Globe
Love's Labour's Lost, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - in praise of a fantastical SpaniardThursday, 30 August 2018
If ever there was a play of “well bandied” words, it’s surely Love’s Labour’s Lost. The early Shakespearean comedy may once have hit a highpoint for verbal wit, but much of that context – the word play, the allusions, the sheer stylistic preening... Read more... |
Emilia, Shakespeare's Globe review - polemic disguised as a playThursday, 16 August 2018
It feels like Michelle Terry’s first summer season at the Globe has been building up to Emilia for a while now. The theme is Shakespeare and race, so Othello was something of a given. It's joined by The Winter’s Tale, as if the Emilias of these two... Read more... |
Othello, Shakespeare's Globe review - André Holland shines, Mark Rylance pursues laughsThursday, 02 August 2018
Claire van Kampen has a history of providing roles for her husband, Mark Rylance. He starred in her critically acclaimed Farinelli and the King three years ago, and now she directs him as Iago in the Globe's production of Othello, with Moonlight... Read more... |
The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare's Globe review - a chilly tale for a time of austerityTuesday, 03 July 2018
“A sad tale’s best for winter,” Leontes’ young son Mamillius tells us. By that logic the current summer heatwave should be bringing us a Winter’s Tale overflowing with joy – the songs of Bohemia drowning out the shouted accusations and desperate... Read more... |
The Two Noble Kinsmen, Shakespeare's Globe review - a breezy bromance served up slightMonday, 04 June 2018
Those who find the Bard tough going – wasn't that one of Emma Rice's admissions back in the day? – should beat a path to The Two Noble Kinsmen, a late-career collaboration with John Fletcher that emerges as Shakespeare lite. Remembered (dimly) as... Read more... |
As You Like It / Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Globe review - ensemble emphasis sets a leaner styleFriday, 18 May 2018
There’s a distinct feeling of back to basics to this opening double bill at the Globe under the theatre’s new Artistic Director Michelle Terry. The elaborations (some would say gimmickry) of Emma Rice’s short tenure have been reined back, and a new... Read more... |
Vivaldi's The Four Seasons: A Reimagining, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - a gentle exploration of life, love and deathMonday, 19 March 2018
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: A Reimagining – it’s not a title that trips off the tongue. Nor one, frankly, that inspires much excitement, with its clunky functionality and on-trend buzzword. But set that aside and buy a ticket immediately, because... Read more... |
All's Well That Ends Well, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - feisty, prickly and topical, as wellThursday, 18 January 2018
It's the people who are problematic, not the play. That's one take-away sentiment afforded by Caroline Byrne's sparky and provocative take on All's Well That Ends Well, that ever-peculiar Shakespeare "comedy" (really?) whose title is in ironic... Read more... |
The Secret Theatre, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - a ferocious topical satire dressed up in period costumeFriday, 24 November 2017
The Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse may be a historical recreation, but the same shouldn’t be true of the plays staged within it. Since it opened in 2014, this atmospheric space has spawned a whole sub-genre of historical new-writing – works that... Read more... |
Romantics Anonymous, Shakespeare's Globe review - box of delightsThursday, 02 November 2017
It’s all a bit Dairy Milk. That was, to wrap it in purple foil, the critical reaction to Les émotifs anonymes when it was released in 2011. Not in the UK, though, where Jean-Pierre Améris’s romantic comedy never made it to cinemas. Lack of local... Read more... |
Boudica, Shakespeare's Globe review - ancient history made compellingly contemporaryThursday, 14 September 2017
History comes to the stage of the Globe only rarely – at least if you compare the frequency of productions there from that segment of the Shakespearean canon against the tragedies and comedies – which is certainly one reason to welcome Boudica. Much... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Nitin SawhneyTuesday, 22 August 2017
Composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Nitin Sawhney is one of Britain’s most diverse and original creative talents. Having trained as a classical pianist, jazz musician and flamenco guitarist, as well as a tabla and sitar player, his highly... Read more... |
