Hamlet (National) @ The Olivier Theatre
October 27, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/59866/productions/hamlet.html A lady sitting next to me at yesterday’s matinee commented how nice a change it made to have someone relatively unknown playing Hamlet. Certainly, Rory Kinnear hasn’t made the same mass-media impact yet as David Tennant or Jude Law, but he’s been working his way up, giving stunning performances in …
Prince of Denmark (National) @ The Cottesloe Theatre
Writing about web page http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/59868/productions/discover-prince-of-denmark.html As a prelude to the afternoon’s Hamlet in the Olivier, I managed to catch one of the final performances of Michael Lesslie’s new play Prince of Denmark, part of the NT’s "discover:" programme. Aimed at teenagers, the production’s purpose was to provide a bridge for young people coming to the …
Double Falsehood @ Nottingham Playhouse
October 12, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/whats-on/misc/double-falsehood/ To call this "The First Public Reading" of Double Falsehood, as the website promises, wasn’t entirely accurate (see the KDC production and our own modest, but still public, reading at Warwick), but this was at least the first public reading of the play, since the publication of Brean Hammond’s excellent …
Doctor Faustus @ Manchester Royal Exchange
October 3, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.royalexchangetheatre.org.uk/event.aspx?id=331 Sitting in the gods at Manchester Royal Exchange provided the perfect perspective for a review of Marlowe’s Faustus. The circular in-the-round stage, engraved with constellations and symbols, became a giant magic circle within which the play’s action took place; and it was to us, gazing from above, that Patrick O’Kane …
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore @ Liverpool Everyman
October 2, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.everymanplayhouse.com/show/Tis_Pity_Shes_A_Whore/215.aspx An initial glance through the cast list of Chris Meade’s new ‘Tis Pity at the Liverpool Everyman betrayed from the start that this was a severely pared-down affair. Donado, Grimaldi, Bergetto, Poggio, Richardetto and Philotis were all cut, along with their subplots. What remained was a tightly-focussed domestic drama, drawing …
The Tragedy of Hoffman @ Magdalen College, Oxford
September 26, 2010
Writing about Hoffman Symposium, Magdalen College, Oxford from The Shakespeare apocrypha Seeing a rehearsed reading mounted by an academic society for an academic conference allows for some bizarre moments. One image from Elisabeth Dutton’s The Tragedy of Hoffman will stay with me for a long time, as it featured some of the academics whose work …
The Spanish Tragedy (Planet Theatre Productions) @ The Rose, Bankside
September 11, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.planettheatreproductions.co.uk/ Or perhaps that should be The Spanish Comedy; for Adrian Brown’s new production of Kyd’s epochal play understood the play primarily through burlesque. To render Elizabethan revenge tragedies disproportionately comic is, of course, a standard modern strategy, often used to great effect in productions of Titus Andronicus and even Hamlet, …
Hamlet (RSC Young People’s Shakespeare) @ The Courtyard Theatre
August 27, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/hamlet-yps/ In many ways, this was my ideal Hamlet. Performed on the RSC’s main stage by the current ensemble, yet only costing a tenner and lasting an hour and ten minutes flat, there’s something wonderful about seeing a Hamlet after lunch and still being able to get home in time for …
As You Like It (Bridge Project) @ The Old Vic
August 18, 2010
The Bridge Project, the transatlantic theatre tour directed by Sam Mendes, is now in its second year, and this year’s pairing brought As You Like It and The Tempest to the Old Vic. Unlike last year’s Winter’s Tale, where accents were used to distinguish between the characters of Sicily and Bohemia, here the English and …
Double Falsehood (KDC) @ The Union Theatre
While the claims of KDC to be presenting the 21st century premiere of Double Falsehood are at best questionable (a more accurate claim would be "the 21st century premiere of a play calling itself Double Falsehood"), the long-established London amateur company certainly offered a significant event in the public performance of this long-neglected play. Riding …
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