I’ve always found Antony and Cleopatra a bit of a slog. There, I’ve said it. Too many scenes which flit about all over the place, too many minor inconsequential characters, deaths which seem interminable.
‘Riotous fun from start to finish’: TWELFTH NIGHT – National Theatre ★★★★
This joyous and lively production, starring Tamsin Greig, is one of the best versions of Shakespeare’s comedy I’ve ever seen.
‘Okonedo more than delivers’: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA – National Theatre ★★★★
Or Cleopatra and Antony as it turns out. Ralph Fiennes is plenty good in Simon Godwin’s modern-dress production of Antony & Cleopatra for the National Theatre, but Sophie Okonedo is sit-up, shut-up, stand-up amazing.
‘There are moments here to be savoured’: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA – National Theatre ★★★★
At three and a half hours all in Antony and Cleopatra is a long haul, but with Fiennes and Okonedo making Shakespeare’s verse sing, there are moments here to be savoured.
‘Delivers on so much of its promise’: Antony & Cleopatra – National Theatre
After a genuinely exhilarating Julius Caesar at the Bridge Theatre a few months ago, Shakespeare’s subsequent tale Antony and Cleopatra has arrived at the National starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo.
COMMON – National Theatre
History is a tricky harlot. She is bought and sold, fought for and thrown over, seduced and betrayed — and always at the mercy of the winners. In a general election week, it is hard to deny that still now we are the progeny of the possessive individualism of previous centuries.
COMMON – National Theatre
Over the past few years where he may or may not have been studying sculpture at Saint Martin’s College, Northampton-born playwright DC Moore has been putting together a résumé of quietly impressive work – exploring aspects of contemporary masculinity in insightful plays such as the excellent Straight and under-rated monologue Honest, or opening up his focus to the war in Afghanistan in The Empire and family dramas in The Swan.
KING CHARLES III – BBC2
Uneasy lies the head that waits for the crown. Mike Barlett’s King Charles III was a deserved award-winning success when it took the Almeida by storm in 2014, transferring into the West End and then Broadway, later touring the UK and Australia too.
TWELFTH NIGHT – National Theatre
There’s nowt so queer as folk, at least not in Simon Godwin’s version of Illyria here. A gender-swapped Malvolia longs after her mistress Olivia, hipster-fop Sir Andrew Aguecheek is entirely smitten by a flirtatious Toby Belch, Antonio follows up his snog with Sebastian by inviting him to a rendez-vous at local drag bar The Elephant.
HAPGOOD – Hampstead Theatre
Because of the instability of the present there’s always a faint whiff of nostalgia for the old certainties of the past. And the Cold War era has its very own allure. This can be seen in two current successes: that of the revival of Tom Stoppard’s 1988 play, Hapgood, and of a new play by American playwright Mia Chung, You for Me for You, which takes a look behind the bamboo curtain at North Korea. When it was first staged, Stoppard’s play was widely seen as incomprehensible, with a labyrinthine plot which puzzled not only the characters of the story itself, but audiences as well. And Cold War certainties are surely not so comforting if they are, well, uncertain.
SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE BOX SET – DVD Review
I’m constantly amazed that these days, if I miss a major production of a play in the West End, I can generally pop along to the local cinema and watch it there or even in some cases buy a copy to watch at my leisure. As might be expected, the UK’s two premier producers of Shakespeare have been at the forefront of filming staged productions, and when two box sets of shows from Shakespeare’s Globe arrived a few weeks ago for review, I was delighted to visit a number of productions that pre-date my time reviewing theatre.