Canal Street Online Manchester

Rough Crossing at The Lowry

Rough Crossing at The Lowry

Rough Crossing

Entering the auditorium, you cannot miss the SS Italian Castle. She dominates the stage – an impressive design by Colin Richmond. The ship is headed for New York, amongst its passengers two successful Hungarian playwrights Sandor Turai and Alex Gal rehearsing their latest show - The Cruise of the Dodo - before their opening night in the Big Apple. Rough Crossing is Tom Stoppard’s 1984 comedy wherein an overheard confession leads to a confusion of assumption.

It is unclear at first exactly who is who and why they are on the ship, a fact not missed by Stoppard, as 15 minutes in he mentions exactly that scenario and introduces ship steward Dvornichek to fast track through a full history synopsis. Charlie Stemp is excellent as Dvornichek. His impeccable comedic timing and cheeky smile light up the stage. Matthew Cottle offers a natural, solid performance as Gal providing a much needed balance against Partridge as Turai, who oddly spends the evening shouting every line and never goes below a level of ouch. The production looks impressive, but so did the Titanic; a fan of Stoppard, I left disappointed.

A rough crossing indeed.

Garry Thomas-Lowde for Canal St Online

Lyric Theatre, Lowry: Feb 18th – 23rd 2019

Tix here

Published: 19-Feb-2019 (5282)

Canal-st.co.uk Top Stories

LGBT Walking tours of Manchester

LGBT Walking tours of Manchester

Explore Manchester’s world-famous Gay Village with Josh’s LGBT+ Manchester Walking Tour!

Feedback from the Village Action Forum

Feedback from the Village Action Forum

Members of various stakeholder parties met again recently and here is what resulted moving forward

Pride events and dates for 2024

Pride events and dates for 2024

Save The Date: Greater Manchester Pride Events for 2024

All Wmn 24 launched

All Wmn 24 launched

We share the news of a new community event bringing Women together through live music