Shakespeare
King Lear, The Grange Festival review - friendship in adversityFriday, 16 July 2021
Much has been made of the raison d’etre for this King Lear as the slowly gestated, Covid-delayed brainchild of the director Keith Warner, assembling a company of acting singers who have made their names on the opera stage. How this played out on the... Read more... |
Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare's Globe review - unsatisfactory mix of clumsy and edgySaturday, 10 July 2021
"It is dangerous for women to go outside alone," blares the electronic sign above the stage of the new Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe. This disquieting sentiment obviously takes some of its resonance from the Sarah Everard case, yet it also... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's Globe review - a blast of colour from our post-vaccine futureSaturday, 29 May 2021
A little less than two years after Sean Holmes’s kick-ass Latin American carnival-style A Midsummer Night’s Dream erupted at the side of the Thames, it has returned to a very different world. It’s no longer a natural expression of the kind of... Read more... |
Romeo and Juliet, Creation Theatre online review - game version falls between stoolsMonday, 17 May 2021
There is a promising production struggling to get out of this muddled concept. Creation Theatre (here partnered with Watford Palace) is well known for innovative, site-specific pieces, one of which –The Tempest – was adapted for the screen,... Read more... |
The Winter's Tale, RSC, BBC Four review - post-war poise colours a solid productionMonday, 26 April 2021
It has been a hard coming for this RSC Winter’s Tale. Erica Whyman’s production was cancelled by the virus days before its premiere last spring, with plans to stage it in the autumn frustrated by the second lockdown. This broadcast version,... Read more... |
Romeo and Juliet, National Theatre online review - a triumphant hybridMonday, 05 April 2021
Shakespeare's enduring tale of star-crossed lovers is especially pertinent in a pandemic. The fatal plot twist depends on failed communication during an outbreak of pestilence, and one of the most famous lines is Mercutio's heartfelt, "A plague on... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, SHAKE Festival livestream review - a star turn from Luisa Omielan makes this 'Bottom's Dream'Thursday, 01 April 2021
Just what the Zoom era has brought to theatre – to performers and audiences alike – is something we will no doubt be pondering for some while yet, certainly still in the much-anticipated eventual hereafter when stages in their “traditional”... Read more... |
Shakespeare Re-Shaped, Opera Up Close online review - Verdi on the sofaWednesday, 24 March 2021
The screen lights up, the Zoom link connects and there, blinking back at you (30% awkward, 70% enthusiastic) is a familiar face. Is it definitely working? Can you hear me? What do we say now? God, I'm getting old. Even after 12 months of... Read more... |
Romeo and Juliet, Palace Theatre, Manchester online review - futuristic and timelyFriday, 12 February 2021
The story of Romeo and Juliet is well known, worth revisiting endlessly and always relevant. But there is another story here: the making of the piece using innovative digital technology including CGI, to keep actors and creative team safe in a... Read more... |
Romances on British Poetry / The Poet's Echo, English Touring Opera online review - Britten and Shostakovich in a double mirrorTuesday, 26 January 2021
A darkened stage; a pool of light; a solitary figure. And then, flooding the whole thing with meaning, music – even it’s just a soft chord on a piano. It’s no secret to any opera goer that even the barest outlines of a staging can magnify the... Read more... |
Upstart Crow: Lockdown Christmas 1603, BBC Two review – plaguey beaks and bubonidiotsTuesday, 22 December 2020
If you’ve loved every episode of Ben Elton’s Shakespeare and Co comedy, you’ll know what to expect – but you’ll have to swallow bittersweet pills from only two of the excellent ensemble who’ve given us such comfort and joyous rapid-fire delivery of... Read more... |
The Warren Outdoor Season, Brighton review - creatives take to the beachTuesday, 18 August 2020
The Warren is normally to be found in Brighton city centre, where it stages shows during the Brighton Fringe. But there's nothing normal about 2020, so its organisers are now producing The Warren Outdoor Season at a pop-up space on Brighton beach,... Read more... |
