// Archives

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 …

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 …

Stephen Fry

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 …

Another sellout

Sold out already! Have to say, this wasn’t one I was overly excited about (my gut tells me it’ll be deeply conservative, light entertainment, though I honestly hope I’m wrong), but the British ticket-buying public have made the decision for me…. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare COTTESLOE THEATRE   PLEASE NOTE: This production is now …

Twelfth Night (National Theatre Primary Classics) @ Warwick Arts Centre

Writing about web page http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/39017/primary-classics/primary-classics.html The Primary Classics series is an important part of the National Theatre’s youth work. You can argue till you’re blue in the face about the politics of canon, the centrality of Shakespeare as a "necessary" component of primary education, and whether there aren’t a great many more worthwhile theatrical projects …

Three Sisters (Filter) @ Warwick Arts Centre

While I’m not going to give a review of this excellent production (go see it), as it’s outside the remit of this blog, I do just have to flag up an in-joke that had me in hysterics. As the travelling players arrived at the sisters’ house, only to be turned away, they could be heard …

Twelfth Night (RSC) @ The Courtyard Theatre

Writing about web page http://www.rsc.org.uk/whatson/8209.aspx Here’s an interesting question. If one is updating the setting of a Shakespeare play, but needs to incorporate a vast amount of explanatory material in the production’s programme and on its website, are the resonances of the updated setting not then too obscure to hold any meaning for its audience? …

Twelfth Night (Donmar) @ The Wyndham’s Theatre

Writing about web page http://www.donmarwestend.com/twelfth_night/ Michael Grandage’s first Shakespeare for the Donmar’s current West End residency opened, quite literally, with a bang, a mighty crash of thunder and lightning. This call to attention opened an efficient and excellently-performed Twelfth Night that was unashamedly traditional in its desire to please and entertain. An unfussy set saw the …

Twelfth Night vs. National Rail

Right now, at the time of writing, I should be fifty minutes into the Donmar Warehouse’s acclaimed new production of Twelfth Night, watching Derek Jacobi, Ron Cook et al. put my favourite comedy through its paces. However, I’m instead in my study. Why? RAIN! That’s right, yet again Britain is taken completely by surprise when …

Twelfth Night (Filter) @ The Courtyard Theatre

Writing about web page http://www.filtertheatre.com/ As part of the original Complete Works ‘Bardathon’, I was one of the few people lucky enough to catch the earliest days of Filter Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night, when it was still just a work-in-progress being tested out in the tiny Cube space. The finished version has been touring …