The Bardathon has moved!
August 27, 2022
In my biggest life-change to date, I’ve recently emigrated from the UK to the little town of Staunton, Virginia. After eleven happy years at the University of Nottingham, I’m thrilled to be joining the Shakespeare & Performance program at Mary Baldwin University, where I’ll be working with MLitt and MFA students, and be privileged to …
Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre) @ The Dorfman, London (via Drama Online)
February 19, 2021
The National Theatre’s schools’ productions have developed in enormous sophistication over the last couple of decades, and it’s testament to their success as creative works in their own right that, not only are they getting runs at the National’s south bank base, but that two of them (Romeo and Juliet and The Winter’s Tale, which …
As You Like It (CtrlAltRepeat) @ YouTube
May 24, 2020
‘I like this place / And willingly could waste my time in it.’ Celia’s line in As You Like It rings interestingly in the middle of a pandemic, a momentary suggestion of peace and satisfaction in the idea of wasting time. Time is a luxury, even a superfluity, when so many in the theatre industry …
Smock Alley Theatre, 1662, Dublin
August 21, 2013
Unbelievably, people forgot that Smock Alley Theatre was there. One of the three theatres (and the only one outside of London) given royal warrant after the restoration of Charles II, Smock Alley is one of the most important theatres in Western Europe. Modelled on the new style theatres in the French tradition, it ran continuously …
The Taming of the Shrew (Propeller) @ Theatre Royal, Nottingham
June 1, 2013
I first saw Propeller in November 2006, when they contributed their Taming of the Shrew to the RSC’s Complete Works Festival in Stratford, which made this the most delayed return visit to a production I’ve ever had. Almost seven years later and with an almost entirely new cast, Propeller’s provocative and disquieting Shrew had lost …
Much Ado About Nothing (dir. Joss Whedon) @ Shakespeare Association of America conference, Toronto
March 30, 2013
Joss Whedon introduced a special advance preview screening of his new movie of Much Ado about Nothing last night (alas, via pre-recorded video) with a tribute to the teachers and professors who had instilled him with a love of Shakespeare. In allowing the Shakespeare Association of America annual conference in Toronto to get an early …
Soliman and Perseda @ The Rose Theatre Bankside
May 2, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.solimanandperseda.com/ The Rose Theatre in Bankside is a very different enterprise to its big brother around the corner, Shakespeare’s Globe. Where the reconstructed Globe presents "living history", a modern reimagining of a Shakespearean theatre, the exposed archaeological remains of the Rose provide a very different kind of experience. In a low-roofed …
Comparisons
June 17, 2009
We’re nearing the halfway point of 2009, and by my reckoning I’ve seen about 18 Shakespeare productions so far this year. Interestingly, though, among those eighteen there has been quite a lot of repetition: three As You Like Its, two Othellos, two Caesars and two Winter’s Tales, for example. I’ve been trying to review the …
Regional Schools Celebration @ The Courtyard Theatre
July 3, 2008
On Monday, the Courtyard Theatre hosted the Regional Schools Celebration, a culmination of sorts of the first phase of the RSC’s Stand Up for Shakespeare campaign. Featuring a full programme of nine 25 minute playlets by school groups ranging from primary to 6th form, interspersed with awards ceremonies and talking heads, the event was a large-scale public …
Try something new this year
May 9, 2006
I really hope the ‘Stratford Crowd’ are going to try and see some new things this year. An odd comment? Well, it doesn’t seem so when I compare sold–out performances for the entire run of the excellent but traditional RSC production of ‘Antony & Cleopatra’ compared to half–empty houses for a mere four performances of …
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