Peter Kirwan
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Romeo and Juliet (American Shakespeare Center) @ The Blackfriars Playhouse
February 27, 2022
This review is of a preview production, and may not reflect the production as of press night. In January 2022, Brandon Carter became the third artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center, and the first to be a core part of the acting company. As such, while he has already carried several major roles (including a …
Hamlet (Guildford Shakespeare Company) @ Holy Trinity Church, Guildford
February 9, 2022
This review is of a preview, after press night was delayed. A week or so ago, The Stage awarded its ‘Unsung Heroes’ honour to all understudies, in recognition of a year that has not only seen planned understudies and swings working overtime to keep productions going as casts have fallen prey to COVID, but even …
The Tragedy of Macbeth (dir. Joel Coen, A24 Films)
December 30, 2021
Films of Macbeth have a fraught relationship with space. It’s a play whose own spaces – psychic, architectural, geographic, emotional, supernatural – are particularly fluid, and whose tautness paradoxically combines abstraction with the impression of nuanced interiority. To capture the play’s juxtapositions within the conventions of mainstream screen naturalism isn’t an easy task, and thus …
Macbeth @ The Almeida (live stream)
October 27, 2021
As chamber-piece Macbeths go, perhaps the most iconic remains Trevor Nunn’s RSC production at The Other Place, filmed for television in one of the starkest, barest of all Shakespeare films. The Almeida’s new production, directed by Yaël Farber, aimed at times for a similar effect, with the production’s live broadcast director translating the intimacy of the …
Hamlet @ The Young Vic
October 25, 2021
Over the pandemic, most of us have had to get used to being apart from one another. I may be speaking for myself, but it’s been exhausting (if rewarding) to re-learn how to socialise, how to physically interact with others. Negotiating awkwardness and new boundaries is part of this, as well as remembering the social …
The Comedy of Errors (RSC) @ The Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre
August 19, 2021
‘Capitalism!’ crooned the four-strong Chorus who provided an acapella doo-wop score for Phillip Breen’s Comedy of Errors. Errors isn’t a play which demands a subtle approach, and the singers identifying the core interpretive ethos of this production offered a nice punchline, as on-the-nose as the punches that repeatedly landed on both Dromios’ faces. In a …
Romeo & Juliet @ Shakespeare’s Globe (livestream)
August 8, 2021
If there’s a play that can benefit from some shaking up, it’s Romeo and Juliet. During the pre-performance materials, members of the cast and crew of the Globe’s current production spoke of challenging the idea that the play is a love story. But cultural understandings of Romeo and Juliet are deeply ingrained, and the play’s …
As You Like It (dir. Hannes Rall)
August 6, 2021
Hannes Rall’s animated film of As You Like It, created in collaboration with the Shakespeare Institute, draws on a range of influences from South East Asia to offer a short retelling that would fit neatly alongside the classic S4C Animated Tales. In just 26 minutes, the film covers a surprising amount of ground from the play, with a …
Henry V (RSC/Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre) @ Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre
The RSC’s Folio Translation Project, designed to create new Chinese-language translations of the canon, began in 2016 with Owen Horsley’s production of So Kwok Wan’s translation of Henry V. Made available to delegates at the World Shakespeare Congress, the film of the production captures a lean, contemporary take on the play that is unmistakably RSC in its aesthetic (dark …
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