Romeo & Juliet, with Karen Fishwick and Bally Gill as the leads, arrives at the Barbican as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s London residency. Although written over four centuries ago, this production feels chillingly relevant.
‘Modern & moving’: ROMEO & JULIET – Barbican Theatre
It’s sometimes a little difficult to take seriously how old everyone is meant to be in Romeo & Juliet but Erica Whyman’s modern-day production for the RSC, playing in rep now at the Barbican, never lets you forget.
‘As topical as it ever was’: ROMEO & JULIET – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon ★★★★
Romeo & Juliet is not a tiresomely gimmicky ‘now’ production, but one marked all through by that close-worked RSC concentration on the text which always prompts interesting new thoughts about a play we know well.
BLUSH – Soho Theatre
Snuff Box Theatre’s Blush transfers to the Soho Theatre after a sell-out run in Edinburgh. This modern-day morality tale explores five interconnected stories of revenge porn, sex, cyberspace, and the search for connection.
BLUSH – Touring
And it’s a play that manages to hit two of my bugbear phrases in theatre writing, in that it is both ‘darkly comic’ and ‘extremely timely’. But though reviewers and publicists may desperately overuse both terms, it doesn’t make it any less true here.
BLUSH – Soho Theatre
The opening is punchy, the dialogue sharp. Charlotte Josephine and Daniel Foxsmith jump right in – tales of revenge porn and teenage sex education fly out the gates. Josephine’s writing is quick to climax, but like a trained professional it comes, subsides and builds up again for another round.
INTERVIEW: Spotlight On… BLUSH director Edward Stambollouian
Following a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival, the award-winning BLUSH will now be transferring to the Soho Theatre and embarking on a UK tour. Written by Charlotte Josephine, BLUSH tells five candid stories about revenge porn and its many victims.