A new production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, directed by Sean Mathias with Ian McKellen in an age-blind interpretation of the young Prince, will go into rehearsals on Monday 29 June 2020.
News, Reviews and Features
These are all of our in-house news and features as well as syndicated article excerpts from our 45+ theatre bloggers. You can also access All Our Mates' Posts in comprehensive list form and view individual author pages.
‘Never less than arresting’: SHOE LADY – Royal Court Theatre (Radio review)
BBC Radio’s Lockdown Theatre Festival, curated by Bertie Carvel, highlights productions cut short by broadcasting them with the original casts, albeit in an audio format only.
NEWS: Sleepless reschedules month’s run from 25 Aug with social distancing measures
SLEEPLESS, A Musical Romance, based on the original screenplay Sleepless in Seattle, has rescheduled its premiere at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre for 25 August to 27 September 2020.
NEWS: Hairspray postpones for a second time, now runs for 19 weeks from April 2021
The return of Hairspray the Musical has been postponed again. It will now return next April, a full year after originally scheduled, but now for a longer, 19-week season, rather than ten weeks.
‘An enjoyable piece of audio drama in these troubling times’: JOAN – Cressida Peever (Online review)
JOAN follows the young titular character as she strives to make her mark on the world and change it for the better.
‘Perhaps something genuinely new in theatre:’ THE TIME MACHINE – Creation Theatre (Online review)
So bizarre and unlikely is the story behind the creation of this play that one wonders whether writer Jonathan Holloway has time-travelled himself!
‘Pushes the envelope of the monologue genre’: DECLAN – The Actors Centre (Online review)
Jimbo is 12 and on the cusp of young adulthood. Both his body and his mind are confused about its identity and the world around him is not much help.
NEWS: Jermyn Street Theatre dark for rest of 2020, artistic director lambasts ‘deafening Government silence’
Jermyn Street Theatre has announced that it will remain closed until some point in 2021. Tom Littler lays bare the lack of support from Westminster.
‘An uplifting & enjoyable production’: PETER PAN LIVE! – The Shows Must Go On ★★★★ (Online review)
Confession time: I have found it difficult in the past to really enjoy or appreciate Peter Pan. This isn’t so much down to JM Barrie’s classic story but in the way it has been staged or filmed.
‘A modern-day classic about an age-old problem’: SMALL ISLAND – National Theatre (Online review)
A terrific and epic play about the Windrush generation: Andrea Levy’s sprawling novel Small Island has been turned into a glorious staged adaptation by writer Helen Edmundson.
‘A cautionary tale about the importance of ideas & the value of human connection’: THE MACHINE STOPS – Big Telly Theatre (Online review)
Imagine a world where social contact is limited by a raft of regulations. A world where everyone communicates via computer instead of face to face.
‘Real, personal & touching’: BLACK WOMEN DATING WHITE MEN (Online review)
A beautiful selection of Zoom conversations about what it means to be a black woman navigating the messy and complicated world of interracial love…
‘If our pub landlord closes, where will the theatre go then?’: Artistic director Lisa Spirling on dual threats to Theatre503
‘In terms of the future, we want 503 to be resilient and it feels like our community of audience and artists believe in the necessity of an organisation such as ours. At the same time, there are no guarantees.’
‘A strangely disconcerting play’: PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD – Druid Theatre (Online review)
The online release of productions from Druid Theatre’s 2005 season of JM Synge’s complete works is a lockdown boon.
‘How wonderful it is to see a theatre being put to good use’: IN THE WINGS – Union Theatre ★★★★★ (Online review)
No Limits: A Song Cycle was the first new musical featured in four-part series In the Wings, filmed live at the Union Theatre.
‘Set at a time when suffragettes were regularly making headlines’: JANE CLEGG – Finborough Theatre ★★★★ (Online review)
While Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is arguably the first and most famous ‘modern’ play about female emancipation from an inequitable marriage, it’s certainly not the only drama to tackle this once-controversial topic.
WATCH: Moment of Grace releases evocative new teaser trailer
When to touch was to heal. At a time when shaking hands feels like a distant memory, Bren Gosling’s play, inspired by a symbolic act of taboo-breaking compassion, has defied its own challenges to transform from acclaimed stage production to film. Watch the trailer and find out more.
‘We have to do something else indefinitely but keep the keys to the building & look after them’: Royal Lyceum artistic director & playwright David Greig in Edinburgh
The more you think about the invitation to the audience – as you say ‘come, be blocked off behind screens, we will spray you and present shows where actors stand apart, and we will try to encourage you not to sing along’, it’s like an anti-theatre.
NEWS: Edinburgh Fringe receives £1.25 million ‘life raft’ from Scottish Government
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the charity which oversees the Edinburgh Fringe, has been awarded £249,000 grants and a £1million interest-free loan to help support it through Covid-19 recovery.
‘Psychologically convincing & fiercely compelling’: CONTINUITY – Finborough Theatre (Online review)
In Continuity, Gerry Moynihan explores the men’s fanaticism and the effects of their frustrated masculinity on their political beliefs.