Do you feel that the world is turning into a place that is going downhill fast? If so, why not take a trip to Leeds to experience Wonderland for a few hours, or even days. No passport or visa required as everyone is welcome. Getting here is a breeze; you have a choice of train,…
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Transform Festival 2025 Launch Party
Transform is a festival of powerful international performance, it says on their programme, and, judging by the contents, it certainly lives up to the claim. The 2025 event marks ten years of the biennial, this, being number six, shows that they must be doing something right. That is a feeling reinforced by the way in…
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Twenty Bridges: A Musical at The Venue, Leeds Conservatoire
Here’s another first, not just for me, but also the actors involved. Leeds Conservatoire, as its name suggests, is a higher education establishment specialising in music and performing arts. It offers undergraduate and post graduate degree courses, as well as catering for the younger learners through Leeds Junior Conservatoire. I wasn’t here to gain any…
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The Maladies, from Leeds Actors In Training, at Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton.
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to go along to Seven Arts in Chapel Allerton, not so much to review a play, but to sample the output of Leeds Actors In Training (LAIT). I must say that I was impressed on several levels. Leeds Actors In Training is a year-long acting course with…
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Venetian Concertos from Leeds Baroque Choir & Orchestra at Old Woollen, Farsley
It was interesting to get back to Farsley as, between 1978 and 1982, I lived just around the corner from Sunny Bank Mill when it was still, well, a mill. Like the rest of the area it has now been gentrified – everywhere seems to go upmarket when I leave – and is home to…
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The Girl On The Train at Leeds Grand Theatre
This is the second ‘straight’ drama in succession I have seen at the wonderful Leeds Grand Theatre, which failed to live up to expectations. I saw this play at Leeds Playhouse some years ago and, whilst I don’t remember it very well – appropriate given the subject, I can’t recall it being this disappointing. Laura…
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Through It All Together at Leeds Playhouse
Before I get into the nuts and bolts of the review of this play, I would just like to say one thing. Go and see it! It works on so many levels, football being the mortar which binds the whole building, but you really don’t need to be a fan, in fact, it being press…
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By Royal Appointment at Leeds Grand Theatre
I realise that the Monarchy can be a divisive topic but, love it or loathe it, no one can deny that Queen Elizabeth II devoted her whole life to the duty which was bestowed on her, even though she was not born to reign. Had Edward VIII not abdicated, it would have been his children…
Read MoreLeeds International Festival of Ideas 2025
I realise it is a bit early to be promoting an event in October, but anything emanating from the partnership between LeedsBID and Welcome to Leeds is bound to be in great demand. They also don’t mess about by cutting corners as can be seen from the Christmas spectaculars and the Summer Holiday specials, details…
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Troubled at Belle Isle IMO, Leeds
You would think that a one-woman show covering mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse and doomed relationships all set against the background of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, the place of her birth, would be a bit of a downer, but not so. Suzy Crothers treated us to an hour-long account of her fall and rise…
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Tyke It To The Limit 