Peter Kirwan
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The Tempest (RSC) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre
August 11, 2006
Last night’s show was ‘The Tempest’ at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the third and final play performed by the company of ‘Antony & Cleopatra’ and ‘Julius Caesar’. The big draw tonight was, of course, Patrick Stewart as Prospero, but aside from that it’s the first of the romances to be shown as a full production …
Henry VI Trilogy (RSC) @ The Courtyard Theatre
August 10, 2006
Wow! Yesterday was another big ‘event’ day- the entire Henry VI trilogy in one day, starting at 10.30 in the monring and finishing just after 11 at night. And it was spectacular. I’m seeing the plays again, so I’ll save the detailed comment til then- here I just want to say a bit about the …
Edward III and Sir Thomas More
July 31, 2006
There’s one thing about the Complete Works that disappoints me a bit, and that’s the lack of two plays: ‘Sir Thomas More’ and ‘Edward III‘. Who? Well, they’re part of what some people call Shakespeare’s ‘apocrypha’, the plays which there’s still debate about whether he actually wrote or not. There are several plays which people …
A nice link
July 27, 2006
One more thought from yesterday’s ‘1 Henry VI’ There was one point when the elderly Mortimer was reminiscing with Richard of York, and telling him about the old days when the Percys took up arms in his cause and tried to put him on the throne. What made this a really nice moment for me …
Henry VI Part I (RSC) @ The Courtyard Theatre
July 26, 2006
Tonight was my first visit to the new temporary theatre, the Courtyard, so was always going to be a slightly special occasion! The new theatre is really nice, and still smelled of varnish and new wood when I first went into it tonight. The double bar area is a genius idea that really cut down …
Twelfth Night (Cheek by Jowl) @ Warwick Arts Centre
July 25, 2006
MAY 30TH 2006 (backdated) The first and only disappointing thing about this performance was the relatively small audience. Unfortunately, the Arts Centre is on a University campus which was right in the middle of exam period, and the fact that the play was in Russian probably put quite a few people off as well. The …
Public Spaces And Private Places @ The Shakespeare Centre
MAY 24TH 2006 (backdated) I’m writing this blog in part for the CAPITAL Centre, a collaboration between the University of Warwick and the RSC. CAPITAL, and the RSC‘s Education department, are putting on over the course of the year a short series called ‘Slants On Shakespeare’, which are getting academics and practitioners together in the …
Theatre etiquette– is it rude to read?
MAY 22ND 2006 (backdated) One thing I’d like to quickly talk about is my bewilderment at some people’s attitude to theatre–going. Specifically, why go to see a play if you’re not going to watch it? This was prompted by yesterday’s performance, where one chap– sat in the best seats in the house, I should add– …
The Two Noble Kinsmen (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
MAY 21ST 2006 (backdated) I had to get a lift into Stratford and queue for day tickets for this one, the first real ‘event’ piece of the Festival. The RSC Touring Company, currently travelling with Greg Doran’s production of ‘The Canterbury Tales’, stopped off for one afternoon in Stratford to do this, a special event …
Much Ado About Nothing (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
MAY 16TH 2006 (backdated) ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ isn’t a play I know particularly well- I’d only seen one student production of it which was fairly good, but certainly hadn’t blown me away. So, I wasn’t expecting great things from the RSC’s new production of it, and I didn’t know any of director Marianne Elliott’s …