Shakespeare
Roméo et Juliette, BBCSO, Davis, BarbicanSaturday, 23 January 2016
It was another Davis, the late Colin rather than the very alive Andrew, who used to be master of Berlioz's phenomenally inventive opera for orchestra with its novel explanatory prologue and epilogue. I like to think he'd have been looking down... Read more... |
Cymbeline, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseWednesday, 09 December 2015
There’s a happy, cyclical logic to this first production of Cymbeline – Shakespeare’s late tragicomedy of love and jealousy – at the Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The first play Shakespeare wrote for the candle-lit, indoor Blackfriars Playhouse,... Read more... |
Macbeth, Young VicFriday, 04 December 2015
Events have overtaken this Macbeth, dramatically heightening its queasy topicality. Not just brutal beheadings and torture, but the cost and collateral damage of conflict without end, and the scourge of a tyrant slaughtering his own people, strike... Read more... |
Pericles, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseThursday, 26 November 2015
Pericles is a play of voyages. Lands and landscapes crowd in, one after the other – Tyre, Tarsus, Ephesus, Antioch, Mitylene – until our dramatic sea-legs are decidedly unsteady. The demands are great for any theatre, but for the Globe’s tiny... Read more... |
Measure for Measure to musicWednesday, 18 November 2015
West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, even The Lion King – all have shown us how Shakespeare’s stories can translate into musical form. It’s not hard to see why: the plots provide strong frameworks for adaptation, with central problems to be resolved... Read more... |
Henry V, RSC, Barbican TheatreFriday, 13 November 2015
Pro patria mori. Now there’s the test for Henry V - perform it on Remembrance Day. The “band of brothers” shtick relies on an idea of patriotism from an age when there was no need to define something so heartfelt, and an idea that kings and... Read more... |
The Winter's Tale, Harlequinade/All On Her Own, Garrick TheatreMonday, 09 November 2015
What exactly is the level of Kenneth Branagh’s self-awareness? He’s certainly conscious of inviting comparison with Olivier once again by presenting a year-long season of plays at the refurbished Garrick under the auspices of the Kenneth Branagh... Read more... |
As You Like It, National TheatreWednesday, 04 November 2015
Rosalind’s “working-day world” takes an unexpectedly literal turn in Polly Findlay’s sparky new As You Like It for the National Theatre. An opening sequence, set in a windowless trading-floor, opens out in one of the year’s most bewitching set... Read more... |
The Dresser, BBC TwoSunday, 01 November 2015
The prospect of Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins acting together for the first time in their storied careers in Richard Eyre's BBC adaptation of The Dresser was one of those mouth-watering propositions to sit alongside DeNiro and Pacino on... Read more... |
When Hamlet came to a Syrian refugee campSunday, 01 November 2015
It would have been impossible to go to Syria. Our plan to perform Hamlet in every nation in the world faced its biggest obstacle to date and the Globe producers were left pondering a Plan B. We considered performing in a Syrian embassy - technically... Read more... |
Das Liebesverbot, Chelsea Opera Group, Cadogan HallMonday, 26 October 2015
Castanets in Wagner? The imperfect Wagnerite will identify them in one place only: the Venusberg ballet music of the Paris Tannhäuser. The perfect variety will know that they’re also to be found in the overture and carnival scene of Das Liebesverbot... Read more... |
The South Bank Show: Benedict Cumberbatch, Sky ArtsThursday, 15 October 2015
It’s huge, it’s just huge, said Benedict Cumberbatch, struggling to express the scale of the challenge that playing Hamlet presents. As Lord Bragg reminded us, Cumberbatch is the lead in the middle of the fastest-selling theatrical event... Read more... |
