April 30, 2009, by Peter Kirwan
Coming up
I’ve had a couple of quiet theatregoing weeks, but it all kicks off again tonight. First, to Warwick Arts Centre for WUDS’ new production of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. I’ve read the play, but never seen any Ford live, so very much looking forward to this.
Tomorrow it’s a double bill – an academic student project first, with The Tempest set on an oil-rig, and then the RSC’s new Winter’s Tale in the evening.
Coming up in the next few weeks: Cheek by Jowl’s Andromaque at WAC, the Globe’s Romeo, the RSC As You Like It, a student Dream, and then a particularly busy single week into which I’m squeezing the Globe’s As You Like It, the National’s All’s Well, the RSC’s Caesar and the Old Vic’s Winter’s Tale. Finally, I’ll be wrapping up the academic year with the broadcast version of the National’s Phedre, with the RSC Errors and Donmar Hamlet to look forward to before my summer hols.
There’s still more to book, too. In particular, I don’t know where or when I’m going to catch the Globe’s two touring productions, though I hope to see both. There’s the Globe’s Troilus to book for (something tells me there’ll be no urgency on advance bookings for that one), and I haven’t decided yet if I’ll return to Love’s Labour’s. The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is only doing one ‘adult’ Shakespeare this year, Much Ado, with a kiddy Tempest also in rep. There are a few small-scale things as well, but hopefully that’ll be mostly it for the summer, which will allow me to catch up on all the journal reviews I’ve agreed to write. Oh, and write my thesis.
That’s a great to-do list. I’m kicking myself because I wish I’d found out about the forthcoming Middle Temple Hall production of MND earlier. Now it seems only the £900 donation packages are available. It would have been nice to have seen the play with Mendelssohn’s incidental music:
http://www.templemusic.org/events
Fortunately it’s being recorded for broadcast on Radio 3 on 10 May. According to the BBC publicity material “The production can be viewed in full on the Radio 3 website and by pressing the Red Button from any BBC television channel.” This seems to suggest they are recording vision as well as sound.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/radio/2009/wk19/sun.shtml#sun_radio3 <—scroll down for MND info
I’d have possibly been a bit more excited if my only experience of Tim Carroll’s productions hadn’t been his RSC Merchant last year. Shudder. Mind you, he directed the famous Globe Twelfth Night at Middle Temple, and it would have been really interested to see him back doing stuff closer to original practices.
Did you see the RSC/Sinfonia Dream a few years ago? That did a similar thing, with a full orchestra playing Mendelssohn’s entire suite and RSC actors piecing out the plot. I remember enjoying it immensely…
I’ve never seen Shakespeare set to orchestral music. That’s why I’m kicking myself over this one. If my premium bonds have come up today I might blow the winnings on one of their overpriced seat packages.
The production at the Middle Temple Hall is available to view online until the end of the year:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/composers/mendelssohn/dream.shtml
Next year’s Bridge Project at the Old Vic will pair The Three Sisters and As You Like It http://tinyurl.com/q6rcts