Review: Manchester Collective Voice of the Whale. Hallé St Peter’s, Manchester

Journalists sometimes get it wrong. In 1849, a chap by the name of Angus Reach wrote in The Morning Chronicle about the Ancoats district of Manchester: “A more perfectly ugly spot you shall not find between sunrise and sunset”. Reach was describing the very epicentre of the Industrial Revolution. While there was muck and misery …

Review: The Freedom Project. Leeds Playhouse

Leeds is a special place. Leeds is a City of Sanctuary. Leeds has a Playhouse that is not only renowned as being a creative beacon for the North, but by its own admission is a ‘Vital Theatre’. As part of the 50-year-old institution’s manifesto, it explains: “Vital theatre is the work writers, actors, directors need …

Review: The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff. Northern Stage

Image: Pamela Raith If you’re not already a big fan of ‘The Young’uns’ and their absolutely authentic, primarily acapella folk music, then I’d recommend you add them to your playlist without further delay. Last night in Newcastle – they were magnificent, moving, extremely funny, humble – and I think maybe a little-bit proud that the …

Tessa Pearson: Artist profile. Watermark Gallery, Harrogate

Gardening as art - and gardens as inspiration for art. Tessa Pearson appears to exist perfectly, somewhere between these worlds. It’s not actually clear where her studio (in the garden of her Surrey home) ends – and the exquisite planting of the surrounding beds and borders begins. What is abundantly clear, is what Pearson sees …

Exhibition: ‘Harrogate By Sea’. Watermark Gallery, Harrogate 29th July – 30th August

If you live in Harrogate – and you fancy a paddle in the sea – on either the east or west coast, you've got a bit of a trek first. It’s around 65 miles to Morecambe and about the same to Scarborough. The prospect of enduring repeated calls of: “Are we there yet?”, “How much …

Review: Piaf. Leeds Playhouse

It’s true that until recently, I didn’t know much more about Edith Piaf than her song: “Non, je ne regrette rien”, which has always been a ‘go-to’ for anyone sticking their chin out to the world. I vaguely recall my grandmother would also say: “Ooh she had a tragic life,” whenever The Little Sparrow was …

Review: A Little Night Music. Opera North & Leeds Playhouse

A Little Night Music; Leeds PlayHouse It is good to be back at Leeds Playhouse, whose latest partnership with Opera North – is currently dazzling audiences with Stephen Sondheim’s ‘A Little Night Music’. Although I was incredibly fortunate to have witnessed and absorbed the intensity of ‘Decades’ back in June, which represented the first foray …

Preview: Lumen – Sutapa Biswas. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art

We are starting to emerge from our hibernation of the last 15 months – and for lots of us, a priority is being able to access the arts once again in a physical, up-close way – as opposed to through a screen. BALTIC, the iconic former flour mill on the south bank of the River …

Review: Leeds Lieder Festival. Leeds Town Hall

Sunday evening saw the culmination of 4 days of exquisite musical offerings from this year’s Leeds Lieder Festival, with Festival Director Joseph Middleton joined on stage by soprano Carolyn Sampson and baritone Roderick Williams. The closing recital – cleverly unpacking gender fluidity and the question of identity – was one of a number of five-star …

Preview: Manchester Collective and Mahan Esfahani. Leeds Town Hall

An eagerly anticipated creative event on the ‘easing-of-lockdown’ calendar took place last night, as two of the North’s most dynamic arts organisations were back together. Leeds Town Hall welcomed back Manchester Collective for the first ‘live, in-person’ concert of what promises to be a very special summer of diverse creative offerings emanating from LS1. Manchester …