The Merry Wives of Windsor is often looked-down-upon as a casual piece of throwaway entertainment lacking substance or serious intent, with little for scholars to get their teeth into. However, this is a play whose time is surely coming again.
‘Revel in the eccentric ridiculousness of it all’: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR – Barbican Theatre ★★★★
Returning to the RSC and the Barbican for The Merry Wives of Windsor after his triumph in Titus Andronicus last year is David Troughton as the drunken and self-proclaimed womaniser, Falstaff, his caricaturesque performance mirroring the cartoony nature of the plot, characters, script and direction.
‘It’s a right royal carry on’: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon ★★★
The estuary accents, Dolce & Gabbana leggings, bling and selfies are a bit of a giveaway that Fiona Laird’s production of cheeky Shakespearean comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor is geographically dubious.
‘Ceaselessly funny and over the top’: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon ★★★★★
A great pleasure of Fiona Laird’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, ceaselessly funny and over-the-top, is that it reminds you that Shakespeare is the honoured ancestor of a hundred sitcoms.
NEWS: RSC reveals details of winter residency at the Barbican with three productions transferring
Later this year, the three Shakespeare productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s current Stratford-upon-Avon season this spring will transfer into the Barbican Theatre from October.
The RSC way: How to teach Shakespeare… & what he teaches us
The RSC provide resources, support, workshops and more to help children to start Shakespeare earlier, do it on their feet and see it live as set out in the RSC’s 2006 Manifesto, Stand Up For Shakespeare.
‘Gloriously gruesome’: TITUS ANDRONICUS – Barbican Theatre (RSC) ★★★★
Headed up with an engaging performance from RSC stalwart David Troughton as the frail but somehow still intimidating Titus Andronicus, the play is quite the ride with humour kept firmly at the forefront even as Titus finds himself losing a limb, very slowly.
‘Intensely watchable’: TITUS ANDRONICUS – Barbican Theatre (RSC)
Blanche McIntyre’s production features a fine performance from David Troughton in the title role. His performance as Titus, intensely watchable, is wracked with grief and both real and staged insanity.
TITUS ANDRONICUS – Stratford
Blanche McIntyre strives to give an aura of political correctness to her take on the bloodiest of Shakespeare’s plays – but she misses the point. Titus Andronicus is always going to be more about its final act’s Imperial Bake-Off than it will ever be about the failings of society.
FORTY YEARS ON – Chichester
I am inordinately fond of Forty Years On. In only my second ever trip to London, my mother took me to see the original production the year I was fifteen and therefore readily able to identify with the serge-trousered schoolboys it features in their end-of-term entertainment to mark the retirement of a long-serving headmaster.
KING LEAR – RSC, Barbican
Transferring in to London from Stratford, Antony Sher’s King Lear is a Shakespearean masterclass. With no headline-grabbing casting to this, one of Shakespeare’s greatest works, the production is a company-driven gem, led by the RSC’s seasoned bill-topper who’s more than earned the right to make the role his own.
KING LEAR – RSC, Barbican Centre
For many actors Lear is the ultimate role, hence the proliferation of productions that appear every year. In 2016 alone we’ve had Timothy West, Don Warrington and Michael Pennington all pop up in the role and Glenda Jackson is currently giving us a female perspective over at the Old Vic. RSC stalwart Antony Sher’s take on the role has been something we’ve been waiting a few years for… so how does he do?
GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM – Touring
David Wood’s adaptation of Michelle Magorian’s classic story is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking.
Diary of a Theatre Addict: School’s out (sort of), but I’m still catching up
At Thursday night’s opening of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Donmar Warehouse, it felt like the last day of term for many critics, so some were demob happy: it was the last big London first night of the year, at the end of a day that had earlier embraced two more press openings for the West End returns of The Gruffalo in the morning and Goodnight Mister Tom in the afternoon.
Diary of a Theatre Addict: School’s out (sort of), but I’m still catching up
At Thursday night’s opening of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Donmar Warehouse, it felt like the last day of term for many critics, so some were demob happy: it was the last big London first night of the year, at the end of a day that had earlier embraced two more press openings for the West End returns of The Gruffalo in the morning and Goodnight Mister Tom in the afternoon.
NEWS: Goodnight Mister Tom returns to West End, shares theatre with Peppa Pig
Following a hugely successful West End season in 2012/13, the critically acclaimed Chichester Festival Theatre adaptation of Michelle Magorian’s classic novel, Goodnight Mister Tom, returns to London for a limited-10 week season. The story is brought beautifully to life in David Wood’s Olivier Award winning stage version. The production will play this Christmas at the Duke of York’s Theatre, previewing from December 11th, with a press performance on December 17th at 2.30pm.
Review: Inherit The Wind (The Old Vic)
Kevin Spacey’s timing is exemplary. Not just in his personal performance but in bringing to the Old Vic such a dynamic production of the 1955 American war horse ‘Inherit The Wind’ – a courtroom drama based on the true-life story of a young Tennessee school teacher arraigned for promoting the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin […]
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