Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
The Wizard of Oz, Leeds Playhouse
Solid seasonal production of musical classic
PIC CAP TREMENDOUSLY CAPABLE: Lucy Sherman (centre) Pic: The Other Richard
PAUL FOLEY is disappointed by a production that encourages the audience to laugh at rather than with the characters
Odysseus’s homecoming myth is treated as a factual story, with strong resonances for our contemporary world. This is an implicit anti-war film that has an urgent relevance, writes JOHN GREEN
The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARTIN HALL, MICHAL BONCZA, ANGUS REID reviews Holy Cow, One to One: John and Yoko, King of Kings, Panda Bear in Africa
PATRICK JONES recommends a vital anthology from Afghan and Iranian poets where the political and personal fuse into witness-bearing and manifesto-making
WILL STONE is impressed by Hania Rani who is already making a name for herself in the male-dominated world of modern classical music
MIK SABIERS enjoys the theatrical feminist six piece who have a lot of fun that the audience feeds off as the set rolls on
THE WIZARD of Oz is a mainstay of festive viewing and, as such, it's a reliably safe production for the recently renamed and redeveloped Leeds Playhouse.
In a production that entertains rather than truly excites, the venue's artistic director James Brining hits the right balance between providing nostalgia for parents and fresh energy for children, with the story sympathetically updated character-wise. The Lion (Marcus Ayton) is a bluffing boxer in a champ T-shirt and there’s a passing reference to Tinman (Sam Harrison) being gay.
The central cast is ably completed by Eleanor Sutton as Scarecrow, Lucy Sherman as a tremendously capable Dorothy and Polly Lister, one step away from being in a pantomime with her humorously despicable Miss Gulch and Wicked Witch.
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