Peter Kirwan
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Filter) @ Curve, Leicester
November 3, 2011
Writing about web page http://www.filtertheatre.com/page/Coming_Soon/ Filter’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream marks the company’s second foray into Shakespeare, following its sublime and irreverent Twelfth Night. The company specialise in a form of deconstructed theatre, treating performances as “gigs” where all the machinery of performance – instruments, sound boxes, stage management, cast – are on stage throughout, …
Hunting Folios: Eric Rasmussen’s “The Shakespeare Thefts”
October 30, 2011
Title: The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios Author: Eric Rasmussen ISBN: 0230109411 Rating: Not rated One of the relatively unknown problems in scholarly research is – what do you do with the stories? Inevitably, as we research, we turn up anecdotes, gossip, juicy titbits which are simply inappropriate to go in the …
Hamlet (Ketterer’s Men) @ The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford–upon–Avon
October 16, 2011
I’ve recently been reading Marvin Carlson’s The Haunted Stage (2001), which deals with a phenomenon in watching and making theatre that Carlson calls "ghosting". This is, effectively, the outer frame which shapes what an audience experiences in the process of attending a theatrical event, the collective resonances carried by actors, buildings, texts, scenery, everything that …
Edward II @ Manchester Royal Exchange
October 9, 2011
Writing about web page http://www.royalexchange.org.uk/event.aspx?id=435 It’s rare to see a history play specifically relocated in time. While it’s common to see a production that incorporates elements of costume and resonance drawn from across the ages, in order to suggest that the issues presented transcend their historical setting, few directors are prepared to fix a specific …
Richard II in Chicago
September 30, 2011
Writing about web page http://www.shakespeareprojectchicago.org/ If any readers are based in the Chicago area, you might like to sample the free Richard II that’s being performed at The Newberry Library, The Wilmette Public Library and the Highland Park Public Library on October 22nd and 23rd. Here’s a blurb: The Shakespeare Project of Chicago is a …
Shakespeare on Film: An Encyclopedia by Marcus Pitcaithly
September 25, 2011
Writing about web page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Film-Encyclopedia-Marcus-Pitcaithly/dp/0955686423/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1316959824&sr=8-3 In a year when Shakespearean film is very much back in the mainstream, Marcus Pitcaithly’s new volume, Shakespeare on Film: An Encyclopedia is especially timely. Pitcaithly’s assiduous volume is the most comprehensive survey of Shakespearean film yet undertaken. Running from Beerbohm Tree’s 1889 King John to Marianne Elliott’s 2009 All’s …
Othello (Sheffield Theatres) @ The Crucible
Writing about web page http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=whatson.production&ProductionID=1152 I’m not usually an advocate of celebrity casting. I didn’t see any of the star-name Shakespeares of the summer: Kevin Spacey in Richard III, Ralph Fiennes in The Tempest, or David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado about Nothing. However, I’m too big a fan of The Wire to …
The Tempest (Antic Disposition) @ Middle Temple Hall
September 3, 2011
Writing about web page http://www.anticdisposition.co.uk/productions/tempest/thetempest.htm I submitted my PhD on Wednesday after a very intense period of having my head down, during which I’ve not been looking ahead and organising theatre visits or review tickets. It was a delight, therefore, to have the chance to attend Antic Disposition’s current production of The Tempest during a …
A Woman Killed with Kindness (National) @ The Lyttleton Theatre
August 23, 2011
The safety curtain went up on my first-ever Heywood production on Saturday, and for the first time in many years I was dumbstruck by the beauty of a set. Lizzie Clachan and Vicki Mortimer had created two Edwardian houses, connecting imperfectly in the centre, realised in lavish detail. In the Frankfords’ house, a large balcony …
The Summoning of Everyman (Shakespeare Institute Players) @ Holy Trinity Church
August 20, 2011
Everyman is a genuinely powerful text. Whether you’re religious or not, this anonymous medieval morality play gets to the absolute nub of the big questions. What can we take with us? What is the point of life? And at the end of it all, are we ultimately alone? The Shakespeare Institute Players made a virtue …
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