The National Theatre really did save lockdown and made us appreciate our phenomenal creative industries, but they may also have inadvertently pointed the way for the future as surely as National Theatre Live did in 2009.
How important is theatre photography to the success of a show?
Theatre photography is one of the most important ways to promote a new production and simultaneously one of the elements audiences – and probably most creatives – actively think least about.
‘A lean, swift & feisty political thriller’: CORIOLANUS – Donmar Warehouse (Online review)
To take a play as epic in scale as Coriolanus and find a natural home within the intimacy of London’s Donmar Warehouse takes a skill and lightness of touch that is not only rare but all so often missed.
‘Tom Hiddleston is worth the price of admission’: CORIOLANUS – Donmar Warehouse (Online review)
There are some staggering contemporary references to draw from this staging of a lesser-known Shakespeare, starring Tom Hiddleston.
Recalling Tom Hiddleston in CORIOLANUS: ‘One of the best nights of theatre of my life’
It is not often that one reviews a play one saw six years ago, but with the forthcoming National Theatre At Home streaming of the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus, right now seems a strangely appropriate time to recall one of the best nights of theatre of my life.
NEWS: National Theatre at Home screens Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus & A Streetcar Named Desire with Gillian Anderson
The National Theatre has announced its third tranche of archive shows that will be streamed every Thursday at 7pm BST via its YouTube channel as part of lockdown initiative National Theatre at Home.
10 plays from the past 10 years that stand out
Here is a snapshot of my favourite theatre from the past 10 years, the plays that stand out most in my memory, the ones I talk about if people ask.
’A sincere & strong account of trauma’: WARHEADS – Park Theatre
Warheads, a new play about PTSD, features its co-author on stage in a powerful production which is basically a medical case study.
What were our Top 25 reviews & other blogs in November 2017?
As it’s the first of the month, we’re taking a moment to remind ourselves of the most popular contributions from our 20+ syndicate Mates bloggers from the month just closed. What were the reviews and other blogs that got readers clicking most? Any surprises? Our Top 25 Mates Blogs from November 2017 are listed below with summaries and links to read more.
CORIOLANUS – Barbican Theatre (RSC) ★★★
The evening’s star performance comes from Haydn Gwynne who brings a strength and elegance to Volumnia. Playing the ever loving yet overbearing mother of Coriolanus, she dreams of success and glory for her son.
CORIOLANUS – Barbican Theatre (RSC)
Angus Jackson bookends the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Rome season, his traditional dress Julius Caesar having opened it he now caps it off with a modern set Coriolanus.
CORIOLANUS – Barbican Centre (RSC) ★★★★
Coriolanus may not be the most frequently staged of Shakespeare’s political Roman dramas although it nearly always gets included when a series of them are run together as here with the latest RSC season, under the banner title of Rome MMXVII.
CORIOLANUS – RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon ★★★
Coriolanus doesn’t often hit the modern stage: its plot, a hymn to the necessary evil of educated patrician privilege in order to provide for the politically fickle, unthinking plebeian multitude, doesn’t sit at all well with modern political correctness.
NEWS: RSC transfers four Roman Shakespeares to Barbican for new rep season
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Rome MMXVII Season of four Shakespeare plays will transfer to London’s Barbican Theatre from this November, straight from their run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
NEWS: RSC adapts Robert Harris’ Cicero novels for stage; New season announced
Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Gregory Doran today announced the company’s winter 2017 season, including the world premiere of Imperium, an epic, two-part page-to-stage adaptation of Robert Harris‘ best-selling novels about Roman politician Cicero, adapted by Wolf Hall‘s Mike Poulton and directed by Doran, and the West End transfer of Helen Edmundson‘s new play Queen Anne, starring Romola Garai and Emma …