Written in collaboration with John Fletcher, Henry VIII is quite possibly Shakespeare’s final play – but, despite this country’s continued obsession with all things Tudor, it remains a rarely performed piece. Imagine the delight of Shakespeare completists everywhere when it was announced as part of the Globe’s 2022 summer season, this time in a slightly updated version that sees Hannah Khalil (resident writer) become the third collaborator; the original has a heavy male focus, thanks in part to the two (male) playwrights having to work around the expectations of the establishment to avoid censorship and arrest – but now 400 years have passed, it’s about time the female voices in this story were heard as well.
NEWS: Original 2-part West End production of Harry Potter & the Cursed Child resumes in October 2021
The original two-part multi-award-winning production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will resume performances at London’s Palace Theatre on 14 October 2021. After over a year and a half of shutdown due to the pandemic, rehearsals for the West End production will begin this August.
Debbie’s favourite male performances of 2018
Mind the Blog rounds up her favourite male performances in the theatre during 2018.
NEWS: More tickets released for London’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as the show’s enters its third year in the West End
On the anniversary of the world premiere and the start of the third year for the London Production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, the producers have announced that further tickets will be released for sale on 18 September 2018 for performances from 10 April to 28 July 2019. Producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender said: …
FIRST-LOOK PHOTOS: Harry Potter’s new company are casting their West End spell
We’ve just got our hands on production shots for the new 2018-19 West End cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Scroll through the full gallery below…
NEWS: Harry Potter & the Cursed Child announces new cast & more tickets available
The third West End cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will start their performances at the Palace Theatre in London on 23 May 2018 following the final performance from the current ensemble on 20 May 2018.
NEWS: Cast announced for The White Devil & Othello at the Globe
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce casting for the next two productions in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The White Devil runs from 26 January to 16 April with a press night on 1 February. Othello runs from 23 February to 16 April with a apress night on 2 March.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: King John at the Rose Theatre, Kingston
Trevor Nunn returns to the Rose Theatre in Kingston to direct one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays. What have critics been saying about the production? King John continues until 5 June 2016.
KING JOHN – Rose Theatre, Kingston
The rarely performed or heard of play by William Shakespeare sees the return of Trevor Nunn at the Rose Theatre, who valiantly tries to deliver a solid production of a problematic play.
KING JOHN – Rose Theatre, Kingston
Of Shakespeare’s plays this is one of the least done and loved: there’s disputed authorship of some sections, parts of the plot missing and replaced from another text. Sir Trevor Nunn takes it on as the penultimate achievement in his intention to direct all 37 plays: I was agog, since I missed the Globe’s version (part of the Magna Carta anniversary, though oddly the play ignores that milestone in the life of “England’s worst king”).
DVD REVIEW: The Merchant of Venice, RSC
This year may be the battle of the Cymbelines, with the Royal Shakespeare Company presenting their take while the Globe present two versions, one currently running in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Imogen (a “retitled and reclaimed” production) part of Emma Rice’s inaugural season. Last year the two establishments presented alternate takes on The Merchant of Venice with Polly Findlay’s RSC production the first to arrive on DVD.establishments presented alternate takes on The Merchant of Venice with Polly Findlay’s RSC production the first to arrive on DVD.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon
What an odd, stark, angry, intelligent Merchant this is! Wholly unlike the last RSC production, Rupert Goold’s spectacular Merchant-of-Vegas gameshow. Polly Findlay sets it modern dress, on a bare stage whose floor and backdrop are gold bars, mirroring the auditorium and making us visible witnesses to the case of Antonio, the shipowning speculator, and his deal with Shylock the Jew. A gilded pendulum swings constantly at stage level; the three caskets descend too, 65 feet from the grid on wires, bald as geometry diagrams – cube, cone, cylinder.