10th anniversary of Alan Rickman's death; death of critic Blanche Marvin at 100; new podcast episode: Charlotte Mooney of circus company Ockham's Razor
News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1247: 18 January 2026
Editorial
Last week in this newsletter, I wrote about the 10th anniversary of the death of David Bowie, but just four days later, on 14 January 2016, we lost another great performer, also at the age of 69 and also to cancer: Alan Rickman.
I only saw him once on stage, narrating a Manchester International Festival staging of Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet back in 2007, but he had a long and distinguished career on both stage and screen and was highly respected throughout the industry. Perhaps we should commemorate this anniversary by watching the Harry Potter films, or Die Hard, or Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, or Truly Madly Deeply, depending on your preference.
But this week, we lost another stalwart of the British theatre scene, critic Blanche Marvin, who died only a few days before her 101st birthday, still an active member of the Critics’ Circle’s Drama Section. I never met her in person, but of course our London Editor, Philip Fisher, had, and he has written about her and some of the stories that surrounded her, possibly true or possibly apocryphal.
Amongst the many tributes to her I’ve seen was one from David Byrne—not the Talking Heads frontman but the head of London’s Royal Court Theatre—who began his statement with, “when I was formally offered the job of Artistic Director at the Royal Court I immediately went to seek advice from Blanche Marvin,” going on to say that “she had predicted I would take over the Royal Court ten years previously—and I had been pretty dismissive”.
Circus has featured quite a bit in our content this week with reviews ranging from the breathtaking spectacular of Cirque du Soleil in London to the more political story-driven performance of Sadiq Ali Company in Salford and a new podcast episode, our first of 2026, in which I had a long and very enjoyable chat with Charlotte Mooney, co-founder of contemporary circus company Ockham’s Razor.
Charlotte explained how she and her partner in life and in the company, Alex Harvey, had taken a step back from touring as performers and instead concentrated on directing after the birth of their daughter, and in fact haven’t performed at all for about five years. But when someone asked them whether they had given up performing for good, this prompted them into putting together a very intimate and personal two-hand aerial show, Collaborator, which they are about to tour.
We covered a lot of subjects to do with circus, funding and the technical challenges of touring circus acts to conventional theatre venues, but I think the most affecting part was when I asked her about how she got into circus performing in the first place. She spoke about seeing a contemporary circus performance in Chile about the ‘disappeared’ during the Pinochet regime, and you can hear her in the interview becoming emotional talking about it 25 years on. Great theatre, and in fact great art of any kind, can do that even many years after experiencing it, and in her case it probably set her on the road to what she does today.
Can anyone answer her question about whether John Major, in view of his family’s circus background, had anything to do with the exceptions for circus to the laws about how long HGV drivers are allowed to drive for?
Finally, one of the companies of which we are an affiliate, Bookshop.org, is offering the chance to win a £250 digital gift card if you buy any book from them between 17 and 19 January. Note that if you buy from a link in this newsletter or on our web site, we will receive a small cut at no cost to you that helps us to stay online, plus Bookshop.org supports indie bookshops, not multinational corporations.
London's Royal Court and Watermill Theatre in Newbury share the Theatre of the Year award, with Manchester's Hope Mill Theatre taking Fringe Theatre of the Year.
Derbyshire touring company Rumpus is to go on the road with a revival of The Haunted Bride by John Goodrum based on Charles Dickens’s To Be Read at Dusk.
Derbyshire touring company Rumpus is to go on the road with a revival of The Haunted Bride by John Goodrum based on Charles Dickens’s To Be Read at Dusk.
A company renowned for producing “the best G&S in the world” will headline the 32nd International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival at Buxton Opera House in 2026.
Kemi-Bo Jacobs will play Agnes and Rory Alexander will take the role of William when the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production Hamnet goes on its first US tour.
Derbyshire touring company Rumpus is to go on the road with a revival of The Haunted Bride by John Goodrum based on Charles Dickens’s To Be Read at Dusk.
Steven Canny and John Nicholson’s adaptation of The Hound of The Baskervilles will open the 40th anniversary year at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre.
Derbyshire touring company Rumpus is to go on the road with a revival of The Haunted Bride by John Goodrum based on Charles Dickens’s To Be Read at Dusk.
Kemi-Bo Jacobs will play Agnes and Rory Alexander will take the role of William when the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production Hamnet goes on its first US tour.
A company renowned for producing “the best G&S in the world” will headline the 32nd International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival at Buxton Opera House in 2026.
Derbyshire touring company Rumpus is to go on the road with a revival of The Haunted Bride by John Goodrum based on Charles Dickens’s To Be Read at Dusk.
The Wedding (Gecko) - Sadler’s Wells East, London, –
I Do (Dante or Die) - Malmaison Hotel London, London, –
FRIENDS! The Musical Parody (Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Oskar Eiriksson in association with The Barn Theatre Cirencester) - New Wimbledon Theatre, London, –
