Author Archives: Emily Garside

And so here it is…my top 10 musicals of the decade. It turned out to be a slightly emotional journey.  As a \’Dr of musicals\’ (in part) that probably isn\’t surprising as this decade coincided with that chapter in my life. But it turns out musicals meant a lot in that time. And I\’ll fightContinueContinue reading “Decade Review: The Musicals”

And in the third and final \’review of the decade\’ the plays…it\’s an arbitary distinction, but this had to be organised somehow. No prizes for guessing the top play of the decade (hint I could technically have given it slots one and two)I saw around 450 performances in 10 years. I was lucky enough toContinueContinue reading “Decade Round Up: The Plays”

So on looking at my spreadsheet (yes of course there\’s a spreadsheet) of the decade, I saw 428 shows that I recorded. Foolish me did not record the shows that I saw while ushering at two theatres over three years. We\’ll call that 20 more shows I saw in that time (and to allow forContinueContinue reading “Best of the Decade part 1.”

And so it is that time of year, the yearly round-up. I did a round up of new Welsh theatre for Nation Cymru which is here so to save duplication- and give space to the many brilliant things seen this year, here is the best of things from elsewhere. Divided arbitrarily into musicals and plays, andContinueContinue reading “2019 Theatre Round Up”

The genesis of Falsettos over 12 years as William Finn developed his original story In Trousers in1979, to create March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland in the early 1980s, before finally bringing them together as Falsettos (with James Lapine as book writer) in 1991. This impacts the work both in terms of Finn’s writing and the context in which it was being created, with oneContinueContinue reading “Falsettos: The Other Palace 5*”

Buzz Magazine gave ‘Don’t Send Flowers’ four stars read it here  

‘Love can tell a million stories’ or why Falsettos means so muchThis isn’t a review- that’ll come later. Some shows you have to put down on a page what they mean, or at least try and make sense of it. Falsettos is one of those.Falsettos is important because it’s both a record of history, and an honest, and open accountContinueContinue reading “A Tight Knit Family- why Falsettos matters still (and to me)”

  News! I’m excited to share that my play ‘Don’t Send Flowers’ is being produced by Clock Tower Theatre Company, and will be performed at The Gate in Cardiff in September.   Grace is in therapy because her Father is dying and she’s not handling it very well. John is in therapy because he’s dying,ContinueContinue reading “News: Don’t Send Flowers”

  In a longer more reflective post on this production for Howlround  I examine the questions of language and culture and the difficulties of interpretation.  “I felt that these lands were always wrapped around me like a mother, in the most difficult times of my life. And that they were healing me.” These words, spoken by Mel—oneContinueContinue reading “Language and Identity in the Welsh-Turkish Play Y Brain/Kargalar”

Writer Meltem Arikam was forced to flee Turkey after accusations against her and start a new life in Wales. While starting her new life, her husband unexpectedly died and she was left once again re-examining her place in the world, her sense of identity and where and how to belong. In Y Brain/Kargalar, she examinesContinueContinue reading “Review: Y Brain/Kargalar”