It is always exciting seeing van Hove’s work for the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam with its cinematic vision encapsulated in theatrical form. Here in Who Killed My Father at the Young Vic Theatre there is both intimacy and scale that neatly capture the contradictions and complexities of loving a family member. The title of this work may not be a question but it certainly makes a statement.
‘Subtle but powerful’: WHO KILLED MY FATHER – Young Vic Theatre ★★★★
I can now say I’ve seen Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio on stage. OK, so they were on telly on stage, but that is technically on stage. Kate and Leo were in Titanic mode, the favourite film of the son in Who Killed My Father. His homophobic father initially refuses to get him the video for his birthday.
At the theatre after an extraordinary day that saw us bid farewell to Her Majesty the Queen
Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily, after an extraordinary day that saw us bid farewell to Her Majesty the Queen, after a reign of 70 years that saw her appoint 15 prime ministers — the latest of whom Liz Truss she met only on Tuesday. Truss will now be reporting in a weekly audience to King Charles III (coincidentally the title of Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play which imagined the future that awaited him — and us — that transferred to the West End and Broadway).
‘Ruth Wilson plays her part to perfection, a masterclass in control and variation’: THE HUMAN VOICE – West End
Ruth Wilson delivers an acting masterclass in Jean Cocteau modernist classic adapted by Ivo van Hove.
‘Ruth Wilson & Ivo van Hove once again prove a dynamic pairing’: THE HUMAN VOICE – West End
Ivo van Hove puts aside his filmic style for an intimate monologue about the end of love. Starring Ruth Wilson, Jean Cocteau’s play The Human Voice, is a sympathetic study of a woman driven to distraction by a final phone call with her lover.
‘Ruth Wilson is strong casting in the central role’: HEDDA GABLER – National Theatre At Home (Online review)
Ruth Wilson is strong casting in the central role with a, for once, restrained Ivo van Hove directing.
NEWS: Ivo van Hove directs Ruth Wilson in West End run of Cocteau’s The Human Voice
Ruth Wilson will star in Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice for three weeks only at the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre from 17 March 2022.
‘Things in it which were admirable’: LAZARUS (Online review)
Prominent among other commemorative David Bowie events is a three-day streaming of Lazarus, the theatre piece that he was working on towards the end of his life and which was ultimately produced to extremely mixed reviews.
The cinefication of theatre predates lockdown: What are the implications?
For better or worse, the association between theatre, television and film has only grown closer in the last ten years, not just with artists moving between the different genres but also in the adoption of cinematic technique within productions.
Streetcars, Smoke & Southern Belles: Taking on Tennessee Williams
As a great American dramatist, Williams’s timeless understanding of human emotion and the particularly explosive dynamics of family groups has always been such a notable feature of his writing.
Decade Round-Up: The Plays
This isn’t a ‘best of’ list it’s my best-of list, these are the plays that shaped me this decade and will stay with me well into the next.
20 shows to look forward to in 2020
Looking ahead to some of 2020’s exciting shows, most with an emphasis away from the West End and instead focusing at the London Fringe and across the UK.
10 of Ought To Be Clowns’ top moments of the decade
Ever behind the curve, I present 10 of my top moments in a theatre over the last ten years (plus a few bonus extra ones because whittling down this list was hard, and it will probably be different tomorrow anyway!).
‘There’s a lot of exciting, ferocious, young theatre-makers out there’: 10 questions for 10 years – Rosie Wyatt
She’s been acting less time than I’ve been blogging but I can’t hold that against Rosie Wyatt, an actress whose name you should know.
10 questions for 10 years – Hans Kesting
Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s Hans Kesting was my first ever Best Actor award winner and has continued to be one of the most interesting actors around, in any language.
‘Trademark van Hove is a good & bad thing’: ALL ABOUT EVE – West End ★★★★
Ivo van Hove’s production and stage adaptation of the film All About Eve is trademark van Hove and that is a good and bad thing.
‘There are moments of greatness in amongst the gimmicks’: ALL ABOUT EVE – West End ★★★
Love London Love Culture’s Kirsty Herrington paid a visit to the Noel Coward Theatre to see Ivo van Hove’s production of All About Eve, based on the Oscar-winning film.
‘Fascinating it still is, engaging perhaps not always’: ALL ABOUT EVE – West End ★★★
Fascinating All About Eve is, engaging perhaps not always. But anyone hoping for the same level of emotional payoff that Anderson’s other stage roles have demonstrated will likely end up frustrated with Eve.
‘The kind of emotional intensity that remains rare’: ALL ABOUT EVE – West End
Ivo van Hove’s take on All About Eve ticks all my boxes at the Noël Coward Theatre, great work from Gillian Anderson, Lily James and a stellar Monica Dolan.
‘Something quite different’: ALL ABOUT EVE – West End
This All About Eve is something quite different, same story deliberately new frame with staging that pushes at the boundaries of theatre and film.