Peter Kirwan
View this author's profilePosts by Peter Kirwan
The Duchess of Malfi (Stage on Screen) @ Greenwich Theatre [on DVD]
June 28, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.stageonscreen.com/the-duchess-of-malfi.php A much briefer review to accompany my earlier piece on Stage on Screen’s production of Doctor Faustus, this time of Elizabeth Freestone’s The Duchess of Malfi. Cross-cast with the same company’s Volpone, Freestone’s take on Malfi is more straightforward than either, treating the play as a chamber piece in a …
Julius Caesar (RSC/Illuminations) @ BBC4
June 25, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01k7lv5/Julius_Caesar/ I’ve not yet had a chance to see the RSC’s new production of Julius Caesar, directed by Gregory Doran and currently playing in Stratford. The concept behind the production is fascinating, if not without its problems – an all-black British cast, performing the play as set in an unnamed modern …
Doctor Faustus (Stage on Screen) @ Greenwich Theatre [on DVD]
June 24, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.stageonscreen.com/doctor-faustus.php The Stage on Screen project is a simple idea; so simple, perhaps, that one wonders why the market hasn’t already been cornered. Four productions of early canonical plays (Volpone, Dr Faustus, The Duchess of Malfi and The School for Scandal) were specially commissioned, directed by Elizabeth Freestone and performed to …
Henry V (Theatre Delicatessen) @ Marylebone Gardens
June 13, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.theatredelicatessen.co.uk/?page_id=1404 In the year of the London Olympics – and even more noticable in a week where England faced off against France in their opening match of the European Championships – it is perhaps unsurprising that the schedules are crowded with Henry V, including the productions by Propeller and the Globe …
The Bloody Banquet (Blood and Thunder Theatre Company) @ The Shakespeare Institute
June 10, 2012
Writing about web page http://bloodandthundertheatre.org.uk/#/productions/4560980158 Thomas Dekker’s The Bloody Banquet (possibly written in collaboration with Thomas Middleton) has not been performed, to my knowledge, since the seventeenth century. It was a pleasure, therefore, to be involved in a major new revival of the play in the form of a one-off staged reading in Stratford-upon-Avon, as …
The Merchant of Venice (Habima) @ Shakespeare’s Globe. Part 2: The Production
May 29, 2012
Follow-up to The Merchant of Venice (Habima) @ Shakespeare’s Globe. Part 1: Outer Frame from The Bardathon It’s impossible to divorce context from production. Immediately after Dromgoole left the stage, still being applauded for his pre-emptive shutting down of protests, the actors of Habima emerged onto the Globe stage and called for a welcome, whipping …
The Merchant of Venice (Habima) @ Shakespeare’s Globe. Part 1: Outer Frame
Reviewing an event such as this evening’s performance at the Globe of The Merchant of Venice by Habima (Israel’s national theatre) poses serious ethical questions. If the review focuses on the entire experience – the preliminaries, the tensions, the various kinds of performance taking place both outside and within the auditorium – then the production …
The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre Wallay) @ Shakespeare’s Globe
May 27, 2012
"This is a sacred space" announced Salman Shahid, introducing Theatre Wallay’s Globe to Globe production of The Taming of the Shrew. For the first time that I’ve seen in a Globe to Globe production, a member of the company came onto the stage to introduce the play and the company’s honour at being here, before …
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Two Gents Productions) @ Lakeside Arts Centre
May 25, 2012
Follow-up to Two Gentlemen of Verona; or, Vakomana Vaviri ve Zimbabwe (Two Gents Productions) @ North Wall Oxford from The Bardathon It’s been two and a half years since I last saw Two Gents Productions perform their debut show, and a lot has changed in the meantime. I won’t offer a full fresh review here …
All’s Well that Ends Well (Arpana) @ Shakespeare’s Globe
May 24, 2012
It is not unusual to note that, when adapting classical English texts that particularly deal with class systems and social hierarchies, from Shakespeare to Austen, the Indian caste system lends itself particularly well to direct translation. In Sunil Shanbab’s Globe to Globe production of All’s Well that Ends Well, the transgressive nature of Heli’s (Mansi …
Find, follow, join us
