royal Opera House, singing small roles (and occasionally leading roles) and understudying others. They also have a concert at the end of each year and certainly, in the past, they have been given the opportunities to perform recitals at the opera house too.

ALLAN CLAYTON, STEPHANIE WAKE-EDWARDS & JAMES BAILLIEU (Wigmore Hall)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjsRo3Az1M0

Available until: It doesn’t say but I think the concerts are available for a month so maybe 21^st November 2020.

This is a really good concert which I enjoyed a lot. I was stressed before the concert but it made me feel better.

Allan Clayton sang most of the concert but Stephanie Wake-Edwards who is a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House sang three songs. James Baillieu accompanied them both. It is quite an unusual recital because there aren’t many groups of the songs by the same composer but Mr Clayton’s songs did have a connection because they either had a connection to Benjamin Britten, John Donne or both of them. It’s really interesting hearing songs that are grouped together for different reasons and seeing the connections between them.

GERALD FINLEY (Wigmore Hall)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYD__TRnk_8&feature=emb_logo

Available until: I think recitals are available for one week which would be 3^rd October 2020

I love the Wigmore Hall recitals but I don’t really know what to say so I don’t usually review them but I wanted to review this concert because I really like Gerald Finley. He is a very good singer and a very kind man.

THE AMAZING VANCETTI SISTERS (Tristan Bates Theatre)****

 

By Arran

Link: https://vimeo.com/45890374

Available until: It’s been available since 2011

I really like plays with disabled characters in. It makes me feel better to know people like me are worth writing plays about. I especially like it when they’re written by Athena Stevens. Partly because she is disabled too but mostly because she is a really good playwright. I know I can’t write as well as she does but she makes me feel like I can do interesting things too.

SCROUNGER (Finborough Theatre)*****

 

By Arran

Link to where the live stream will be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o8jvP5djME&feature=youtu.be

Link to where the subtitled version will be: https://www.scenesaver.co.uk/production/scrounger-subtitled/

Link to where the audio-described introduction will be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6A_W1u-fEg&feature=youtu.be

Available for: 24 hours from 31^st August

I don’t usually write reviews, but I wanted to review Scrounger because it is such a special and important play for people with disabilities. It was available for three days at the start of August and it is being brought back for 24 hours at the end.

This play is by Athena Stevens. She is a playwright and she has a disability. This is a fictional play, but it is based on a real incident she had at the airport. I am not sure how much is real and how much is fiction.