Theatre Features
First Person: Ellen McDougall on finding the commonality in the American classic 'Our Town'Sunday, 19 May 2019
I’ve wanted to direct Thornton Wilder’s Our Town for a long time. The play is beautifully written and its form feels not only ahead of its time (it was written in 1938), but also extremely powerful for a contemporary audience in an open air theatre. Read more... |
Trevor Nunn: 'I'm amazed by Harley Granville Barker's prescience and extraordinary modernity'Sunday, 10 February 2019
So here we are with another edition of IQ, and the subject this week is theatre. Question one: which actor originated several leading roles in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, including Marchbanks in Candida, Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma, and Jack Tanner in Man and Superman? Answer: Harley Granville Barker. Read more... |
Robert Hastie: 'a seam of love runs through the play' - interviewMonday, 12 November 2018
Robert Hastie is a little late for our meeting. Directing Shakespeare's darkest tragedy in London while also running Sheffield Theatres must sometimes cause a logjam of simultaneous demands, but whatever the morning's problem in the north of England, he remains smiling, relaxed, thoughtful and gracious during a break from rehearsals. Read more... |
Don Quixote rides again, and againWednesday, 07 November 2018
It’s a story of a mad old man who imagines himself to be a knight errant. On his quests he sees virgins in prostitutes and castles in roadside inns. His adventures have spawned an adjective that describes delusional idealism, typified by the activity of tilting one’s lance and charging at windmills one has mistaken for an army of giants. Read more... |
James Graham: 'the country of Shakespeare no longer recognises arts as a core subject'Thursday, 20 September 2018
Thank you. It’s an honour to have been asked to speak here today. Although looking at the h100 List this year, I’ve no idea why I’m presumptuously standing here; given the talent, creativity and achievements far surpassing my own within this room. But I’m also excited, and genuinely inspired, to be part of such a group. Read more... |
Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto: 'We figured Molière would have toyed with it too'Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Back in June 2017, in the days when English summertime was a lazy idyll rather than an apocalyptic inferno, RSC artistic director Greg Doran met us at his office in Stratford-upon-Avon and asked whether we wanted to write a new version of Molière’s Tartuffe. Read more... |
Jeanie O'Hare: 'The play taught me how European we really are'Thursday, 13 September 2018
I admit it took me a while to give myself permission to do this project. We English are very squeamish about altering Shakespeare. Our cousins in Germany thrive on radical undoings of our scared son, but we cross our arms and say no. Read more... |
Sir Peter Hall: a day of thanksgiving and celebration for a colossus of cultureWednesday, 12 September 2018
Sir Peter Hall had no ordinary life, as might be expected from the director who more than any other defined the British theatre of the last half of the 20th century. The same can be said of the unforgettable two-part send-off he received exactly a year on from his death in 2017, age 86. Read more... |
'You won't be able to handle this lady': remembering Fenella FieldingWednesday, 12 September 2018
Fenella Fielding - “one of the finest female impersonators in the business,” joked Eric Morecambe – has died at the age of 90. Most actors of such a great vintage tend to be forgotten, but not Fielding. Last year she celebrated her big birthday with a memoir. Read more... |
theartsdesk at bOing! International Family Festival - the best of European children's theatreTuesday, 28 August 2018
Theatre for children can often be dismissed – a box to tick for parents who want to keep up with cultural practices; a job for actors who haven't quite made it in the mainstream; theatre that mums and dads want to see that works for their little ones, too. Read more... |
Pages
Advertising feature
★★★★★
‘A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.’
The Observer, Kate Kellaway
Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.
★★★★★
‘This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.’
The Times, Ann Treneman
Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.
Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Musical - not a screaming suc...
In Italy, they did it differently. Their pulp fiction tales of suburban transgression appeared between yellow covers on new stands...
Album: Will Smith - Based on a True Story
Will Smith’s new album, Based on a True Story, is a prime example of why some comebacks should remain hypothetical. After two decades...
Verdi Requiem, Philharmonia, Muti, RFH review - new sparks f...
Forget, for a moment, the legend and the lustre. If you knew nothing about Riccardo Muti’s half-century of history with Verdi’s Messa da...
Wilko: Love and Death and Rock'n'Roll, Southwark P...
Resurrecting the origins of old rock stars is becoming quite the thing, After cinema’s Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Bob Dylan and...
The End review - surreality in the salt mine
The End, a quasi-musical from Joshua Oppenheimer, who has previously only produced ...
Playhouse Creatures, Orange Tree Theatre review - jokes, shi...
Creatives – or creatures? In the 1660s, women – having been banned from working as actors in previously more...
Album: Perfume Genius - Glory
I can’t stop reading and re-reading the review copy I got of a new book, out next week. Liam Inscoe-Jones’s ...
La finta giardiniera, The Mozartists, Cadogan Hall review -...
Just now, the notion of a long-term project that concludes in 2041 sounds like an optimistic bet on the far future worthy of some 18th-century...
La Cocina review - New York restaurant drama lingers too lon...
La Cocina is one of those films that cuts an excellent trailer, succinctly delivering just enough characters, plot and visual...