The first tranche of Young Vic Digital consists of pieces written in response to a main house production. Here they are in chronological order of the time the original plays were written.
‘A powerhouse performance for posterity’: MEDEA – National Theatre At Home (Online review)
Having missed the National Theatre production of Medea in the theatre I was pleased to catch up with it and, especially, Helen McCrory’s performance for she was on blistering form.
‘Death haunts this play as surely as it does Hamlet’: How significant is the role of Hester in The Deep Blue Sea?
Like Shakespeare’s greatest play, The Deep Blue Sea is grief channelled into art, aligning Hamlet and Hester as two souls enveloped by death and choosing whether to live.
‘Helen McCrory is on fine form’: THE DEEP BLUE SEA – National Theatre At Home (Online review)
In the case of The Deep Blue Sea I find myself firmly sitting on the fence. Good performances? Mostly. Fine production? Mainly. Great play? The jury’s still out.
‘Surprisingly relatable’: JULIE – National Theatre
Polly Stenham has updated August Strindberg’s 1888 play Miss Julie to contemporary London. Why? Well, it would be foolish to think that this new version is modern only because of its language, setting and clothes.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Julie at the National Theatre
Carrie Cracknell directs Polly Stenham’s contemporary adaptation of August Strindberg’s classic play Miss Julie. But what have critics been making of it?
‘An evening of thought-provoking theatre’: JULIE – National Theatre ★★★
Julie may well be far from a definitive interpretation of Strindberg’s classic, but nonetheless makes for an evening of thought-provoking theatre.
‘It is hard to see why Stenham would need to borrow the classic’: JULIE – National Theatre ★★★
Polly Stenham joins the endless line of adaptors and updaters of August Strindberg’s toughly nasty, misogynistic Miss Julie: a play soaked in such fin-de-siecle Nordic hopelessness that it makes Ibsen look like PG Wodehouse.
‘Bears the marks of slightly unsatisfactory imitation’: JULIE – National Theatre
While Polly Stenham retains plenty of Strindberg’s purpose, Julie doesn’t go quite far enough in remoulding the political and psychological shape of its characters for the 21st century.
OIL – Almeida Theatre
New epic about mothers and daughters in the age of oil is wonderfully ambitious, but deeply unhistorical.
NEWS: Juliet Stevenson & Lia Williams swap roles in Mary Stuart in Almeida autumn
Associate Director Robert Icke will adapt and direct Schiller classic MARY STUART at the Almeida Theatre in December, with Juliet Stevenson and Lia Williams trading the play’s central roles of the two queens, the title character and Queen Elizabeth I, decided at each performance by the toss of a coin.
Weekly Theatre Podcast: The Spoils, Titanic, The Deep Blue Sea, Human Animals
This week the London theatre bloggers discuss Jesse Eisenberg’s double West End debut The Spoils, Helen McCrory in Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea, the return of Titanic, and Human Animals at the Royal Court.
THE DEEP BLUE SEA – National Theatre
Terence Rattigan’s best play stars Helen McCrory in an uncertain production that attempts an emotional update.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Deep Blue Sea at the National Theatre
Terence Rattigan’s heartbreaking drama reunites director Carrie Cracknell and Helen McCrory at the National Theatre, where it runs in rep at the Lyttelton until 21 September 2016. But is the quality of the production worthy of the collaboration?
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Deep Blue Sea at the National Theatre
Terence Rattigan’s heartbreaking drama reunites director Carrie Cracknell and Helen McCrory at the National Theatre, where it runs in rep at the Lyttelton until 21 September 2016. But is the quality of the production worthy of the collaboration?
THE DEEP BLUE SEA – National Theatre
“We’re death to one another, you and I”. The great cry from trapped, degraded macho Freddie, struggling to leave the desperate demanding Hester Collyer as she clings to his very shoes, marks a turning-point in what – as any fule kno – is one of Terence Rattigan’s greatest and most intimately felt plays. Her “Don’t leave me alone tonight!” rips through the air as the door slams. She has already tried suicide once.
5 shows to look out for in June: Aladdin, The Spoils, The Go-Between & more
Is it really June already? Summer is upon us. Here are a few hot show opening this month that you need to keep an eye out for…
MACBETH – Manchester
Directed by Carrie Cracknell and Lucy Guerin, this production – starring John Heffernan and Anna Maxwell Martin – is startlingly different to any other versions of Macbeth I have seen before. It’s a highly visual production which explores main themes of Macbeth’s breakdown and the supernatural through a fusion of Shakespeare’s original words and stunning choreography.
Mark’s Critical Digest: Linda, Funny Girl, The Girls, Oliver!, Barbarians and Macbeth
Reviews digest of openings in London, Leicester and Leeds from national critics for new productions of Linda, Funny Girl, The Girls, Oliver!, Barbarians and Macbeth.
NEWS: John Heffernan & Anna Maxwell Martin star in Macbeth at Young Vic, more casting
The Young Vic has today (14 August 2015) announced new casting for several of its upcoming productions, including: John Heffernan as Macbeth, Anna Maxwell Martin as Lady Macbeth in Carrie Cracknell & Lucy Guerin’s production Paul Ready and Zubin Varla join Romola Garai in Measure for Measure directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins – additional performances on sale now Emily Barclay and …