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Michael Quinn

@quinnfreelance.bsky.social
99 followers 78 following 456 posts

Theatre director, writer and editor. Booklet Editor: National Symphony Orchestra, Ireland; Associate Writer/Obituaries Editor: @thestage.co.uk Programme consultant: @porticoards.bsky.social.

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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Spring 2027 tour of Charlotte McCurry's Julie just announced by Kabosh. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona’s Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, part of the Royal Court Theatre's 70th anniversary season on BBC Sounds, remains bitingly topical in an age where those fleeing poverty and tyranny find themselves stateless, othered and victimised. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Drama on 3 - Sizwe Banzi is Dead - BBC Sounds
A thought-provoking, captivating drama about oppression, racism and identity.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Very promising first day workshopping Brian McAvera's The Reckoning about Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto with Ruairi Conaghan, Mary McGurk, Joe Devlin and Emma Dawson. Open, free rehearsed reading this Friday (October 2) at the Golden Thread Gallery, Queen Street, Belfast at 2pm.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Released 57 years ago today, Abbey Road saw The Beatles putting aside the spats of the Let it Be sessions to produce a glorious last outing on disc. The faultless 'B' Side medley remains a miracle of melodic invention, production and engineering. Pure genius. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPOY...
youtube.com
The Beatles – Abbey Road - 1969 - Album Side B - 5.1 surround STEREO in
YouTube video by STEREO in
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Interesting take on contemporary Belfast from Philip Catherwood in End Terrace on BBC Sounds, with Abigail McGibbon, Sean Kearns, Daniel Mick Ryan, Paul Mallon and Katarina Kokenyova, hampered by an unvaried acoustic and colourless direction. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Drama on 4 - End Terrace - BBC Sounds
By Philip Catherwood. A drama set in Belfast about street art and second chances.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Exciting news as Lyric Belfast announces world premiere of Waking Ned Devine, a new musical by Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and David Hein, directed by Tony Award-winning John Doyle. My @thestage.co.uk news story…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
“Ferociously funny… joyfully feisty, pointedly argued.” Carley Magee’s Growing Pains with Annie McIlwaine and Vicky Allen at @themacbelfast.bsky.social. My @britishtheatreguide.info review…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Congrats and good luck to Prime Cut Productions’ Emma Jordan and @niopera.bsky.social's Annette McLaughlin on their nominations for UK Theatre awards. My news story for @britishtheatreguide.info…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My thoughts on Belfast's Culture Night and @culturenightdub.bsky.social tonight on LinkedIn. Do Northern Ireland's contested notions of "culture" bear scrutiny against stubborn sectarian division and in the aftermath of this summer's anti-immigrant riots?
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The youth-accented Project Lighthouse is a hugely ambitious collaboration between Derry's Millennium Forum and @hawkswellsligo.bsky.social with support from the @humefoundation.bsky.social. My news story for @britishtheatreguide.info…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Delighted to see Carley Magee as the only Northern Irish recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation's Playwrights '73 Awards scheme, which will result in a new play in collaboration with Kabosh. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Interesting take on Carmen from @niopera.bsky.social tonight at the Grand Opera House, Belfast with Ruby Dibble in her role debut as the femme fatale, Mary McCabe outstanding as Micaëla, and Petra Wells a fine Frasquita. Review to follow in Opera magazine. .
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
And so it begins. National Symphony Orchestra Ireland's 2026-27 Season gets under way with Alexander Shelley in his debut as Principal Conductor, Tara Erraught and Dame Sarah Connolly in a rousing Mahler Resurrection at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Delighted to have provided the booklet note.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“A powerful experience, Wycherley commanding the stage… required viewing.” Don Wycherley stars in The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. My @britishtheatreguide.info review…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“Inspired by old Hollywood cinema and set within a faded cinema of memories”, Tinderbox Theatre Company re-imagines Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie @themacbelfast.bsky.social for @belfastfestival.bsky.social. My news story for @britishtheatreguide.info…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
More than 2,000 have now signed Equity's Letter of No Confidence in Arts Minister Gordon Lyons following a successful rally at Stormont. My news story for @thestage.co.uk…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
David Rudkin's "very simple" Penda's Fen is anything but: a dense and heterodox meditation on Englishness and identity, directed like a fever dream by Alan Clarke. A standout Play for Today from 1974. @bbciplayer.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Play for Today - Penda's Fen
Young Stephen, in the last summer of his boyhood, has a very clear and intense view of the world, but an awakened force in the landscape is trying to communicate some warning, a peril he is in.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Ettlin fur Godot. Frank Ferguson's translation of Waiting for Godot in Ulster-Scots is to be performed on Slemish Mountain and in the Wicklow Hills as part of Arts Over Borders' ambitious Samuel Beckett Biennale. My news story for @britishtheatreguide.info…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Crucial Day of Action by Equity NI tomorrow at Stormont when it will deliver a Letter of No Confidence in Arts Minister Gordon Lyons. You can add your name to the letter here before 10am Tuesday 8th: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/sa...
megaphone.org.uk
Save the Arts: Letter of No Confidence in Communities Minister Gordon Lyons
Gordon Lyons was appointed Communities Minister – a role which covers arts and culture – in February 2024.    The Arts Council Northern Ireland provided a 10-year plan for the arts between 2...
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
"A diverting, convivial and entertaining evening.” Switch Theatre and Centre Stage Theatre Company’s The Problem with Kate Winslet’s Dress at The Black Box, Belfast. My @britishtheatreguide.info review:
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Whisk(e)y Wars boasts an engaging performance of “agreeably personable warmth” by Joyce Greenaway, albeit ill-served by its setting and noises off at the LyricTheatre, Belfast. My @britishtheatreguide.info review… .
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A Day of Action is planned by Equity's Northern Ireland Branch as part of its Save the Arts campaign at Stormont on September 8, when arts minister Gordon Lyons, accused of "broken promises", is due to face parliamentary questions. My @thestage.co.uk news story… www.thestage.co.uk/news/norther...
thestage.co.uk
NI government under pressure over 'lack of arts strategy'
Equity’s Northern Ireland branch is to mount a 'day of action' over a perceived lack of arts funding strategy in the country
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Should I Stay or Should I Go? 21 engagements in my last 50 postings here. Posts that receive traction elsewhere. Perhaps it's just me, but is BlueSky worth the effort? www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN1W...
youtube.com
The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go (Official Audio)
YouTube video by theclashVEVO
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
New and returning shows from Cahoots NI for its 25th anniversary autumn/winter season announced, including two @belfastfestival.bsky.social appearances. My news story for @britishtheatreguide.info…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The last time I met Julian Lloyd Webber was at a grand music bash at Buckingham Palace, so a pleasure to encounter him again with his wife, cellist Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, in the intimate confines of Portaferry's PorticoArds – and a much better acoustic than chez Windsor!
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Daisy Fancourt's inspiring Art Cure provides ample evidence for the considerable health benefits to be gained by active engagement with the arts. It amounts to a persuasive argument for greater investment and use of the arts in wider settings. Published by Cornerstone Press.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Much cut but imaginatively realised 60th anniversary TV adaptation of Under Milk Wood laden with Welsh actors – Michael Sheen, Jonathan Pryce, Sian Philips, Owen Teale – & celebs Tom Jones, Charlotte Church et al, nimbly directed by Pip Broughton @bbciplayer.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Under Milk Wood
A unique production of Dylan Thomas's famous 'play for voices' enacted by a community of Welsh performers in New York, Los Angeles, London, Cardiff and Laugharne.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
High hopes for Friel’s Faith Healer with strong cast – Conleth Hill, Lisa Dwyer Hogg, Chris McCurry – directed by Emma Jordan at Lyric Theatre, Belfast for @belfastfestival.bsky.social in October. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story:
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Three-venue tour announced for Caoimhe Farren’s Hello Charlie – Dùn Laoighaire’s @paviliontheatre.bsky.social, Letterkenny’s @angrianan.bsky.social and Lyric Theatre Belfast as part of @belfastfestival.bsky.social. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story:
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Very enjoyable double-celebration for Lyric Belfast's 75th & @ulsterorchestra.bsky.social's 60th; seven fabulous voices & @stagneschoral.bsky.social fronted by Conor Mitchell: a wide-ranging survey of musical theatre from the Lyric's past & present. Two shows left: lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/we-...
lyrictheatre.co.uk
We Do It For Love | Lyric Theatre 75th Anniversary Fundraising Concert
Celebrate the Lyric Theatre’s 75th anniversary with We Do It For Love, a fundraising concert with Ulster Orchestra featuring iconic musical highlights.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Helen Edmundson's take on JB Priestley's still resonant An Inspector Calls is beautifully realised and pointedly directed by Aisling Walsh, with a strong cast including David Thewlis, Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson from 2012. @bbciplayer.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
An Inspector Calls
Drama. The mysterious 'Inspector Goole' interrupts a wealthy family's party to tell them a young woman died of suicide that night. But what does that have to do with them?
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"A Belfast Bonnie and Clyde in which the son of a preacherman meets a petrol pump girl." Gary Mitchell's Freedom of Poverty for @rte.ie radio drama with a cast including Stuart Graham, Vincent Higgins, Andrea Irvine, and Kerri Quinn. www.rte.ie/radio/dramao...
rte.ie
Freedom of Poverty by Gary Mitchell
A Belfast Bonnie and Clyde..
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A potent threnody for the victims of the scourge of AIDS that sparked unconscionable homophobia, Kevin Elyot's two-time Olivier Award-winning My Night With Reg, first seen @royalcourt.bsky.social, was movingly transferred to TV by Roger Michell. @bbciplayer.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
My Night with Reg
Adaptation of the award-winning stage comedy. Six gay friends discuss love, friendship and infidelity over the course of three evenings.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Lots of theatre and dance coming up at @belfastfestival.bsky.social from October 14 to November 8. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Fascinating to hear T.S. Eliot's verse play The Family Reunion from March 1965, two months after his death. A particular writing and performance style reminiscent of Louis MacNeice's The Dark Tower. Somewhat antique to modern ears but some compelling moments even so. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
The Family Reunion by TS Eliot - BBC Sounds
The birthday battles of ailing Lady Monchensey. Stars Fabia Drake. .
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Its mooted first production in 1986 pulled and then tucked away on BBC Four in 2002, Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play works as drama but its lack of political analysis and glossing over of the cost in lives smacks uneasily of jingoism. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
The Falklands Play
Ian Curteis's once-controversial dramatisation of how the Thatcher government went to war against Argentina to regain the Falkland Islands.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Quantum physics, memory and moral responsibility filtered through uncertainty and subjectivity. Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, first seen @nationaltheatre.org.uk, substantially cut for TV in 2002. Compelling performances by Stephen Rea, Daniel Craig, and Francesca Annis. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Copenhagen
Drama based on a pivotal meeting in 1941 between physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, whose work together had paved the way for the building of the atomic bomb.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The banality and bleakness of middle-class suburban life: Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular cast to the hilt by BBC TV in 1985: Cheryl Campbell, Michael Gambon, Nicky Henson, Maureen Lipman, Geoffrey Palmer, and Prunella Scales. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Absurd Person Singular
Three couples meet on three separate Christmas Eves in their three respective kitchens. Classic comedy drama, with a sting in the tail, by Alan Ayckbourn.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
"Without prejudice, we're nothing." David Ireland's Cyprus Avenue collides the gross absurdities of Northern Ireland's particular brand of bigotry with vicious humour and Jacobean horror in Vicky Featherstone's @royalcourt.bsky.social staging. @bbciplayer.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Cyprus Avenue
David Ireland's award-winning dark comedy about sectarian hatred in Northern Ireland. Eric Miller, a Belfast loyalist, mistakes his five-week-old granddaughter for Gerry Adams.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Starry cast for The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter's first full-length play (written while he was acting in a tour of Doctor in the House) – Pinter himself, Joan Plowright, Colin Blakely, Kenneth Cranham, Julie Walters – rise superbly to the inscrutable occasion www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
The Birthday Party
It's Stanley's birthday, but the party that is thrown for him is not quite what he was expecting. Written by Harold Pinter.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
The crippling façade of respectability versus the passions of the heart. Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea with Penelope Wilton reprising her Almeida Theatre performance, Ian Holm and Colin Firth supporting, Karel Reisz directing in 1994. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Performance - The Deep Blue Sea
A Terence Rattigan play. Hester is rescued by a neighbour after attempting suicide in the flat she shares with her youger lover, ex-RAF pilot Freddie Page.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
"Something of a muddle." Marie Jones' The Blind Fiddler at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast is redeemed by a strong central performance by Richard Clements. My review for @britishtheatreguide.info:
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Sad to hear of the death of the wonderful producer @williamorbit.bsky.social. Happy memory of being the first to tell him of his Grammy success for his Madonna collaboration when I interviewed him for his Pieces in a Modern Style. After phoning his manager to check, he signed the cover for me…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
"I think the Eighties are going to be stupendous." Written at the height of Thatcherism for @royalcourt.bsky.social, Caryl Churchill's boldly provocative Top Girls proved otherwise. Vivid, if now dated, 1991 BBC TV production, boasts strong performances all round. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Performance - Top Girls
Marlene celebrates her new position as managing director of Top Girls Appointment Agency by giving a dinner party for five assorted women from centuries past. By Caryl Churchill.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Fascinating to hear legendary actor-manager Anew 'Mac' McMaster – Ireland's Donald Wolfit and noted by Harold Pinter for his "great organ voice" – as King Lear in a 1962 @rte.ie radio production recorded shortly before his death, with Milo O'Shea as Edmund. www.rte.ie/radio/dramao...
rte.ie
King Lear by William Shakespeare
starring Anew MacMaster in this archive production first broadcast on RTÉ Radio in 1962
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Double celebrations in We Do It For Love – Lyric Theatre, Belfast’s 75th; Ulster Orchestra’s 60th – with Conor Mitchell conducting. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story…
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Plusses and minuses in the 1974 BBC TV adaptation of 7:84's staging of John McGrath's The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil about the centuries-long exploitation of Scotland's highlands. A seminal piece of political theatre still bitingly relevant. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
bbc.co.uk
Play for Today - Series 4: The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
The 1974 TV adaptation of John McGrath's iconic 7:84 play about the exploitation of the Scottish people through history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the oil boom.
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Angie Waller's award-winning “great-great grandmother of good times” Nana Funk is to make her Belfast debut at the Sunflower Pub. My @britishtheatreguide.info news story:
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
"If you don't care, you'll die." Arnold Wesker's state-of-the-nation Chicken Soup with Barley in a fine BBC Home Service production from 1962 – two years after its @royalcourt.bsky.social debut with some of that cast including Frank Finlay. Miriam Karlin also stars. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Chicken Soup with Barley by Arnold Wesker - BBC Sounds
1936, London's east end: The Kahn family are facing troubling times...
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Michael Quinn @quinnfreelance.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
"There is no denying the edifying freshness [Alban] Gerhardt’s approach brings" to the cello concertos of Elgar and Dvořák with WDR Sinfonieorchester and Andrew Manze on @hyperionrecords.bsky.social. My review for Limelight Magazine… limelight-arts.com.au/reviews/elga...
limelight-arts.com.au
Elgar, Dvořák: Cello Concertos ★★★★
Read the Limelight review.
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