OLD MEN DO NOT FORGET Peter Gill’s new play has a melancholy beauty about it; it’s a sort of poem as the veteran playwright and director engages with age, regret and memory. The one-act, hour-long piece, performed … Continue reading →
‘Direction & sound are faultless’: RAYA – Hampstead Theatre ★★★★
Some say that the tight, 80-minute three-hander Raya tackles too many things at once – middle aged reawakening of old liaisons, the menopause, grief, haunting, student sexual accusations, therapy, parenthood and the unwisdom of defining yourself round sex. But hey, that is adult life. Hassles do not arrive neatly separated and convenient for the dramatic unities.
NEWS: Hampstead Theatre returns to live theatre with a production of Alfred Fagon’s The Death of a Black Man
Hampstead Theatre has announced its first live productions for 2021, beginning with Alfred Fagon’s The Death of a Black Man, running from 28 May to 10 July 2021, having originally premiered at the theatre in 1975. Dawn Walton, former artistic director of Eclipse Theatre Company, will make her Hampstead Theatre directorial debut.
‘There is a real ensemble feel to the piece’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – RSC (Online review)
This is Measure For Measure in a production by RSC supremo Greg Doran and set in turn of the 20th century Vienna. It is and remains a difficult play to pin down but the contemporary resonances remain inescapable.
‘Endlessly fascinating’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – Barbican Theatre
Gregory Doran’s RSC production of Measure for Measure is a subtle and absorbing account of a play that gets weirder with every viewing.
‘Perfectly timed’: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW – Barbican Theatre ★★★
The Taming of the Shrew remains an undoubtedly stimulating evening and well worth a visit, if only to witness the script re-imagined and reinterpreted – a pleasing rarity.
WATCH: After #MeToo, should we stop staging The Taming of the Shrew?
As the RSC’s latest staging of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, here’s a throwback to when Mate Terri Paddock chaired a fascinating panel discussion in Stratford-upon-Avon around the themes in the play and production.
‘It’s all done superbly’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon ★★★★★
What Gregory Doran frames most brilliantly in Measure For Measure at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon is the is the central confusion of morality.
New event: Join Terri at the RSC to discuss The Taming of the Shrew in the age of #MeToo
Two days after Shakespeare’s birthday (23 April), I’ll still be celebrating the bard myself as I make my Royal Shakespeare Company ‘debut’ chairing a panel discussion in Stratford-upon-Avon connected with their new production of The Taming of the Shrew.
‘Once in a while, you know you’re in the presence of greatness’: KING LEAR – West End
Stand-out performances in any era are often only judged so in retrospect and modern theatre offers much that will be remembered. But once in a while, you know you’re in the presence of greatness, and Ian McKellen’s King Lear will be talked about for years to come.
POISON – Orange Tree Theatre
Continental drama, in this era of Brexit negotiations, seems to be rarer and rarer on British stages. But, luckily, there are some venues which buck this parochial trend.
POISON – Orange Tree Theatre ★★★★
There is something exquisitely philosophical and European about Lot Vekemans’ approach, at once logical and precise as she moves her two-hander from a point of unresolved conflict and outright hostility to, if not complete reconciliation, at least a peace-making.
NEWS: Claire Price & Zubin Varla star in Poison at London’s Orange Tree
Claire Price and Zubin Varla star in the UK premiere of Dutch hit play Poison at London’s Orange Tree Theatre in November.