A Room With Review

Review: Little Shop of Horrors at the Keble O’Reilly Theatre It’s pouring with rain as I rush to see  Cross Key Productions ’ newest show, directed by  Madi Bouchta  – I always seem to be running late on my way to the O’Reilly. As I lay my sodden coat over the back of a seat in the front row and sit down, I’m a little unsure of what to expect. I know plenty of people who seem obsessed with Little Shop of Horrors , but it’s never really crossed my path. It's safe to say that I'm in for a few surprises. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's beautifully 60s-styled horror-comedy musical follows Seymour ( Will Jacobs ), a bumbling florist who discovers that his exotic plant named Audrey II ( Wally McCabe ) demands human flesh in order to grow. In a rather unconventional plot structure for a musical, things go increasingly wrong as Audrey II's thirst for blood combines with Seymour's thirst for fame, at the peril of other characters.  Musical Director Louis Benneyworth  (w...

Review: My Dead Mum's AI Boyfriend at the Burton Taylor Studio Sali Adams ' new one-person play, My Dead Mum's AI Boyfriend , is probably the show I've anticipated more eagerly than anything else I've seen in OUDS. Having toured 113 with her, I've had some exclusive insights into the development of this show (which Adams herself wrote, stars in, and has co-directed alongside Aman Arya ; produced through her and Alex Rawnsley 's Interrobang Productions ). When we were in Wales together in December, Adams was finalising the script; in Leeds last month, they were painstakingly arranging the show's many sound cues. In the interim, I even got to read the script: as soon as I'd finished it, I was desperate to see it performed live. Adams' topical new play follows Carrie (Adams), a young teacher mourning the recent death of her reserved mother, who is tasked with taking her mum's secret AI companion, Aled ( Billy Morton ), on a road-trip to scatter ...