Review: Betty!, Manchester Royal Exchange

Published in The Telegraph on December 9, 2022

Consider this a spectacular finale to a trilogy about Yorkshire women, from the pen of Maxine Peake: first she immortalised cyclist Beryl Burton, then Hull fishwife Lillian Bilocca, and now Dewsbury’s Betty Boothroyd, the first female Speaker in the House of Commons.

Continue reading “Review: Betty!, Manchester Royal Exchange”

Review: The Skriker, Manchester International Festival

Theatrically, The Skriker has got the bloody lot. This play reminds us what an astonishing writer – a manipulator of words – Caryl Churchill is, and what a fascinating collaborator: the script demands abstract movement, music, song, visual spectacle. Sarah Frankcom’s revival delivers them all up on big silver platters (sometimes literally). Continue reading “Review: The Skriker, Manchester International Festival”