Romeo and Juliet (Headlong Theatre) @ Nottingham Playhouse
March 15, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.headlongtheatre.co.uk/productions/production_details.php?Title=Romeo_and_Juliet_&production_id=29 Robert Icke, director of Headlong Theatre’s new touring Romeo and Juliet, has clearly been taking notes from company director Rupert Goold. As with the last Headlong show I experienced, King Lear, everything up to and including the kitchen sink (in this case, an open air ice-cream stall) had been thrown …
The Taming of the Shrew (RSC) @ Nottingham Theatre Royal
March 14, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/the-taming-of-the-shrew/ The Taming of the Shrew carries a great deal of baggage with it. The gender politics that are inevitably foregrounded in production (is this inevitable? Are there other issues that are being obscured?) are read through the identity of the director, through our own filters of acceptable behaviour, and through …
Digital Programmes – The Comedy of Errors (NT Live)
March 11, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=49018&utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NTLiveNewsletter080312-Tess&sSourceCode=5371 When I attended the live screening of The Comedy of Errors last week, I was disappointed to find that only free cast lists were available in the foyer – there was not the opportunity to buy a physical programme, as available in the theatre. However, I realised yesterday that the …
Twelfth Night (RSC) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Writing about web page http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/twelfth-night/ The RSC’s first salvo in the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival is a major new trilogy of plays on the theme of shipwrecks, all performed by one company of actors. The absence of Pericles is a mystery (actually, it’s not a mystery at all – it’s not a play that sells …
King Lear (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory) @ The Tobacco Factory, Bristol
March 4, 2012
Writing about web page http://sattf.org.uk/currentfutureproductions/kinglear2012.html With only one Shakespeare play in this year’s Tobacco Factory season (the company are putting on The Cherry Orchard in place of a second), SATTF director Andrew Hilton has chosen to go back to the play that launched the company twelve years ago. Continuing the work of last year’s similarly …
The Comedy of Errors (NT Live) @ The Broadway, Nottingham
March 1, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/67933/productions/the-comedy-of-errors.html The NT Live juggernaut rolls on. Now well-established as a theatrical/cinematic event, it was a pleasure to see the enormous Screen 1 of Nottingham’s Broadway cinema packed out with a lively audience for the latest offering, a broadcast of Dominic Cooke’s hugely successful The Comedy of Errors, which I missed …
Much Ado about Nothing (Demi–Paradise Productions) @ Lancaster Castle
February 26, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.demiparadiseproductions.co.uk/index.html Location can be a blessing or a curse for a production. Site-specific theatre is one thing, where the play is written or adapted specifically for the area in which it will be realised; but Shakespeare transplanted into grand locations can run the risk of not mapping consistently onto its surroundings, …
Coriolanus: The Shooting Script
February 19, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coriolanus-Shooting-Script-Newmarket/dp/006220257X I’ve just been sent a copy of Coriolanus: The Shooting Script by the good folks at Harper Collins. This is part of an ongoing series of carefully packaged and attractive scripts, offering the film text along with insights from the filmmakers, and it’s a fascinating read after seeing the film. …
Measure for Measure (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre, Stratford
February 17, 2012
Onto a bare stage strode Raymond Coulthard’s Duke. Smiling to the audience, he raised his arms and, with commanding gestures, caused the house lights to be brought down, the music to stop and the on-stage lamps to illuminate. From its very beginning, Roxana Silbert’s new production of Measure for Measure established the Duke’s absolute control …
Stephen Fry
February 16, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17055214 Stephen Fry playing Malvolio at Shakespeare’s Globe? In an original practices production opposite Mark Rylance? This could genuinely be one of the most exciting theatrical events in some time; not necesarily because Fry will be good (we hope), but because the imposition of a widely-loved celebrity into an OP production …
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