Sadness and failure have their own grandeur, like the bleak back-hills projected behind Robert Jones’ sweeping vista of a set. In Josie Rourke’s deeply atmospheric production of Dancing At Lughnasa at the National Theatre, rural Donegal desolation looms behind small domesticity, just as the pagan wildness of human nature threatens the threadbare sedateness of Catholicism.
‘A blend of rom-com & dystopian fantasy’: Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre
Culture which arrives from the margins to the mainstream is a classic phenomenon. In the case of Sam Steiner’s Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons it has taken almost a decade for this two-hander to make the journey from a student production at Warwick University, via the Warwick Arts Centre in 2015 — plus outings to the National Student Drama Festival and Edinburgh Festival — before finally arriving in the West End.
‘Nicely tragicomic’: Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre
“Words, words, words,” Eliza Doolittle was sick of them particularly as empty descriptions of the love she wanted a practical demonstration of. Sam Steiner’s play Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons at the Harold Pinter Theatre is first filled with too many of them and then not enough for Bernadette and Oliver, a couple who struggle to express their feelings for one another no matter how many or how few words they are permitted.
‘Everyone is set free’: AS YOU LIKE IT – @Soho Place
Plenty of productions search fruitlessly for the magic in As You Like It, but Josie Rourke’s version at the new @sohoplace theatre makes it seems effortless. This is greatly helped by the delightful new space, designed by architects Haworth Tompkins as that rare thing – a theatre in the round.
National Theatre at Home: Saving our lockdown & pointing the way for future engagement
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.
‘This is our humanity. And sheer genius’ – Andrew Scott in SEA WALL
Lockdown occasionally spawns some real delights. Like the surprise appearance of a strange creature from the profoundest depths. One of these must be Andrew Scott’s superb performance in Simon Stephens’s Sea Wall.
Mind The Blog’s top five musical choices for 2020
If you’re struggling with all the choice, Mind The Blog has come up with her top five musicals you do not want to miss in 2020.
NEWS: Five years after Donmar sell-out, City of Angels transfers to West End’s Garrick Theatre
Josie Rourke’s critically acclaimed and Olivier Award-winning production of City of Angels makes its West End transfer five years since opening at the Donmar Warehouse in 2014.
How the Mates Rate: Sweet Charity at the Donmar Warehouse
Sweet Charity, Josie Rourke’s farewell production at the Donmar Warehouse which stars Anne-Marie Duff as Charity and Arthur Darvill as Oscar, appears to have charmed the majority of our Mates, with a few reservations here and there. The musical continues until 8 June 2019.
‘The show sparkles with invention’: SWEET CHARITY – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
‘A sweet sexy fairy tale’ is how one critic described Sweet Charity on its opening in London in October 1967. And Josie Rourke’s final production as the Donmar’s artistic director before handing over to Michael Longhurst certainly lives up to that description, but also makes it something rather more and darker because of the unlikely casting of Anne-Marie Duff as Charity.
‘Fun, laughs, good time’: SWEET CHARITY – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
This is as unconventional production of Sweet Charity as you’re likely to see. Set firmly in the art milieu of Andy Warhol’s Factory, it’s so perfectly, silver-foil-wrapped acid-tabbed 1967 it’s like you were actually there.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Sweet Charity at the Donmar Warehouse
Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for Josie Rourke’s final production at the Donmar Warehouse, Sweet Charity.
‘Every number is irresistible’: SWEET CHARITY – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
The minute you walk in the joint (Hey, big spender!), the trumpets and sax blare an impertinent welcome and you’re in the right dive for Sweet Charity.
‘Full of heart & exuberance’: SWEET CHARITY – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
Director Josie Rourke ends her tenure at the Donmar Warehouse with a hip revival of Sweet Charity that pushes Anne-Marie Duff out of her comfort zone and shows a new side to Adrian Lester.
NEWS: Adrian Lester & Beverley Knight are among the guest actors cast as Daddy Brubeck in Donmar Warehouse’s Sweet Charity
Multiple guest actors will play the role of Daddy Brubeck in Josie Rourke’s production of Sweet Charity at the Donmar Warehouse including Shaq Taylor, Adrian Lester, Le Gateau Chocolat, Beverley Knight and Clive Rowe with further casting to be announced.
BOOK REVIEW: About the Art of the Artistic Director
Christopher Haydon, the former artistic director of the Gate Theatre in London, has written the book About The Art of the Artistic Director.
NEWS: Martha Plimpton will reprise her role in Donmar Warehouse’s production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage when it transfers to the Gielgud
The Donmar Warehouse’s sold-out production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat by Lynn Nottage will transfer to London’s Gielgud Theatre for a limited six-week run from 7 June 2019, with Martha Plimpton reprising her role as Tracey in Lynette Linton’s acclaimed production. Further casting is to be announced.