This month we returned to Maddermarket. “But that’s a venue you’ve done before!” I hear you cry. Well, actually, last time we when we saw a show at The Maddermarket we were in The Emmerson Studio, this time we were in the main auditorium.

So, September’s outing went something like this…

Production: Jekyll & Hyde

Venue: The Maddermarket

The auditorium seats about 300 people, lovely little bar, serves Guinness and ice cream. Cushty.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, has been interestingly adapted to bring women to the front. Dr Stevenson finds herself in charge of the mysterious case of Jekyll & Hyde.

It was a good show. Clever use of characters, setting and lighting to maintain the originality of the text, whilst managing to produce something just a little bit different. Enjoyed it.

Goes straight in at number four!

1. An Inspector Calls
2. Dracula
3. Things We Do For Love
4. Jekyll & Hyde
5. Charley’s Aunt
6. 1984
7. Metamorphosis 
8. Shakespeare Revisited
9. Edgeland

Not even starting looking for October, better get it sorted!

‘Tangled Secrets’ by Anne-Marie Conway

Teenage fiction.

Maddie’s life is a tangled mess of secrets. She has lost her Nan, she has problems at home and being bullied at school.

Then she gets told a secret that sends her spiralling.

Pretty good little book.

‘The Drift’ by CJ Tudor

Now, I normally like novels by CJ Tudor, I’ve read a couple, The Chalk Man and The Taking of Annie Thorne, but didn’t really enjoy this.

It involves three groups of people, each with a killer within them, who come together (well, what’s left of the groups) at the end.

I quite liked the first half of the novel, but then I felt it got a bit monotonous and obvious.

Probably not worth a read.

If July was a bit tricky finding a production, August was probably even more difficult.

We’re probably not planning enough in advance, especially as we’re starting to run out of local ‘new’ venues to attend.

But we found one…

Production: Things We Do For Love

Venue: Southwold Theatre

The play, written by Alan Ayckbourn, first performed in 1997 centres on a love triangle between two women and a man.

Southwold Theatre holds around 180, nice little place, serves beer and ice cream.

As for the play, we quite liked it, well written, only four characters, all really good. Great acting, funny in places and staged really well on a small budget.

Goes straight in at number three!

1. An Inspector Calls
2. Dracula
3. Things We Do For Love
4. Charley’s Aunt
5. 1984
6. Metamorphosis 
7. Shakespeare Revisited
8. Edgeland

‘Strange Houses’ by Uketsu

Wasn’t entirely sure what to expect with this one. It starts with a floor plan that is ‘off’ somehow, and then descends into a strange sinister story that includes murder and a family curse.

I really liked the first half of the book, very interesting. Then it all starts to get very confusing and far-fetched.

In the end it left me feeling slightly disappointed.

‘Demon Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingsolver

Slightly late to the party (yet again) with this one.

Well I wouldn’t agree with New York Times Readers’ who said it was ‘Best Book of the Century’, but it was definitely a good read.

It’s probably the longest book I’ve read in a while.

The novel follows Demon, a young lad who is put into foster care because of a drug addicted mother and goes through a pretty horrendous life. Everything negative that you could think of probably happens to him, with a few positives points in between.

I’m not going to say anything else except, it is well worth a read.