One bespectacled, anxious-looking Virginia Woolf in a sensible brown skirt and dreary cardigan is never enough, so Michael Grandage’s production of Orlando at the Garrick Theatre generously opens with a whole pack of Woolfs – nine of them – in Neil Bartlett’s new version of the author’s classic whimsical-feminist fantasy.
‘Definitely a show that’s been revived at the right time’: ORLANDO – Garrick Theatre ★★★★
Thought to be inspired by Virginia Woolf’s romance with Vita Sackville-West, Orlando depicts a boisterous protagonist whose journey spans five centuries and two genders. Its awareness of gender politics and expectations as well as the way is defies them is really something special, and it’s astounding that Woolf wrote such a groundbreaking piece of work in 1928 and that it remains so relevant now.
‘This is contemporary Shakespeare at its finest’: ROMEO & JULIET (National Theatre / Sky Arts)
Jessie Buckley is astonishing as the National Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet makes the jump from stage to screen to extraordinary effect.
‘Manages to be inherently theatrical & a successful movie experience’: ROMEO & JULIET (National Theatre / Sky Arts)
National Theatre and Sky Arts’ hybrid theatre and film production of Romeo & Juliet has been a fascinating experiment resulting in a smart, interesting and entirely collaborative piece of art.
NEWS: National Theatre announces original film of Romeo & Juliet with Josh O’Connor & Jessie Buckley
The National Theatre has announced it is creating a new filmed version of Romeo & Juliet for television, temporarily transforming the vast stage spaces of its Lyttelton theatre into a film studio to capture Shakespeare’s timeless play for a new generation of audiences. The National Theatre has broadcast stage productions to cinemas for over a decade through its National Theatre …
‘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.
‘Linguistically agile, theatrically pleasurable & emotionally dark’: GLASS. KILL. BLUEBEARD. IMP – Royal Court Theatre
Caryl Churchill’s Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. at the Royal Court is wonderfully bright and incisively perceptive.
‘Churchill’s fine writing has the cast to match’: GLASS. KILL. BLUEBEARD. IMP – Royal Court Theatre
Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp creates an essential piece of new writing – edgy, haunting and disconcertingly relevant and Caryl Churchill, at the age of 81, is still the playwright for our times.
‘By turns cynical, touching & with a rogue twinkle in its eye’: ALLELUJAH! – Bridge Theatre
By turns cynical, touching and with a rogue twinkle in its eye, Allelujah! doesn’t set the stage alight, and as both a black comedy and state-of-the-nation play it feels underpowered, but Bennett remains a bastion of not just British playwriting, but Britain as a whole.
Could Allelujah!’s transfer from stage to screen change our perception of the production?
Screening Alan Bennett’s Allelujah! on the big screen may well alter the viewer’s perspective, placing it within the tradition of television and film drama that lends itself to the cliffhanger-based six-part series that Bennett’s broad and episodic approach calls upon.
‘It is Bennett’s lasting gift to amateur dramatic societies up and down the country’: ALLELUJAH! – Bridge Theatre ★★★★
I am fully content to hail Alan Bennett as a National Treasure, and while I enjoyed many aspects of Allelujah!, I still hoped for even better and a return to his form in, say, The Madness of George III.
‘There are zero complaints about the acting, it’s the play that is on life support’: ALLELUJAH! – Bridge Theatre
In some ways, Allelujah! is perfectly symptomatic of the problem I have with the Bridge Theatre. Does London really need any new theatres, no matter how much people think they want interval madeleines?
Review Round-up: Alan Bennett’s Allelujah! at the Bridge Theatre
Alan Bennett’s latest play has officially opened at the Bridge Theatre, the premiere production directed by Bennett’s frequent collaborator and Bridge artistic director Nicholas Hytner. Here, Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews….
‘Warm & funny, dark & thought-provoking, all at the same time’: ALLELUJAH! – Bridge Theatre
The politics are an Old Labour and North London hybrid and, the hospital on stage is probably more fantasy than NHS reality. But when national treasures do something new, we should all rejoice. Allelujah, indeed.
‘Extremely funny & has something very urgent to say’: ALLELUJAH! – Bridge Theatre
Allelujah! is not a masterpiece, mainly because most of the characters are underdeveloped and there is too much going on, but it is extremely funny and it has something very urgent to say, and says it without compromise.
‘A love letter to the NHS, masterfully written’: ALLELUJAH! – Bridge Theatre ★★★★
A love letter to the NHS, masterfully written by Alan Bennett with lots of lovely touches – the 25-strong cast is impressive and really brings the play to life.
‘The crafty old bugger still has a gnarled finger on the nation’s trickier pulse points’: ALLELUJAH! – Bridge Theatre ★★★★
Alan Bennett has perhaps by chance hit two topical news hot-potatoes – barely a week old – even while deliberately tackling more obvious fave targets like NHS cuts and the Thatcher legacy.
ESCAPED ALONE – Royal Court Theatre
I ranked the play as the fourth best thing that I saw last year and though I don’t always like to go back to things I enjoyed (in case it sullies the memory), I wanted to treat myself to this again. And I’m glad I did, for the layered complexity of Churchill’s writing allows for re-appreciation and indeed re-interpretation.
THE CHILDREN – Royal Court Theatre
A great wave has engulfed the coast with consequent damage to the nearby nuclear power plant. Within this framework, Kirkwood builds a wonderfully delicate portrait of love, marriage and tensions boiling
THE CHILDREN – Royal Court Theatre
Lucy Kirkwood’s new play further ups the ante in making her protagonists sexual beings, her trio of retired scientists are battling not only the fallout from nuclear disaster but from the collision of their emotional lives.
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