This isn’t actually the first time I’ve seen this play. I went to see it with the original cast members, so I was pretty interested in seeing how another group of actors portrayed the characters I was already familiar with. Plus, I was curious to see if there were any bits I’d missed out on the first time. And I’d been invited to go by a couple of friends, so….

The play had what seemed to be a fairly simple premise. Jen and her husband, Sam, have recently moved into a new house, along with their baby, but while Sam’s away on a trip, Jen starts hearing strange noises coming from their daughter’s room: footsteps and the sense there’s someone there who she can’t see. And she tells Sam, who doesn’t believe her, because he’s a man of science, of logic, who scoffs at the very idea of ghosts.

This is the reason for the dinner party, for Jen to prove – to her husband and possibly herself – that what she’s experienced the last four nights has been real. And to that end, she invites another couple to join them: Lauren, an old friend of Sam’s who specialises in mental health, and Ben, a builder who, it turns out, has had his own experience with the supernatural.

There are only four characters who really appear in this play and the actors do a good job of building the tension, as well as defusing it at the times it’s necessary. While the cast in this version didn’t seem to bounce off each other as well as those in the version I saw, it was still pretty good, with some nice bits of foreshadowing involved.

I do have to say, the constant screaming of the foxes got old really quick. Yes, it worked the first time to make people jump…but after that, it was just eye-rolling.

The atmosphere of the play worked really well. It truly felt like I was sitting in the living room with the four of them. And all of the talk of ghosts and science was a great way to get to know the characters even more. I especially liked the drinking game, where they talked about why people didn’t see more ghosts and that maybe it was difficult to make the journey. While the theories weren’t revealed to be anything more than that in the play, they were interesting to think about.

All in all, this play was entertaining and I enjoyed seeing it both times, with different actors involved. I don’t think I’ll go and see it a third time, but I think it’s definitely worth seeing twice…if only to see the clues throughout that you might have missed the first time through.

Watching this musical was a very long time in coming – more than a year, in fact. But it was definitely well worth the wait.

Listening to just the soundtrack couldn’t touch on what it was like to watch this live. From the opening song right to the end, I was completely hooked.

I did, however, find it quite difficult to follow the song Farmer Refuted, when Hamilton is singing over Seabury. Non-Stop was easier to follow with the different sets of words being sung.

It was really nice to see more elements of humour that weren’t as obvious in the soundtrack alone. King George was one of the better aspects and it was very much like he was stealing the show, from his little speech right at the start of the musical (it’s all about ME), to staying on the stage during the song The Reynolds Pamphlet.

Even if I didn’t like the character so much, I very much enjoyed the portrayal of Jefferson in this musical and I found the actor did a really good job of engaging with the audience in a similar way to how King George had.

I did find it a little difficult to get used to the actor playing Aaron Burr, as his accent made it seem like almost everything he said was a joke.

I did think a lot of the scenes were done really well, such as when everyone bar one of the actors froze…and I also really liked the lighting and general atmosphere, all of which contributed to making the experience a really good one.

I did get quite emotional especially towards the end of the musical. The songs were definitely well-performed…and I can’t honestly say I disliked any of them, although I did especially enjoy Non-Stop and King George’s appearances. And it was also really good to see how the actors never broke character, even when Eliza’s veil slipped off her head and she didn’t so much as break stride.

This was a very enjoyable experience and it was particularly nice to be able to watch this with my family. I would dearly love the chance to watch it again, as just listening to the soundtrack is really not the same thing.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I did find this to be a really engaging interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Hamlet really well and I felt he was very passionate in the role. I felt myself put a bit through the emotional wringer. While I do find the Shakespearean language really hard to understand, I was still able to follow what was going on through the actors and the facial expressions and actions, as well as the delivery of their lines.

The atmosphere in this film was really strong. There was good use made of lighting and although there were some flashing lights, most of it was easy to make out. There were some really good comedic moments in this, especially when Hamlet slipped into madness. It was, however, hard to understand how he felt about Ophelia. He only seemed to demonstrate that towards the end of the play… and seemed more concerned with how it had affected Laertes.

I did feel a lot of sympathy for Ophelia. I thought the actress who portrayed her did a really good job of showing Ophelia’s almost childlike nature and how confused she was by Hamlet’s actions. I thought her ending was awful… although it wasn’t actually shown; just talked about.

While I did think there were some confusing moments in the play, there were a lot of quite moving scenes and the one right at the end was particularly effective, even though I found it confusing and I only understood it all after having read the synopsis of the play. I also really liked the friendship between Hamlet and Horatio. While the play was morbid, there was some brevity in some of the lines.

The Ghost was a bit confusing, but also very well portrayed, in my opinion. I was a bit confused about why there were modern aspects to the play, but those didn’t really affect my enjoyment of it.

I thought this play was a lot better than I was expecting and I found it entertaining, but obviously deeply sad. While I have seen Benedict Cumberbatch in many different things in the past, I thought he was particularly good in this and that it showed how versatile he is as an actor. And I thought all of the actors did well and seemed to put a lot of effort into their roles.

(This review may contain spoilers).

If the Holocaust is evidence of the evil one man can be responsible for, I think the witch trials are evidence of the kind of evil a group of people can do.

I found this play really intense to watch. One thing that really struck me was the passion the actors displayed. I could really believe in the roles they were portraying.

I recognised Richard Armitage and felt that his character’s interactions with the others were particularly intriguing. I really didn’t like Abigail’s character… or Mary’s, either, though I found it interesting how Mary’s character seemed to abandon her morals and ethics, at the same time as Hale seemed to find his.

One of the things I felt was quite powerful in this was how the violence wasn’t actually shown, or heard… but because I knew it was happening, it was much more effective. I think what you don’t see works better in many ways.

There were some things I did see coming, but they didn’t really lose their effectiveness. The lighting worked really well to set up the atmosphere, too.

It was quite clear that each of the characters were passionate in their own way. There were a lot of elements in this that were really hard-hitting. I also felt there were a lot of really emotional scenes in this. I liked the relationship between Proctor and his wife… in a way, it was like he put her on a pedestal.

I don’t think this is a play I’d watch again, but it was intense to watch and the ending was particularly moving.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve seen a few plays broadcast at the cinema by now, but this was the first musical I saw there.

It was nice that, before the play started and during the interval, the camera panned to the people at the live show, since that helped it feel more like being in the actual theater.

I found the musical itself to be really entertaining. The singing and dancing were really good and although there was a lot going on, I felt that some time was spent in exploring the motivations of other characters. They were easy to understand… at least when I figured out what some of the relationships were.

This was the second thing I saw which had details about the miners’ strike and I felt it was interesting to see the way that was explored here. I liked the music in this and I felt that the lighting and stage itself were utilised in good ways. I particularly liked the way Billy’s bed was raised up and down.

There were quite a few amusing scenes in this, but I was really surprised at the amount of bad language that was used. I was sitting next to my seven-year-old niece during it, so I made a point of telling her not to repeat what they were saying.

I also liked the dance numbers at the end, too. There were some really quite emotional scenes along with the comedy. It was easy to like the characters and I think it was definitely worth seeing.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t read the book that started all this, but I did see and really enjoy the film. I missed the original live showing at the cinema, but I did get to see the final encore performance.

The way this play was made was different to the last play I saw. People were utilised in the scenes a lot more, for instance, which I felt worked really well.

In my opinion, the puppets worked really well. Rather than trying to make the puppeteers invisible – which I felt wouldn’t have worked too well – they almost seemed to be a part of the animals’ character. The puppets themselves were of a really high quality and I have a whole lot of respect for how hard the puppeteers had to work.

The music worked really effectively with the scenes and the style of folk songs was really nice.

The use of the lighting worked really well and I felt the screen with images projected onto it was a really effective tool.

The actors were particularly good and I thought Albert came across particularly well. All told, I’m glad I was able to watch this play, even if it wasn’t live. It was definitely worth seeing.