Day six, the meat course

Theatre.  Where to begin?

Honestly?  I've been really uninspired by virtually everything I've seen this year, especially from the main houses.  Not that I've seen nearly everything (you may be surprised to hear), and I'm sure I've missed some gems.  But what I have seen has been at best competent, at worst abysmal.  So it hasn't been difficult to recognise what I've felt to be the highlights.

I very much enjoyed Dickie Beau at the Contact Theatre in Lost in Trans, thoughtful and challenging with powerful imagery that has remained in my imagination probably more than anything else I've seen this year, and I would certainly been keen to see his work develop in the future.

But my highlight for today is The Old Woman at the Palace Theatre, which was engaging and riveting and provoking unlike anything else I've seen this year.  It demonstrated that stories are not always straightforward and that life isn't always easy to comprehend, but that your heart can be broken by the opening of an imaginary book.

It wasn't original and didn't altogether work, it was the sort of theatre that if seen on the London stage would have garnered a few admiring nods, it didn't break any boundaries of theatre practise or historical convention, but it was an imaginative show that with absolute honesty took no prisoners and sometimes all you want from a show is to emerge feeling satisfied or fired up with enthusiasm for the world.  This show did that for me, and I appreciated seeing it on a big Manchester stage.  Personally I didn't think it was 'brave' (whatever that means), but I get the feeling that Mancunian audiences weren't as captivated as I was.  I'm guessing it wasn't a box office hit.  Artistically it was honest, which is all I really want from my theatre, while taking me into a new realm, which is what I love to get from theatre and yet happens so very very rarely.


That said, there are a few other theatrical moments to come in my #12days, and I'd love to know what you think, feel free to comment, challenge or tell me what I missed....