Ellen Terry’s Very ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ @ Queen’s University Belfast
June 17, 2018
The most delightful part of academic conferences is always* the moment when academics get up to put on their own play. Liz Schafer’s contribution to the (now annual) British Shakespeare Association conference was her adaptation of Ellen Terry’s three-scene cut of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Terry’s playlet was a self-created vehicle for her own …
Richard II (Rutgers Conservatory) @ Shakespeare’s Globe
February 17, 2018
The Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe is an extraordinary opportunity for its participants. Transferring to London from Rutgers University for two terms of their third year, students on the University’s theatre programme take an intensive training course with scholars and practitioners at the Globe, culminating in two public performances on the Globe stage. Richard II …
Mucedorus (Read not Dead) @ The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe
July 17, 2017
Read Not Dead is currently in the grip of the Before Shakespeare project, offering a series of readings curated to show off some of the finest, genre-bending plays of the late sixteenth century. Mucedorus followed The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune and Fidele and Fortunio, and I was delighted to join the Before Shakespeare …
Pericles (University College Cork/LittleShoes Productions) @ The Unitarian Church, Cork
November 20, 2016
I spent the first half of last week in Cork for the event ‘Celebrating Shakespeare 400: Performing Pericles, Prince of Tyre’. Part of the extensive Irish Shakespeare festival commemorating the 400 years since Shakespeare’s death, this event was billed as offering what appears to be only the second ever performance of Pericles in Ireland, coupled …
Measure for Measure (Cheek by Jowl) @ The Barbican – live stream
April 22, 2015
I have already written two reviews of Cheek by Jowl’s Measure for Measure (here and here), but tonight I had an opportunity to see it again, this time in the company’s first ever live broadcast. Firstly, it’s an extraordinary offering. A prestigious production being broadcast internationally for free online is a bold statement, and canny. …
The Troublesome Reign of King John (Shakespeare’s Globe / Read not Dead) @ Inner Temple
March 2, 2015
At a hair under four hours (including stalling around the interval), the Globe’s Read not Dead reading of The Troublesome Reign of King John was one of the costliest productions I’ve been to for a long time, causing me to miss my carefully planned coach home from London and buy a new train ticket for …
Propelling Edward III (Propeller) @ Wimbledon College of Arts
February 4, 2015
I was privileged this weekend to take part in an experimental two-day event at Wimbledon College of Arts with Propeller, a company on whom I’ve been working for some time (as well as providing talks for at Nottingham Theatre Royal). The event was designed as a collaborative venture between practice and research as part of …
A Christian Turn’d Turk (Read Not Dead) @ The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
October 6, 2014
Back in May, four teams of paired scholars and directors took the stage at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to pitch for the return of a classic Read Not Dead production. We could have had Middleton’s Your Five Gallants. We could have had Lyly’s Sappho and Phao (though perhaps Lyly needs have been better met recently …
In the Footsteps of Hamlet @ Kronborg Slot, Helsingor, Denmark
September 2, 2014
Heaven forfend that I should go on holiday without having some light Shakespeare connection. However, even a normal person visiting Denmark would be the poorer for skipping Kronborg Slot in Helsingor – the Elsinore of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It’s a stunning, beautifully situated castle, its cannons facing Sweden across the narrowest part of the straits dividing …
Midsummer Mischief (Royal Shakespeare Company) @ The Other Place at the Courtyard Theatre
June 29, 2014
At one point during a day of events forming the RSC’s Midsummer Mischief festival of new writing and vocal women, festival coordinator and RSC Deputy Artistic Director Erica Whyman expressed her frustration that professional critics have so far focused almost entirely on the wonderful strangeness – even the victory – of having a whole season …
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