Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes at Newcastle Alphabetti Theatre

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We would like to introduce to the North East Theatre Guide... Matt Cumminsas guest reviewer:

Matthew MacDonald – Something Wicked This Way Comes

Newcastle Alphabetti Theatre

Saturday 1^st August 2015and then Edinburgh Fringe (see below)

This is a deceptively simple show and if you are a fan of story telling and fairly tales, it’s not to be missed. You’ll get more than you bargained for.  I certainly did, and the “more” comes in some pretty dark colours.

Matthew MacDonald

In between working at a call centre and attempting to forget the experience of reading Bruno Bettleheim’s Freudian analysis of fairy tales, Matthew MacDonald has crafted what begins as a romp through familiar territory. We’re with characters that we know but their world seems a little more real that we are used to. We’re removed from the landscapes drawn by Disney/Pixar, however, and instead sent skittering back through centuries of our own storytelling culture to half known and half remembered characters such as the Green Man, The Queen of the Fey, Mab, and the Tooth Fairy, the latter in an incarnation that sends a chill up the spine. These are creatures dressed in things that they really shouldn’t be, characters you really don’t expect. One can’t help feeling that this is a resurrection of sorts, of something that we used to know collectively, but now don’t. An excellent enterprise indeed.

A mixture of prose and poetry, this is a perfect example of how a poetic sensibility can be employed to write stories. And delivered in Matt’s charming, warm, inviting voice it is a pleasure simply to sit and listen. It draws you in. But what you don’t realise is that you are being softened up. Obviously I can’t tell you what you are being softened up for, but what I will say is that if you like your meat rare, you won’t be disappointed, and if you are a vegetarian then you are likely to have that position reinforced. This is an easy show to recommend. Go and see it; you’ve nothing to lose – except perhaps that night’s sleep.

This review was written by Matt Cummins– thanks Matt,

Edinburgh Fringe Tickets:

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Matt McDonald is part of PBH Free Fringe, showing from 8th – 15th August (6.15-7.15pm) and 16th – 22nd August (2.15-3.15) at the Stafford Centre (venue 175)

Website: http://freefringe.org.uk/edinburgh-fringe-festival/something-wicked-this-way-comes-2/2015-08-08/