Rebekah EllerbyWhich were your top shows of 2015?
We asked the members of our team for their favourites. You can meet us all here if you want to. If not, carry on reading to see what theatre, dance and performance stood out for us this year.
Laura Stevens – Editor
946 – Kneehigh Theatre
Kneehigh’s highly emotional WW2 musical was the stand out performance of Latitude Festival. Despite depriving the audience of the finale, when the lights came up there were tears all around the makeshift auditorium.
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Lance
Kieran Hodgson portrayed the hilarious relationship between himself and his fallen idol, Lance Armstrong, in a fantastic show on the Edinburgh Free Fringe.
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Fake It Til You Make It – Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn
Combining reality and theatre, Kimmings and Grayburn have created a highly emotional and important performance piece on male mental health.
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Rebekah Ellerby – Marketing Officer
Peake gothic fantasy at the Blue Elephant Theatre
Peter Pan – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
This was a daring and ingenious exhibition of how theatre can transfigure the old stories we know so well into an encounter so singular, we forget we ever knew the story at all. Framed by a WWI story. A very magical, nostalgic presentation of the JM Barrie classic with beautiful musical accompaniment.
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Boy in Darkness – Blue Elephant Theatre
The gothic fantasy piece, adapted by Garerth Murphy as a one man piece at the Blue Elephant Theatre in Camberwell, was based on Mervyn Peak’s novella of the same name – Boy in Darkness. It had a childlike quality of storytelling that was desperately compelling and has been difficult to forget.
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Golem – 1927 Productions
Startling innovative digital project and an expert design by Paul Barritt made 1927’s Golem – a terrifying tale of what can happen when machines become like men – visually outstanding. It was full of unusual quirks and hilarious singing.
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Latitude Festival had a great theatre programme this year
James Lilywhite – News and Jobs Editor
The Night Alive – The Gaity Theatre, Dublin
A brilliant performance of The Night Alive at the Dublin Theatre Festival. All at once sad, funny and scary, it really brought together the best bits of modern day theatre. Great cast, beautiful set, wonderful writing – it was the best thing I saw in 2015.
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946 by Kneehigh – Latitude Festival
Very few shows can make you laugh and cry in the same scene, but 946 achieved that and so much more. Even in the preview that I saw at Latitude Festival for A Younger Theatre it was incredibly effective, moving, and had characters that you genuinely cared about. The performance was cut short just before the end – so if anyone knows what happens please send me an email!
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Sam Sims – Reviews Editor
The Christians – The Gate
The Gate Theatre’s The Christians was completely not what I was expecting. What I experienced was something I still talk about now. Inspiring, informative and the power to introduce much discussion. I wish they did this production every year.
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The Father – Wyndhams Theatre
Loved loved the emotional turbulence of The Father when I reviewed it. It was so interesting and completely disorientating to see the disease from inside a sufferer’s head and extraordinary performances, not least from Kenneth Cranham, made it one of the best pieces I have ever seen, nevermind of 2015. Read the Review
Laura Peatman – Sub-Editor
Jonathan Ollivier is much missed
The Car Man – New Adventures, Sadler’s Wells
This production may well be remembered for the saddest of reasons, after principal dancer Jonthan Ollivier was tragically killed in a road accident hours before his final performance. Yet it should also be remembered as a brilliantly-crafted and captivating piece of dance theatre, which 15 years after its premiere is as thrilling as ever – high drama without a word ever being spoken.
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Jane Eyre – National Theatre (Bristol Old Vic production)
Even though I took issue with some of the pacing of the plot, this adaptation is still a highlight of 2015 for being an innovative and surprising take on Bronte’s classic. With elements of physical theatre, Michael Vale’s unconventional set and a bit of Gnarls Berkley thrown in for good measure, Sally Cookson’s production got the soul of this epic story spot-on and three and half hours whizzed by.
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Mimi Launder – Sub-Editor
Bullish behaviour from the Young Vic
Bull, Young Vic. Returned for a 2015-16 run.
You laugh, then feel guilty. The bullying of an office underdog is cruel, ruthless and, at 55 minutes, quick, but you can’t look away. Familiar, but horrifying.
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Iphigenia in Splott, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh. Running at the National in 2016.
Poignant, relevant and furious, Splott hurts to watch. Effie is a girl you would cross the street to avoid, but by the end she breaks you heart.