A Tempest (Krazy Kat Theatre) @ Warwick Arts Centre Studio
November 2, 2009
There’s a bit of a gap in Shakespearean performance criticism. Despite the quality and inventiveness of theatre for children all around the country, it falls beneath the notice of most reviewers, with the implication that it is considered not to be of substantial intellectual or creative merit. This is an enormous shame, as a viewing …
All’s Well that Ends Well (NT Live) @ Warwick Arts Centre Cinema
October 2, 2009
Writing about web page http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=52899 Nicholas Hytner, in an interview with Alex Jennings that preceded the National Theatre’s second NT Live broadcast, qualified the expectations for this experimental programme in a way which chimed more with my own expectations. The broadcast of Phedre back in June was preceded by rather hyperbolic and over-ambitious suggestions that …
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (WUDS) @ Warwick Arts Centre Studio
June 5, 2009
Writing about web page http://www.wuds.co.uk/ June has only just begun, and already I’ve seen my second Dream of the year. I admit, I’m always a little bit sceptic when entering an auditorium for another production of this play; it’s so over-familiar and over-produced, matched probably only by Romeo for the amount of workaday productions trotted …
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (WUDS) @ Warwick Arts Centre Studio
May 1, 2009
Writing about web page http://www.wuds.co.uk/ Warwick University Drama Society’s new production of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore promised a "noir sheen", and a sheen was duly delivered. Femme fatale? Check, in Maria Askew’s seductive Hippolita. Moody hard men lighting cigarettes under dim street lighting? Check, as Jack Churchill’s skinheaded Grimaldi (referencing the later noir of …
The Convict’s Opera (Out of Joint/Sydney Theatre Company) @ Warwick Arts Centre
March 8, 2009
Writing about web page http://www.outofjoint.co.uk/prods/convictsopera.html Out of Joint’s new production The Convict’s Opera is a bit of an oddity. A group of convicts on board a ship decide to put on a production of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, complete with songs drawn from folk traditions and, occasionally, classic rock n’ roll numbers. The play …
Othello (RSC) @ Warwick Arts Centre
February 7, 2009
The RSC’s new touring production of Othello feels surprisingly marginalised. Opening in Coventry, with no Stratford performances and a British press who seem more interested in the upcoming Northern Broadsides production (featuring, as it does, comedian Lenny Henry in the title role), this Othello has a lot to do to avoid slipping under the radar …
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Footsbarn) @ Tocil Field, University of Warwick
June 26, 2008
Footsbarn Theatre are a theatre troupe in the most traditional sense, touring in caravans and performing in their own ‘Big Top’-style tent. Formed in Cornwall in the 1970s, though now based in France, the company is truly international, representing a wide range of performance styles, languages and visual symbols. Their current carnivalesque production of A …
Macbeth (WUDS) @ Warwick Arts Centre
June 22, 2008
Warwick University Drama Society’s new studio production of Macbeth was an ambitious endeavour, both technically and conceptually. The stage was dominated by a huge static-filled screen at the rear, while the space itself was filled with black flats and five hanging banners with the names of Macbeth, Banquo, Macduff, Duncan and Malcolm running from ceiling …
Invisible Bonfires (Rough Magyck) @ Warwick Arts Centre
November 6, 2007
I’ve accused productions and theatre companies of many things before now, but never before of being lazy. Unfortunately, that’s the crime Forkbeard Fantasy appear to have committed in their latest production, Invisible Bonfires . Some months back I reviewed their production Rough Magyck at the Complete Works Festival, a wonderfully bizarre site-specific piece investigating the …
I Am Shakespeare @ Warwick Arts Centre
October 5, 2007
Before I even begin, I would like to separate this play from the authorship debate. Mark Rylance, former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe and generally famous actor, is one of the most committed members of the anti-Stratfordian group, intent on questioning the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Rylance’s personal conviction is that Francis Bacon is the …
Find, follow, join us
