London’s Jermyn Street Theatre has announced its first full season since reopening with the Footprints Festival earlier this year. The Encounters Season, which runs from mid-September to the end of the year, features some of the UK’s best-known stage names.
‘Not all subterfuge & double jeopardy’: A SPLINTER OF ICE – Original Theatre Company (Online review)
A Splinter of Ice moves away from a basic biography by mirroring its spy subjects and never allowing the audience to be quite sure which of its many faces is the real one.
‘Engrossing from the first moment’: A SPLINTER OF ICE – Original Theatre Company (Online review)
A Splinter of Ice is a ‘tell, not show’ play but it is engrossing from the first moment, and the characters feel completely believeable with their moments of resigned boredom, creaks of ageing, and acceptance of the card fate dealt them.
NEWS: Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter Of Ice begins its UK tour in June 2021
Following a successful season of online productions, Original Theatre Company has announced its first live stage production since March 2020. The UK tour of Ben Brown’s new political drama A Splinter Of Ice will open on 8 June 2021 at the Malvern Festival Theatre and will tour until 31 July.
NEWS: Original Theatre Company’s production of Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter Of Ice will tour following its online release
Original Theatre Company’s production of Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter Of Ice (about Graham Greene & Kim & Rufa Philby) will star Oliver Ford Davies, Stephen Boxer and Sara Crowe. A filmed version airs 15 April-31 July 2021 followed by a live tour.
‘More of a novel than a play’: THE REMAINS OF THE DAY – Touring ★★★
So what we have here in Remains of the Day is a masterclass in acting, deft in direction and a rightful meditation on an England that so nearly went into the dark. But still, for all that, more of a novel than a play.
‘Beautifully acted & stylishly staged’: THE REMAINS OF THE DAY – Touring
Neither Kazuro Ishiguro’s prize-winning novel, or the acclaimed film adaptation, of The Remains of the Day prepares you for the profound tragedy felt after seeing this heart-rending story played out on stage.
‘Entertaining & impeccably acted’: STORIES – National Theatre
Ultimately, Stories might not necessarily be too profound or truly enlightening, but it does speak to the ways in which a plan for life can lead you most astray and I did find it entertaining and impeccably acted.
‘Undemanding & not bad fun’: STORIES – National Theatre ★★★
It’s a sign of the sparky credibility of Nina Raine’s play about a woman desperate for a sperm donor – having broken with her younger, unwilling boyfriend – that half an hour in I started thinking “aren’t women hell!” But later that changes to “actually, it’s theatricals and intellectual creatives who are hell”. It is all very NW3.
‘Kinnear makes the classic soliloquies his own’: MACBETH – National Theatre ★★★
The politics may be clumsy but the acting is beautiful at the National Theatre. Make no mistake, Rory Kinnear is a magnificent Macbeth.
‘A red-trousered disappointment’: MACBETH – National Theatre
A whole lot of post-apocalyptic hurly-burly and sadly not much more besides – the National Theatre’s Macbeth really is something of a red-trousered disappointment.
‘A huge missed opportunity’: MACBETH – National Theatre
Here at the National, as with many other attempts, the production’s vision lacks real purpose and fails to engage with the complex motivation of Macbeth himself, leaving him and us nowhere to go.
Q&A podcast: Rediscovering James Shirley’s 1641 classic The Cardinal
Why has THE CARDINAL gone so long unproduced? How did director Justin Audibert discover it? Why stage an epic, 19-character tragedy in Southwark’s 120-seat Off-West End theatre?
PHOTOS: The Cardinal opens at Southwark Playhouse, Last chance for Q&A
Ahead of tomorrow night’s Q&A chaired by My Theatre Mates’ co-founder Terri Paddock, production and opening night photos have been released for the Troupe’s production of rarely seen 17th-century classic The Cardinal.
THE CARDINAL – Southwark Playhouse
The Cardinal emerges as a revenge tragedy and Audibert’s clear-sighted direction ensures that the intricacies of the plotting is lucid and consistently compelling.
PHOTOS & VIDEO: Sneak peek into rehearsals for The Cardinal at Southwark Playhouse
Rehearsal photos and show trailer have now been released for the Troupe’s forthcoming new production of rarely seen 17th-century classic The Cardinal.
New post-show Q&A: Join Terri to talk to the director & cast of The Cardinal
Mates co-founder Terri Paddock will talk to the director and company of rarely seen 17th-century tragic masterpiece THE CARDINAL on Thursday 23 February 2017. Got any questions? Book tickets to join her for this post-show Q&A.
RAISING MARTHA – Park Theatre
There’s a madcap edge to David Spicer’s new comedy that spoofs so much of modern England.
Stephen Boxer is Gerry Duffy, a middle aged frog farmer who’s been supplying amphibians for dissection in schools for years, but who recently has become the target of animal-liberation activists.
RAISING MARTHA – Park Theatre
Raising Martha is a production that has been hit by various casting changes, firstly Morgana Robinson was replaced by Game of Throne’s Gwyneth Keyworth and in a less high profile change Jasper Britton was replaced by Stephen Boxer. The production hasn’t suffered for it.
NEWS: Justin Audibert directs 1641 classic The Cardinal, Stephen Boxer stars
James Shirley’s tragic 1641 masterpiece, The Cardinal, comes to Southwark Playhouse in 2017, in a new production starring Stephen Boxer and directed by Justin Audibert.