Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present’ and ‘Season’s Greetings’ which are at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 26th October. Alan Ayckbourn’s theatre company has travelled down from Scarborough to Stoke with not one, but two comedies about disastrous family celebrations. This season’s new play, ‘Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present’ is pretty much […]

Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Pavilion’, which runs at Theatre Clywd in Mold until Saturday 12th October This is a most exciting stage debut by writer Emily White; blessed with an uber-full-on, loud and proud, epic-proportions treatment by Clywd’s artistic director Tamara Harvey. The teenagers beside me were ecstatic about it. And so they should be, […]

Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Entertainer’ which is at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Saturday 12th October, and then Coventry, Brighton, Manchester, Bromley, Cheltenham, Shrewsbury and Richmond. I’ve been performing now, one way or another, for over 40 years and I’m just beginning to consider my exit strategy. Already I can hear the Fat Lady warming […]