Much Ado About Nothing (Bristol Old Vic) @ The Swan Theatre
September 5, 2006
Not the phenomenal and sold-out RSC ‘Much Ado’ with Tamsin Greig and Joseph Millson- this was another of the youth productions, this time by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Again only an hour and a quarter long, and omitting characters such as Antonio and Ursula, this was a very quick-paced ‘Much Ado’ that tackled …
All’s Well That Ends Well (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) @ The Swan theatre
September 4, 2006
This was the first of the Young People’s Shakespeare series, of which there are five over the next fortnight- one off performances, heavily cut, each done by a different UK drama school. It’s a harsh deal for ‘All’s Well’ to only get an hour and fifteen minutes single performance when it’s a relatively little-performed play …
King John (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
August 31, 2006
I’d be lying to say that this is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. When Nos do Morro were invited to do a play in the Complete Works Festival, the only two left were ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ and ‘King John’- and to them, there wasn’t even a choice to make. So, the RSC quite …
Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare Theatre Company) @ The Swan Theatre
August 19, 2006
I always try to read a selection of professional reviews of the shows I’ve seen- partly for interest, partly because they sometimes bring to light things I hadn’t noticed and partly because they sometimes give a good platform for argument. One of the most respected of these critics is Michael Billington, the Guardian theatre critic, …
The Two Noble Kinsmen (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
July 25, 2006
MAY 21ST 2006 (backdated) I had to get a lift into Stratford and queue for day tickets for this one, the first real ‘event’ piece of the Festival. The RSC Touring Company, currently travelling with Greg Doran’s production of ‘The Canterbury Tales’, stopped off for one afternoon in Stratford to do this, a special event …
Much Ado About Nothing (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
MAY 16TH 2006 (backdated) ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ isn’t a play I know particularly well- I’d only seen one student production of it which was fairly good, but certainly hadn’t blown me away. So, I wasn’t expecting great things from the RSC’s new production of it, and I didn’t know any of director Marianne Elliott’s …
Hamlet (Baxter) @ The Swan Theatre
July 24, 2006
MAY 1ST 2006 (backdated) And now for the full-on performance! My seat wasn’t as good as it was for the dress rehearsal, but no matter, the production was just as it had been two days ago- excellent. The problem with seeing any production twice in a short space of time is, of course, over-familiarity. This …
Henry IV Part 1 & 2 (Chicago Shakespeare Theater) @ The Swan Theatre
July 13, 2006
The first of the American companies, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, have been performing these two plays in tandem all week, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to see them both in one day- Part I in the afternoon, part II in the evening. I was quite interested to see how an international company would treat …
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dash Arts) @ The Swan Theatre
June 13, 2006
You know when I said a few days ago that I was trying to avoid using superlatives? Well, forget that. This was the BEST BEST BEST thing I’ve EVER seen on stage! Firstly, it was by no means difficult to follow. Some characters never spoke a word of English, but the actors were so clear …
Sneak peek!
April 27, 2006
APRIL 27TH 2006 (backdated) There are advantages to going on conferences sometimes. While on a two-day conference on Thomas Kyd’s ‘The Spanish Tragedy’ (a very good play by the way, hoping someone mounts a production of it in the near future), we got the offer of seeing an open dress rehearsal of the Baxter Theatre …
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