Jan McNulty

Couldn't agree more! Bruce and I often have differing opinions but on this we are as one!

I agree with what you say, except for your final sentence. I have, before now, heard people groaning when they have seen there is a 2 page synopsis of a narrative ballet in a programme. They are most off-putting. In most of the cases I am thinking about, the ballet has actually been quite easy to follow. For myself, with an abstract ballet, I can watch the dance for the pleasure of watching the dance without needing to know the inner workings of the choreographer's mind.

Yes it is all about money these days for the owners. They expect results and are impatient if they don't come. There is no such thing as loyalty or giving someone enough time to bed down. So LVG had a different style of management and expectation ... it does not mean to say that if all concerned had pulled together and given each other a chance that in another season or 2 things might not have improved. They were not given that chance ... as you see so often in most premiere clubs these days. Don't forget that SAF had a very rocky time in his first 4 or 5 years, but he was allowed to progress with the club and came good in the end. At the end of the day, if LVG has still not formally been told what is happening and there has been no official announcement then he is being treated very shabbily indeed.

Don't understand what you mean by frustrations of other fans Lisa. It's got nothing to do with frustrations - I just believe that LVG has been treated shabbily and that football has been ruined by money.

I hope so! Don't forget 1984 opens at SW on Tuesday. I'll bring my newly acquired badge at the weekend!

But it is wonderful for the game of football in general that some other teams are getting some glory. And how long had LVG been in charge - 2 years???? Football is no longer a game; it's only about winning and money - not watching a game with pleasure. Leicester City winning the premiership is the best thing to happen for football in years! I personally think that LVG has been treated somewhat shabbily and I am sure this treatment will have taken the gloss off winning a major trophy for the club.

That's the pattern of midscale Alison - they do the children's ballet during the day. It's Tortoise and the Hare this year.

Hello LMDancer and welcome to the Forum! Good luck to your DD.

Alan Young has passed away at the age of 96. I loved him as Wilbur in Mr Ed and reading his obituary he seems to have been just as lovely in real life. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36348905

Hello Nick and welcome to the Forum!

Neighbour's party still going on when all I want to do is go to sleep!

I took Chunkydog out for an evening constitutional when I got home from my fab day out at The Hepworth. We spent some happy minutes watching swifts and martins swooping over the smaller lake at Crosby Lakeside. Happy days...

Well I was rooting for Crystal Palace. Perhaps if I had been rooting for MU, CP may have won!

Lindsay, you make some interesting points but this discussion thread is about Frankenstein rather than RB's commissioning policy. As the discussion is interesting perhaps you may wish to start a new thread so that the discussion is not lost in the mists of time.

A couple more reviews have come in: http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/jane-eyre-cast-doncaster-12888 http://www.thereviewshub.com/jane-eyre-cast-doncaster/

Well I had the most wonderful day at The Hepworth in Wakefield. This wonderful gallery is celebrating its 5th birthday this weekend and there have been a number of events. I love the light, airy galleries that are well laid out. There is a permanent Barbara Hepworth display and changing exhibitions. One of the current exhibitions is a photographic study of rhubarb farmers - it is fabulous. Today we saw a singer and accordionist from Opera North performing in front of some David Hockney paintings and a local gospel choir singing in the foyer. Of course my highlight was seeing some of Northern Ballet's dancers performing three short pieces choreographed by company members. If you are near Wakefield it is definitely worth spending a couple of hours there. The cafe is super too.

Very well! There is a prologue behind a scrim of Jane wandering along lost and collapsing before she is found and rescued by St John. As he and his sister's gradually work out her story we see scenes with the young Jane at Aunt Reed's and then the school. There's a lovely scene with Helen Burns. You see Jane as a teacher at the school, this is where young Jane is replaced by Jane. Then you see her at Thornfield with Adele and Mrs Fairfax and Rochester on the fringes. Act 1 ends with Jane saving Rochester from his bed fire and being a bit attracted to him. Act 1 is quite busy. The gentlemen of the company play a sort of chorus - perhaps they are Jane's demons although a couple of chums thought these could better have been played by women. Act 2 starts with a dinner party with Blanche. It is immediately obvious that Jane has become besotted with Rochester. This is our first glimpse of Bertha as she watches part of the scene. Eventually Rochester persuades Jane that he loves her and the wedding is arranged. Bertha disrupts the marriage and Rochester's secret is out. Jane runs away and that is when St John finds her. He tries to persuade her to marry him. We then cut back to Thornfield and there is a very dramatic scene of the house burning and Rochester trying to save Bertha. Jane comes back to Thornfield and finds the house burnt and Rochester blind. There is the most beautiful and moving duet for them that ends the ballet. Judith Mackrell has published a review that is far more eloquent than anything I could write: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/20/northern-ballet-jane-eyre-review-cast-doncaster?CMP=share_btn_fb The dancers were utterly magnificent in their roles. Victoria Sibson was just outstanding as Bertha. Antoinette Brooks Daw brought out all the elements of young Jane's tribulations and her feistiness. Kiara Flavin was very touching as Helen Burns. And as for Dreda Blow and Javier Torres - it was a tour de force from both of them. I can't get back to Doncaster but have got some performances booked in June and I can't wait!

SCOTTISH BALLET TO TAKE AWARD-WINNING PRODUCTION OF A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE TO WEST COAST OF AMERICA IN SPRING 2017 Scottish Ballet will return to the USA in May 2017 with its multi award-winning production of A Streetcar Named Desire, marking the 70th anniversary year of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Scottish Ballet's A Streetcar Named Desire will receive its west coast premiere at the University of California, Berkeley before being performed at The Music Center in Los Angeles. This marks Scottish Ballet’s first performance on the west coast of America since 2011 and comes after the Company’s massively successful USA tour of A Streetcar Named Desire in Spring 2015, which included performances in Chicago, Washington DC, Charleston, San Antonio, Houston and Pittsburgh. Scottish Ballet CEO / Artistic Director Christopher Hampson: “We are thrilled to bring our production of A Streetcar Named Desire back to America in Spring 2017 and it makes it extra special that we are returning to perform it in its 70th anniversary year. We received such a warm response from American audiences on our previous USA tours in 2013 and 2015 and we hope Californian audiences will enjoy our interpretation of this evocative and powerful story. We are proud to continue to fly the flag culturally for Scotland overseas and to help expand Scottish Ballet’s reputation as one of the world’s most innovative dance companies.” This vibrant take on the classic story was created for Scottish Ballet by choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and theatre and film director Nancy Meckler and received its world premiere in 2012. Set to a specially commissioned jazz-inspired score, A Streetcar Named Desire pushes the boundaries of narrative ballet by delivering a powerful infusion of drama and dance. Scottish Ballet’s A Streetcar Named Desire was nominated for an Oliver Award for Best New Dance Production in 2013 and was awarded a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award (Best Classical Choreography) and a South Bank Award for Dance in 2013. Credits: Direction: Nancy Meckler Choreography: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa Music and sound: Peter Salem Set and costume design: Niki Turner Lighting: Tim Mitchell Reviews from Scottish Ballet’s previous A Streetcar Named Desire tours: “ … (a) very grown-up piece of entertainment that does Williams’s 1947 masterpiece full justice, repeatedly tugging at the heart-strings even as it shreds the nerves.” The Telegraph “The result is everything you could want of Tennessee Williams. – florid, poetic, poisonously beautiful.” The Evening Standard “Persuasive, exhilarating, moving and ingenious, Streetcar is the latest feather in the cap of Scottish Ballet” The Sunday Times   “They almost had to hose down the audience at intermission of Scottish Ballet’s A Streetcar Named Desire at the Harris Theater in Chicago on Thursday night. Erik Cavallari’s Stanley had just had make-up sex with Sophie Martin’s Stella, and choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s imaginative way with the erotic pas de deux had everyone hot and bothered.” The Huffington Post “As you’d expect from Williams’s play, fragility and brutality danced a dark, halting waltz throughout the evening. The reward of this ballet was that not only did we see it — we felt it, too.” Washington Post “In a brilliantly structured reimagining of the Tennessee Williams classic, choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, aided by theater and film director Nancy Meckler, wasted not a moment or a step as she created empathy with Blanche (no easy task) and with the story's gay lovers (unseen in the play)…The Scottish Ballet dancers, making their Chicago debut, were wonderful.” Chicago Tribune

Thanks for bringing us back on topic Dave.

Northern Ballet has published a gallery of production photographs by Emma Kauldhar: https://northernballet.com/jane-eyre/photo-gallery

Welcome to the Forum Cma! I can't answer your query but I always find (as an audience member and supporter of NB) that Quarry Hill is a warm and welcoming place and the cakes are great in the cafe!

Although I believe that is only with well-established works. One BRB dancer commented that active choreographers do not necessarily give them a choice.

I'm at ROH on 11th!

My badge was waiting for me when I got home before, I shall wear it at Sadler's Wells next weekend! Mine looks the same too.

Not long back in my hotel from the premiere. I loved it - such an intelligent interpretation of the book. Cathy Marston can sketch in a character so well, all the dancers brought them to life beautifully. Dreda Blow and Javier Torres were utterly magnificent as Jane and Rochester.