Days of Significance (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
January 21, 2007
Welcome to 2007! We’re in the final stretch of the Complete Works now, down to the last twelve productions, plus a few repeat viewings. Still a little way to go before I break out the champagne though….. Yesterday’s production was the fourth of the main response plays, a major new commission by Roy Williams called …
Much Ado About Nothing (RSC) @ The Novello Theatre
December 23, 2006
The RSC’s London Season this year sees the three biggest hits of the first half of the festival- ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ and ‘The Tempest’ coming to the West End. Being the RSC hack I am, and also more seriously out of a desire to see a) how the plays have developed …
Merry Wives: The Musical (RSC) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre
December 21, 2006
Yes boys and girls, it’s that time of year- it’s the Big Christmas Musical! While part of me was really looking forward to this evening- a Gregory Doran production, the star power of Simon Callow, Judi Dench and Alistair McGowan and the promise of a new take on what is probably my least favourite comedy- …
The Winter’s Tale (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
December 14, 2006
It was a mistake on my part to see ‘Pericles’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale’ on consecutive nights, when I had a full day of work in between the two. By this evening I was very tired, and not looking forward to spending another three hours standing up. It says something then, that this production kept …
Pericles (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who’s seen ‘Pericles’. It’s debatable, to be honest, whether I know anyone who’s even read it, it only surviving in severely corrupt or conjecturally reconstructed texts. It’s not a play which people seem to know much about (“It’s a Roman one, innit?”) and the theatre tonight, while bustling …
West Side Story (Stratford Operatic Society) @ The Courtyard Theatre
December 3, 2006
I haven’t had anything to update for a while- after the manic patches of the Autumn, there are far fewer plays on at the moment! Next week I’m seeing The Winter’s Tale and Pericles, and after that it’s Merry Wives: The Musical. I did, however, make one trip to Stratford this week, to see the …
Richard II (Berliner Ensemble) @ The Courtyard Theatre
November 19, 2006
Perhaps this shouldn’t have come as a surprise, considering the reception of the stark German-language production of ‘Othello’ at the start of the Festival, but I was very disappointed to enter the Courtyard last night and see so many empty seats. Despite just four performances, and despite the rearrangement of the theatre into an apron …
King Lear (Yellow Earth) @ The Cube
November 17, 2006
The final production of the month-long Cube season was the first of this year’s two ‘King Lear’s. Hi-tec and set in the near future (2020), this production translated Lear’s kingdom to the global business world, with Lear as a Shanghai CEO passing on the reins of the company to his three daughters. A collaboration between …
The Indian Boy (RSC) @ The Cube
November 11, 2006
This was the ‘big’ new production of the Cube- a new commission by the RSC, and a response to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. A new housing estate is being put up on some ancient woodland, and the builders find a mysterious Indian Boy in the trees. Knocking him out, he’s admitted to a psychiatric ward …
One Of These Days (RSC) @ The Cube
November 10, 2006
After waiting so long for a ticket, I’d have been disappointed if this play, a new response to ‘The Tempest’ by Leo Butler, hadn’t been at least entertaining. Fortunately, despite only being a recently-rehearsed reading of the play, it was absolutely worth it. The plot centred round an 18th century broken family- a protestant soldier, …
Find, follow, join us
