Reviews

Energetic, brutal and beautiful, Avant Garde Dance’s Oliver Twist is not nearly as well-mannered as the Oliver we’re familiar with. This Oliver doesn’t ask for more, he demands it.

Circomedia’s unique stage is the perfect place for an urban retelling of Dickens’ tale of poverty, crime and homelessness. 

Sinister, tragic and hopeful in equal measure, Under the Dark Moon sees Bristol’s wonderfully creative Invisible Circus leading us on an adventure through our fears.

The audience is drawn in by a foreboding narrator (Doug Francis), a Fagin-like character who invites us with sharp, cruel humour to take pleasure in watching his carnival of tortured souls – because, he proclaims, they will make us feel better. 

On Saturday afternoon Shaun the Sheep fans young and old gathered at St George’s to hear from Aardman writers and directors Richard Starzak and Mark Burton about just what makes Shaun such an internationally adored critter.

Walking up the dark and misty moonlit path to Arnos Vale’s Anglican Chapel, past silhouetted graves and toward the light, you can’t help but be in the mood for horror.

There could hardly be a better place to immerse yourself in a familiar Gothic tale of the undead than this beautiful and foreboding cemetery on a dark and blustery November night. Bristol’s Red Rope Theatre made a brave and unique undertaking when they decided to perform Liz Lochhead’s adaptation of Dracula in this wonderful setting.

Often the hardest stories to tell are the most simple. Junkyard’s wonderfully guileless and direct plot is so disarming that you cannot help but be drawn in by its innocence.

From acclaimed Bristol writer Jack Thorne (This is England, Let the Right One In), Junkyard is a musical like none you’ve ever seen.

Sometimes you meet someone, out in the pub, surrounded by noise and chatting at ten miles an hour. They’re a bit gobby, they’re making too many jokes, and you know it’s not real. You wonder what they’re like when they’re on their own, and whether they are sad.

It takes a brave woman to stand in front of a room full of strangers in a skin-coloured leotard. It takes an even braver woman (and one with a bloody good sense of humour) to wear a leotard and confess that she needs help. Because, well, that makes you look like you do. 

And that’s the whole point to Bristol performer Viki Browne’s bizarre, touching and engaging one-woman show.