demi-paradise productions


	REVIEWS

... this is not so much a night at the theatre - more a theatrical event. With this Hamlet you can almost reach out and feel his pain - and blush at the lusty passion. Shakespeare's greatest tragedy is up close and personal in the [company's] latest and most thrilling production yet ... creating a performance that works on so many levels. The same detailing that has gone into Ruth Caswell's costume work has been stitched into the direction by Sue McCormick and Chris Hallam. And while there are limits on the lighting you can put into a working building, designer Mark Alexander manages to paint spectacular shadows ... Damien Warren-Smith is a princely pin-up with a swaggering machismo, a man who understands his power if not his emotions. Claire Disley, as Ophelia, unravels before our eyes, but everywhere you look ... there's so much to applaud, particularly the nimble comic touches. (David Upton - Lancashire Evening Post)	Hamlet
Shakespeare is often performed outdoors in the ruins of a castle, but it is a novelty to find it performed inside one. And if the originality of promenade playing is not enough to encourage you to travel to Lancaster, then the reputation of demi-paradise productions should be ... The combination of high calibre performances, skilful direction, complementary choral arrangements and a setting steeped in history is certainly a winner. No wonder tickets sell out so quickly. (Manchester Evening News) Once you've experienced the plot unravelling in genuine court-rooms, corridors and dungeons it's hard to imagine it back in a proscenium setting ... another theatrical triumph! (Blackpool Evening News)	Macbeth
What made the performance so magical were the setting and the intimacy of the experience as the barrier between cast and audience moved from narrow to non-existent ... it all gave me the feeling of being in a play within a play as if the audience was part of the performance rather than just watching it. (Morecambe Visitor) Mention must also be made of the music which punctuated the action. Entirely sung and played by the cast, it accompanied us as we moved between the different locations in the Castle, adding to and complementing the intensity of the plot, highlighting the dramatic tension and focussing the mind as it pondered the continuing struggle between good and evil ... Unusually, but marvellous to behold, the audience was mostly schoolchildren - it's not often that theatre audiences in Lancaster have an average age of under 20! And they too were spellbound; you could hear their amazement and see their absorption as the drama unfolded ... This production (Richard III) is one of the few supremely memorable events - by far - in the forty and more years I have been going to the theatre. (Virtual Lancaster)	Richard ll Measure For Measure
You are seldom likely to experience anything quite so astonishingly authentic ... it all comes close to a sensory experience. It's to be hoped demi-paradise can keep coaxing these performances out of the star of the show - the castle itself. (Lancashire Evening Post). I could go on at length about the music, admirable acting and deft direction, but whatever I say would not do it justice ... for all round magic this was unbeatable. (Lancaster Citizen) One of those theatre experiences that actually deserves the publicity line ‘not to be missed’ (North West Evening Mail) [With 'Hamlet'] ... producer Steve Tomlin has turned in his best success yet. We are so lucky here in Lancaster to have the building, the local talent and the resources to give us world-class theatre like this. (Lancaster Citizen)	Hamlet All's Well That Ends Well