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As You Like It (Northern Broadsides) @ Leeds Playhouse

‘Time travels in diverse paces with diverse persons’, announced Rosalind (EM Williams), pausing pointedly on the word ‘diverse’. The emphasis on diversity in relation to time aligned with designer E. M. Parry’s interest in the programme note on queer time in the forest. Parry explains that their interest is in ‘disrupting the normative impositions of …

Much Ado about Nothing (Northern Broadsides) @ Derby Theatre

Conrad Nelson’s swansong production for Northern Broadsides offered a paeon to rural England in its mise-en-scene. A huge cyclorama showed sprawling green fields; sheep baa-ed in the distance and birds tweeted. Lis Evans’s set located the production at the close of World War II, with ‘Dig for Victory!’ posters lining flats at the side of …

Richard III (Northern Broadsides) @ Hull Truck

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was speaking at a conference in Newcastle on ‘Offensive Shakespeare’, the aim of the event being to theorise ‘offence’ in relation to Shakespeare, whether attempts by practitioners to use Shakespeare to offend; offended reactions to Shakespearean texts and productions; or attempts to deconstruct the icon of Shakespeare him/itself. The conference …

King Lear (Northern Broadsides) @ West Yorkshire Playhouse

A collaboration between great guest director and great company can create really wonderful work. The last time I saw a production by Jonathan Miller, it was his wonderful Hamlet at the Tobacco Factory, the first time that company had been directed by someone other than Andrew Hilton. And Northern Broadsides are always a joy to …

Othello (Northern Broadsides) @ The Belgrade Theatre

Writing about web page http://www.northern-broadsides.co.uk/PAGES/currentproduction.htm Othello publicity art The new Northern Broadsides production of Othello has caused something of a stir this year, with countless articles and interviews devoted to the novelty of one of Britain’s most beloved comedians, Lenny Henry CBE, jumping in at the deep end with his first theatrical Shakespearean role. Broadsides …

More on Romeo

I sincerely don’t imagine readers of this blog would actually WANT to read another review by me of Northern Broadsides’ Romeo and Juliet, but in case you want the complete set, follow the link! Shakespeare Revue is a useful site that I do recommend checking out. I find it most useful for finding out about obscure productions in …

Romeo and Juliet (Northern Broadsides) @ Liverpool Playhouse

Perhaps the biggest problem with Romeo and Juliet is that it is so familiar to us. It seems to have formed most people’s introduction to Shakespeare in schools, contains some of the best-known and most-quoted lines in Shakespeare and, of course, was the basis for the most successful (and pervasive) Shakespearean film of recent times, …