Tag Archives: theatre

May 09 2025
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Daily Post, Interior

Waiting for ‘Swan Lake’

Thursday 8th May 2025, 7.20pm (day 5,005)

The wife, who apparently has been waiting to see this version of Swan Lake (you know, the one with the male swans) for 20 years, asked me out on a date for this one, and it was like, why not. It thereby becomes the fourth ballet that I have witnessed. The first was decades ago, the other two have been depicted on here: these guys in Moscow should count, and this cameraman was definitely about to film one.

And my review: yes, it was pretty good, it definitely had a sense of humour (which for the other ballets I mention, was not in evidence). I was keeping up with it all until about 40 minutes in, when the swans arrived. After that I kind of lost the plot a bit. But there were plenty of people on the stage who could dance very well and looked very good whilst they did so. There you go, that’s my review of Drew’s Ballet Experience #4.

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Apr 18 2025
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Daily Post, Portrait

Pace Egg players

Friday 18th April 2025, 2.15pm (day 4,985)

Pace Egg, 18/4/25

It’s Good Friday, so as has been the way for many years, the Pace Egg players set up in Heptonstall and do their thing four times over the day, getting gradually more pissed. The 2pm show is the penultimate one: already quite inebriated, blows with swords that seem mock might just be more risky than one assumes. By the 4pm showing I think positive danger might be afoot. Then again, the same guys have been playing these parts for donkey’s years: I have pictures of this from 2011, before even starting this blog, and there they are. I guess they’ve found ways to mitigate the risks over time. Happy Easter.

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Jan 07 2025
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Daily Post, Portrait

OMG it’s Sigourney Weaver

Monday 6th January 2025, 9.45pm (day 4,883)

Sigourney Weaver, 6/1/25

I don’t entirely do the Cult of Celebrity but tonight I’m making an exception. I think most of the audience of The Tempest — with Sigourney Weaver as Prospero — stuck to the rules and did not spend the whole performance taking pictures (and she was on stage throughout every minute): but no one said anything about the curtain call. It’s not often one gets to see a movie legend in the flesh.

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Aug 31 2024
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Daily Post, Interior

Post-movie

Friday 30th August 2024, 10.00pm (day 4,754)

Post-movie, 30/8/24

I have several times tried to capture a version of this shot, but it’s never really worked before. I’m quite happy with this one, though. Most of the thirty or so people who were watching have already departed and yet still the credits roll, down to the stage where only the assistant catering key grip’s mother is still watching them. The movie? Trap — which, I suppose, was OK, at least for a while.

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Jan 08 2024
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Urban scene

Swansea mural

Saturday 6th January 2024, 3.50pm (day 4,517)

Volcano Theatre mural

The day had various different, good elements to it, and I couldn’t decide which of them should make the blog: so let’s go with the scene caught in passing, an Other People’s Art moment which I liked a lot. Seems to totally fit the Spanish text below.

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Oct 23 2023
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Exchange Theatre door

Monday 23rd October 2023, 9.45am (day 4,442)

Theatre door sleeper, 23/10/23

The guy’s still asleep, it seems. Quite a few of the doors of premises on Cross Street, if they haven’t been opened by this time in the morning, are occupied by rough sleepers most days.

Photographically this was one where I was planning for someone to walk past. The coffee cup’s usefully placed too.

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Jun 16 2022
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Alex in the Beyer Theatre

Thursday 16th June 2022, 9.15am (day 3,948)

The Beyer Building‘s exterior has featured before. It was constructed in 1887, meaning this lecture theatre basically reflects assumptions about pedagogy from 135 years ago. And it looks pretty much the same as lecture theatres still do, only with many fewer plug sockets. Alex awaits my talk at 9:30; there were a few other people in the room by the time I started (honestly).

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May 02 2022
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Come to the Cabaret

Sunday 1st May 2022, 10:15pm (day 3,902)

HBBF finale, 1/5/22

It’s been a long time since I went to any kind of live theatrical performance. The last time one was depicted on here was probably 30th December 2018 (The Producers, in Manchester). In large part we can, of course, thank two years of The Great Fear for this, and that also explains why there’s been no Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival since 2019. But this has returned, tonight was the finale, and as they needed some ushers (glorified fire marshals) I got to put on a suit and go and see it for free. We were allowed to take photos only at the end, so here’s the one chance I got. This woman, CeCe Sinclair, was the MC, and a bloody good job she made of it. She did it while not wearing much, but that’s burlesque for you. A better-than-average Sunday evening, anyway.

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Jul 02 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The Palace of Dance

Thursday 1st July 2021, 9.00am (day 3,598)

Palais-de-Danse, 1/7/21

9am on a Thursday morning is probably not the best time to catch any building at its best, but one certainly feels that this place has seen better days. Even the Bingo has died, if the boarded-up doors are any indication. Is it another place that has died ‘for the good of our health’? Who knows, any more?

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Dec 30 2018
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Daily Post, Interior

Broadway (kinda)

Sunday 30th December 2018, 3.00pm (day 2,684)

The Producers, 30/12/18

OK, it’s Manchester, not New York… But it is The Producers. So it’s Broadway really. All together now… “Springtime…”

No one, for once, told me I couldn’t take photos during the performance so I got a couple. I’m quite pleased with this one, which is one of the few photos from which I have not cropped even a pixel; and considering the symmetry that’s worth noting.

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