The Globe’s main, outdoor theatre has not staged shows with a full audience since the summer of 2019, so the opening of its summer season with Lucy Bailey’s production of Much Ado About Nothing feels like an occasion.
‘Absolutely worth investing your time in’: HENRY VI: WARS OF THE ROSES – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon ★★★★
Running in rep alongside Henry VI: Rebellion (a.k.a. Henry VI, part two), the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre is also currently home to Henry VI, part three. As with the previous part, this third play in Shakespeare’s first Henriad has been renamed – going under the title Henry VI: Wars of the Roses.
‘Both a parody & a warning about that future’: THE 47th – Old Vic Theatre
Mike Bartlett has made a bit of an art out of notions of the counter-factual future. In The 47th, he grounds his flights of fancy in the knowledge of institutions, people and political tides.
‘This exhilarating production makes you wonder why the play is often so overlooked’: HENRY VI: REBELLION – Stratford-upon-Avon (RSC)
The story begins with Henry welcoming his new bride, Margaret of Anjou, with a boisterous feast that isn’t exactly suited to his calm and reserved temperament – though Margaret immediately feels at home.
‘Sets a new standard for future productions of Shakespeare’s problematic play’: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The Merchant of Venice is seen as a problematic play but, increasingly, it seems that the problems are with us, as much as they are with Shakespeare.
VIDEO: How do you gig up your Shakespeare? Wildcard’s Tempest post-show Q&A
Wildcard Theatre promises “Shakespeare like you have never experienced it before”, and they deliver in spades with this new gig-style reinvention of The Tempest in the perfect setting of the Pleasance’s cabaret-configured main house.
‘A relevant & timely production that will stay with you long after it has finished’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
This powerful and thought-provoking production is electrifying to watch from start to finish.
‘It’s inspired by Jim Henderson’s Labyrinth, Mad Max & Burning Man’: Luke W Robson on the design for Wildcard’s gig-theatre Tempest
Wildcard Theatre’s new gig-theatre reimagining of Shakespeare’s Tempest opens this week at London’s Pleasance Theatre. Designer Luke W Robson took a break from preparations to help us hyphenate gig-theatre and talk about sundials, sustainability and sexiness in creating the show’s look and feel.
New post-show Q&A: Join Terri Paddock for Wildcard’s new Tempest, Shakespeare done gig-style
As part of her resumed post-show talk series, Mates founder Terri Paddock will chair a discussion at Wildcard Theatre’s radical reimagining of Shakespeare classic The Tempest at the Pleasance Theatre on Tuesday 22 March 2022.
‘As much calculating businessman as inspirational ruler’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse
There’s way too much going on in this production of Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse, despite Kit Harington’s return to the stage.
‘Kit Harington combines drop-dead gorgeous with an innate everyman likability’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★★
This thrilling Donmar revival comes at a particularly interesting time in global history, where an unchecked leader invading a neighbouring country on which he has no authentic claim is likely to provoke a particularly vehement reaction.
NEWS: After Electrolyte success, Wildcard presents new gig-style Tempest at Pleasance
Wildcard Theatre, the multi-award-winning company behind Edinburgh Fringe hit Electrolyte, mounts a highly anticipated new production of Tempest, coming to London’s Pleasance Theatre from 11 March to 3 April 2022. Time to get booking!
‘Kit Harington is nuanced, often quiet & considered’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★★
Henry V opens with a burst of energy at a club with a worse for wear party prince. It’s lifted from Henry IV part 2 and is an important reminder of Henry V’s past and subsequent transformation into a serious king.
‘This is easily Kit Harington’s finest career performance on stage or screen’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse
Henry V is the greatest war play ever written and is the template for all literary responses to conflict since produced.
Is The Merchant of Venice an anti-semitic play or a play about anti-semitism?
We think that The Merchant of Venice was written between 1596 and 1599 – in the twilight years of Elizabeth’s reign. It was printed in 1600 and so had, one assumes, already been performed by then.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Hamlet at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
On LoveLondonLoveCulture, Emma Clarendon rounds up the reviews for Hamlet, the first indoor production of Shakespeare’s play at Shakespeare’s Globe, now running in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse until 9 April 2022.
‘There is quite a bit going on but it balances perfectly’: HAMLET – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
As soon as Hamlet was announced as part of the 2021-22 winter season my eyes rolled so hard I nearly saw the inside of my eye sockets. I was desperately disappointed. But then something magical happened: a Hamlet unlike any other.
It’s going to be epic: What are you most looking forward to at the Globe this summer?
It seems like we’ve been made to wait an inordinately long time for this announcement, but it was definitely worth it as far as I’m concerned.
Year in review: Ian’s 10 favourite shows of 2021
Just a little bit late… Here’s 10 of my favourite shows, both online and onstage but fully acknowledging that I saw a lot less than usual, I might actually have broken the back of this theatre obsession – it just took a global pandemic to do it…!
New work, new voices, hybrid approaches: How theatre changed in 2021
It has been another complicated year for theatres with venues unable to welcome in-person audiences for more than five months of 2021 and the tail end of the year returning to enforced closure and performance cancellations.