Reviews

The expanse of QPAC’s Concert Hall was magically converted into an underwater aquarium for QPAC’s company in residence, Ensemble Q, and their programme of music inspired by the sea, Deep Blue. With blue and green lights filling the usual seating area, the audience took their places in the more intimate reversed space under the venue’s huge pipe organ, overlooking a smaller, studio-like stage. It was an inspired way to showcase a selection of eclectic musical pieces.

Darlington Theatre Players’ Through These Lines is a striking, female centred story set in World War One. Fittingly opening in the week of ANZAC Day, it is centred around the experiences of Australian nurse Sister Florence Whiting, through her experiences on her journey and service in Egypt, on the hospital ship Kyarra, in Lemnos and in France.

This is a sumptuous production that is impressive in its devotion and dedication to the Jane Austen oeuvre. The play cleverly adapts letters written by Austen combined with extracts from Pride and Prejudice and songs from her personal music collection. The three performers each bring different aspects of Jane’s persona to life along with the vivid characters that inhabited her powerful imagination: Elizabeth, Darcy, Mr Collins, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr and Mrs Bennet are all conjured with meticulous attention to detail. 

Kabul 2013.  The United States has begun its withdrawal and the Taliban is filling in the gaps.  Taroon (Khisraw Jones-Shukoor), a hot-headed young fellow, was a translator for the US military, working with an American called Jeff.  Taroon signed up for that to impress girlfriend Bibi.  It worked: now she’s his wife and in hospital having their first baby.   But Taroon is an assassination target for the insurgent Taliban – which puts his family in danger too.  He’s been hiding out in his sister Afiya’s (Nicole Nabout) small apartmen