// Latest Posts

The Bloody Banquet

I feel I should probably confess now that I’ll be making a rare journey to the other side of the footlights next month. I’ll be performing a couple of minor roles in Blood and Thunder Theatre Company’s production of Dekker and Middleton’s The Bloody Banquet. Thoroughly looking forward to this – there’s a great cast …

Henry V (Propeller) @ The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry

Writing about web page http://propeller.org.uk/current-productions/henry-v-and-the-winters-tale Propeller’s ability to create community remains unsurpassed. Raising money for charity during the interval of last night’s Henry V, their rousing rendition of "The Wild Rover" was bolstered by a good hundred audience members, gathered in a cramped foyer space around a couple of acoustic instruments. The camaraderie between audience …

The Winter’s Tale (Propeller) @ The Belgrade, Coventry

Follow-up to The Winter’s Tale (Propeller) @ Sheffield Lyceum from The Bardathon A second visit last night to Propeller’s The Winter’s Tale, now in Coventry, both affirmed and complicated the thoughts in my original review of the Sheffield performance. Once more, the play combined some truly superlative performances with a joyous depiction of Bohemia. Thanks …

Radio Shakespeare: Twelfth Night (BBC Drama on 3)

Writing about web page http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g4vv1 I listened last night to the BBC’s new radio production of Twelfth Night, starring David Tennant, Ron Cook, Naomi Frederick and a host of other fantastic actors. I’m not going to offer a review, as I can’t claim to particularly like or enjoy radio drama. It did, however, force me …

Britgrad 2012

Writing about web page http://www.britgrad.wordpress.com I don’t normally repost non-performance related material up here, but I’m always happy to make an exception in the case of Britgrad, the annual postgraduate Shakespeare conference at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, which has been a very good friend to me over the last five years. I’m now ineligible …

U–Venas no Adonisi (Venus and Adonis) (Isango Ensemble) @ Shakespeare’s Globe

Writing about web page http://www.isangoensemble.org/#!future-productions The tagline for the ‘Globe to Globe’ Festival reads “37 Plays, 37 Languages”; a tagline which excludes the Isango Ensemble’s U-Venas no Adonisi, the thirty-eighth ‘play’ (a dramatised version of Shakespeare’s poem) spoken in not one but six different languages: IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, SeSotho, Setswana, Afrikaans and South African English. This …

The Alchemist (Let Them Call it Mischief) @ The White Bear, London

Writing about web page http://www.ideastap.com/Groups/Group/feace54c-ca91-4fc4-97c7-9e7100bdcbdf#Overview As previously noted, despite the fact I teach the specialist Jonson module at Nottingham, I’ve never yet seen any of his plays in performance. Happily, the ongoing mission of London’s White Bear Theatre pub to promote the wider early modern canon couldn’t avoid Jonson for too long, and last night …

A King and No King (Willing Suspension) @ Boston University Student Theatre

The annual Shakespeare Association of America conference is in Boston this year, a city I’ve never been to but which is thoroughly stunning, and a great backdrop to some very stimulating papers. Being in Boston also gave me the opportunity to see in person the Boston University students of Willing Suspension, a young theatre company …

World Shakespeare Festival

Work commitments and money restrictions are forcing me to be very conservative when it comes to this year’s World Shakespeare Festival, but I’m pleased that I’ve finally now got a few tickets booked and looking forward to being there for at least some of the Festival! So far I’m booked for the Globe to Globe …

The Alchemist at the White Bear Theatre Pub

Having been teaching Jonson this semester, but never actually having seen a production of one of his plays live, I’m excited to see that a new company, Let Them Call it Mischief, are opening a new production of The Alchemist next week at the White Bear Theatre Pub. I’ll be there.