home.gif (950 bytes)ontour.gif (980 bytes)tickets.gif (968 bytes)friendsbutton.gif (1042 bytes)photo.gif (967 bytes)MEDIA.gif (958 bytes)school.gif (1089 bytes)staff.gif (951 bytes)contact.gif (984 bytes)


latestpressrelease.gif (1237 bytes)
ON TOUR APR- JUN 2010

'Back to the Land Girls'
A new comedy by Kate Bramley

LandgirlsImagefowebbyAlanReynolds.jpg (39700 bytes)

 

 

DOWNLOAD LOCAL NEWS PRESS RELEASE AS PDF HERE>> coming soon

DOWNLOAD SMALL IMAGE FOR WEB USE HERE>>

DOWNLOAD LARGER IMAGE HERE>>>IMAGE ONE

DOWNLOAD LARGER IMAGE HERE>>>IMAGE TWO

 

TOUR DATES
to follow

 

 

 

 

 


 

Reviews for previous shows:

For 'Laurel and Charlie' 2008-2009

Full marks all round to Badapple,North Yorkshire's own "doorstep theatre" enterprise, for their latest production "Laurel and Charlie". The tale of two music hall artists in a grim Victorian boarding house in the North of England, poised on the verge of world fame and cinematic glory, is nicely framed with a vaudeville touch and a sardonic eye for detail. Writer-director Kate Bramley has not only managed to forge a fresh and very funny take on two characters that are familiar to us all, but has also managed to cast two exceptional actors to fill their shoes. (The show) swings with all the timing of the best in stand-up comedy, and Colin Moncrieff bears an uncanny resemblance to Laurel, both in looks and comedic style, all of which enhances an on-stage rapport between these two men that draws the audience into the plot completely. Clever use of musical and filmed interludes, some well judged slapstick routines and an attractive and surprise laden stage-set transcends the village-hall atmosphere that is Badapple's chosen domain, inducing all the atmosphere of the larger venues that are surely where the future lies for theregion's brightest light in touringtheatre.

NORTHERN ECHO COLUMNIST April 2008


For 'Amy Johnson' - Written and directed by Kate Bramley

'a sensitive play... directed with a sure hand...an inspired success... a master stroke of theatre' Avis Carminez, Eastern Press

'the writing is authentic and economical...successfully turning piles of contemporary diaries, letters and newspaper reports into an engaging guide to this special woman's life.... as I left the theatre    I felt ashamed that I had not known more about this record breaking Hull export, and  Bramley's respect for her subject was infectious'. Tracy Fletcher, Hull Daily Mail

'Badapple Theatre Company presents an enthralling portrait of a woman who chases her dream....(and have) succeeded in shedding new light on a true pioneer'. Margaret Woods, Halifax Courier

For 'Marlowe, meet Raymond Chandler' - Written and directed by Kate Bramley

'a witty look at writers and their work....Guiliano Neri as Phillip Marlowe has (a) world weary cynicism that provides much of the plays humour' Kathryn Cecil, Hull Daily Mail

For 'Fighting The Tide' - Written and directed by Kate Bramley with songs and music by Jez Lowe.

'It is nice to see something original and “Fighting the Tide” was just that. This musical play by Kate Bramley deals with the promise that things will get better, but of course they never do, a promise that has been and will continue to be made till the end of time. The time in this instance is just beyond now...Some nice songs emerge from the story, the most notable of which is “The net me father left me” and the man responsible was Jez Lowe writing his first music and lyrics for the stage — something he should do again...' BA Entertainment Online.

For 'Still Marilyn' - Written and directed by Kate Bramley

'After 1998's high-flying Amy Johnson, the detection work of Marlowe, Meet Raymond Chandler and the trawling tale of Fighting The Tide, Bramley has taken on another subject with history and mystery in equal measure: Marilyn Monroe.

This is her biggest challenge with the biggest budget so far - £21,000 in project funding - as Bramley looks anew at "the most famous movie star of all time, the most famous woman on earth".

She picks up the Marilyn story at its crescent in the early 1950s, and follows her through a decade in which she would marry sporting hero Joe DiMaggio (not seen in the play) and playwright Arthur Miller (one of four characterisations taken on by Patrick Poletti, along with Clark Gable, both imagined and real, and Jack Kennedy).

We also see Jane Russell (Cristina Gavin), confident, composed and chic, as she and Marilyn work on a dance routine for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It is late, Marilyn (Gilly Cohen) is desperately concerned to get it right, and even then, her coach would be turning up later still.

That is a typical vignette from Bramley's portrait, an affectionate, admiring work that seeks to balance the tragic vulnerability and rising neuroses with the burning brightness of a starlet who read James Joyce's Ulysses and Edgar Allan Poe, knew her politics (and not only through bedroom intimacy with the Kennedys) but struggled with demons and pills.

That struggle is depicted as both external and internal: Marilyn's intelligence had to break through the `dumb blonde' barrier and her fight for recognition as a serious actress was as much undermined by her own doubts as blonde prejudice.

At the core of Still Marilyn - and part of the reason for that Still Marilyn title along with a search for stillness and a sense of her abiding allure beyond death - is a developing relationship with a young female photographer, Mia (Gavin again). The most precious insights into her private life come in these scenes, the camera constantly on her as always, with a wall of mirrors - an echo of 1953's How To Marry A Millionaire in Ruth Paton's set - as her other regular companion.

The angular Gilly Cohen may not look like Marilyn but she moves, talks and emotes like her, still Marilyn indeed.' Charles Hutchinson, York Evening Press.

You are visitor Number

 

flyerbutton.gif (1274 bytes)

YORK PRESS REVIEW 'THE LAND GIRLS OF YORKSHIRE'- By Jon Butler 19th June 2009

Jon Butler reviews The Land Girls Of Yorkshire, Badapple Theatre, Suddaby's Crown Hotel, Malton

9:13am Friday 19th June 2009

THE Land Girls Of Yorkshire is a delightful, light-hearted comedy inspired by true stories gleaned from Land Girls who toiled to help feed the nation during the dark days of the Second World War.

The production is in mid-tour and if you get the chance to go and see it do, as it is a joyful and uplifting experience.

The full house at Suddaby's Crown Hotel in Malton certainly enjoyed it, and with two former Land Girls in the audience the opportunity for the occasion to be quite poignant was rejected in favour of frequent and spontaneous laughter at Kate Bramley's witty and well observed script.

The dialogue is beautifully paced, and while you would expect the subject matter to deal with the facts and fashions of the day, Bramley cleverly digs beneath such veneers to expose the anxieties and aspirations of her two female characters.

Buff, (Natalie Bennett) with her confident, brash Scouse exterior, finds herself billeted with Biddy, (Lois Creasy) a Yorkshire lass whose innocence cautions her against Buff's ambitions to form relationships with any or all of the American servicemen and Italian prisoners of war who reside nearby, including Giovanni, played on screen by Colin Moncrieff.

There are lots of lovely subtle lines, such as Buff wondering if meeting these men might affect her density, and the mention of Walter Pigeon (the Brad Pitt of the day) reminding them more of their hunger for food than love.

The play subliminally offers an interesting comparison between today's consumer-obsessed society and an age where the lack of material possessions did not mean a famine of fun.

With none of our contemporary distractions, Buff and Biddy explore their dreams, hopes and plans, and have the time to find themselves. But Buff's ambitions to become a singer prove to be the making of Biddy.

The characters grow on you, and it is a credit to the skills of Bennett and Creasy that by the end of the play you feel you really know the characters they portray.

The stage production is inventive too, and Jez Lowe's music really defines the era and literally sets the tone.

This is a production brimming with creativity and talent and a large feather in the cap for Badapple Theatre>>

 

 

DOWNLOAD LOCAL NEWS PRESS RELEASE AS PDF HERE>> coming soon

DOWNLOAD SMALL IMAGE FOR WEB USE HERE>>

DOWNLOAD LARGER IMAGE HERE>>>IMAGE ONE

DOWNLOAD LARGER IMAGE HERE>>>IMAGE TWO

 

 

 

buyticketsnow.gif (1219 bytes)
Visit the Badapple box office for show details  and to buy tickets online... more>>>

 

newworkshopsyr6.gif (1320 bytes)
logo.gif (15069 bytes) Kate Bramley launches new Shakespeare workshops for Year 6..... more>>>>
 

signguestbook.gif (1457 bytes)

Guestbook

home | news | tour dates | history | photos |media | schools | contact

Badapple Theatre Company Ltd- Registered in England and Wales, No 4387146, PO Box 57, York, YO26 8WQ T. 01423 339168