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 …
Now: In The Wings on a World Stage @ The Broadway, Nottingham
June 9, 2014
Almost twenty years after Al Pacino had the odd idea of making a documentary about rehearsing a production of Richard III that never actually happened, and releasing Looking for Richard in cinemas, comes the second film about the processes and personalities behind a version of the play. Now follows an actual production, the Bridge Project’s …
The Duchess of Malfi (Shakespeare’s Globe) @ BBC4
May 25, 2014
In a new age of broadcast theatre where the prices for NT Live and Live from Stratford screenings are creeping up (and where the Globe’s own DVDs are still shockingly expensive), it is refreshing and welcome to see The Globe broadcasting its major production of The Duchess of Malfi for free on BBC4. This is, …
Richard III (Silents Now) @ York Theatre Royal
November 27, 2013
Regular readers may be interested to know that I manage the Twitter hashtag #shaxfilm, an open online extension of my third year specialist module on Screen Shakespeares. The first film we study on this module is Frank Benson’s 1911 Richard III, filmed at the (then) Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with a fixed camera, preserving …
Dido, Queen of Carthage (Edward’s Boys) @ Christ Church Banqueting Hall, Oxford
September 22, 2013
If Gager’s Dido was accompanied by roast belly of pork and a house red, it seemed appropriate that Marlowe’s more playful take on the Dido story was served up alongside a posh version of cream and jelly. Perry Mills took on an intimidatingly huge room with a production that refused to shy away from the …
Dido (EDOX) @ Christ Church Banqueting Hall, Oxford
On June 12th 1583, William Gager’s Latin play Dido was performed in the main banqueting hall of Christ Church College in honour of the Polish ambassador. On September 21st 2013, the play was once more performed in the same venue, again with the Polish (deputy) ambassador in attendance, in a new English translation by Elizabeth Sandis. …
Midsummer Night’s Dreaming (RSC/Google+)
June 22, 2013
Saturday 21:42 Over the Midsummer weekend, the RSC is putting on its fortieth production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with a difference. In the latest of a series of big-money partnerships (following last year’s partnership with BP on the Shipwreck season), the company is putting on the play via Google, Twitter and live performances in …
The Dutch Courtesan (DTFTV) @ The Scenic Stage Theatre, University of York
The big renaissance drama production at the University of York has become something of a calendar event, as picked up on by Pascale Aebischer in her new book, Screening Early Modern Drama, which points out that Michael Cordner’s rotating company of students is one of the very few providing full filmed stage productions of non-Shakespearean …
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (Read Not Dead) @ Shakespeare’s Globe, Park Street Rehearsal Room
June 9, 2013
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay is, arguably, the finest work by the much maligned Robert Greene, a historical romance in the vein of Fair Em and a fine example of the late sixteenth century stable of university conjurer dramas that also produced Doctor Faustus. It no doubt presented Read not Dead first-time director David Oakes …
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