Sitting In The Cheap Seats

This Sunday at a little after 4pm history will be made for London Irish as, after twenty years in the wilderness (or the Thames Valley if you prefer) they will finally, truly, return to London. Sure, the deal to play at the Brentford Community Stadium has been signed for some time now, but it only means so much until a game is actually played! As we approach the second week of a league season that has started behind closed doors you might feel that the move would be a little anti-climactic for Irish, but every noise out of the club is positive and brimming with excitement. The players have had a chance to test out the ground in an inter-squad friendly and club staff have visited a couple of times to get a feel for the place too. Les Kiss , head coach at Irish is just one of the positive voices at the club. “I only had a year or two at the Madejski and it was probably more ideal for the opposition to come there… they had a big dressing room and nice facilities. It wasn’t like that Lei...

Last week England comfortably beat France in Grenoble, so you’d be forgiven for expecting an equally straightforward victory in the return fixture. The ladies in blue had other ideas though and the game was all the more entertaining for it!

One of the all-time greatest musicals ANYTHING GOES is making a welcome return to the London stage in spring and summer 2021 for a strictly limited 15 week engagement at the Barbican Theatre, starring Emmy & SAG Award Winner Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) who is making her West End musical debut as Reno Sweeney, and Tony, Olivier & BAFTA Award Winner Robert Lindsay as Moonface Martin. This splendid production of Cole Porter & P.G. Wodehouse’s classic musical will be directed and choreographed by three time Tony Award Winner Kathleen Marshall . Marshall’s Broadway production of ANYTHING GOES was a major smash hit and received huge critical acclaim.  The revival was nominated for nine Tony Awards and 10 Drama Desk Awards, winning Best Musical Revival and Best Choreography at both ceremonies. Now Marshall, in her West End directing debut, will reinvent this glorious musical for London audiences next year. With music and lyrics by Cole Porter and the original book b...

The news all Red Roses fans have been waiting for is out, we now know who the team will face of against in the group stage of next year’s World Cup and it’s made this weekend an even more spicy affair! England have drawn old enemies France in their group as well as rising talents South Africa and perennial world cup wildcards Fiji who will bring their usual flair and unpredictability. We caught up with head coach Simon Middleton and captain Sarah Hunter to find out their reactions.

This autumn has been all about experimentation for the Red Roses, with new players being brought in and new combinations tried out but there has been one ever present…Since returning from the Sevens programme Ellie Kildunne has grabbed hold of the 15 shirt and showed no inclination to let it go!

Joining the stellar cast of  The Understudy , which will once again raise funds for the UK’s theatre industry, is Matthew Horne, Emily Atack, Adelayo Adedayo, Lucy Briggs-Owen,  and Jake Ferretti.  A perfect pre-Christmas treat for theatre lovers, this exclusive semi-staged rehearsed reading of  The Understudy  will run for two nights only at London’s Palace Theatre .

She’s a World Cup winner with 60 caps to her name, but it’s been a while since she’s pulled on the white shirt. Laura Keates has battled back from horrendous injury to reclaim her spot as a cornerstone of the Worcester Warriors Women pack and now she’s getting the opportunity to reclaim her spot for the national team too!

We live in difficult times, cut off from friends and family. It often seems nearly impossible to comprehend returning to what we once thought normal. As such Chichester Festival Theatre ’s decision to salvage Crave – a bleak, difficult, dark piece by Sarah Kane – from their summer season and put it on in the main house, where normally it would jar becomes an apt and fitting choice. Kane was a bright light of the British theatre scene, threatening to burn it down and party in the ashes through her searingly difficult, resolutely honest plays before she took her own life. Amongst her small and often difficult works Crave stands out as an anomaly. Four disparate voices struggling for belonging, understanding… for love. There’s no subtext to ground them, no setting or character arc, the characters don’t even have names, just letters and genders. As such it’s been a widely interpreted piece, often with an array of added bells and whistles that add nothing. Here director Tinuke Craig ...

It’s autumn, the leaves are falling, Boris is about to put us back into lockdown and we’re finally getting to see the deciding games of the six nations. Last night England’s men secured the title and later today the Red Roses will go for the grand slam against Italy. We caught up with Zoe Harrison to find out how she has coped with this crazy season.