I was talking with a client yesterday, who is a theatre-maker and wanting, like so many, to get back in front of a live audience and to work close with fellow creatives to make work happen. We decided to focus on a few areas – not least because we have no idea how long we are going to be in the current state of lockdown and reliance on digital platforms.
Roustabout Theatre’s founders reflect on a challenging but creative year
The founders of Roustabout Theatre privilege have turned the challenges of 2020 into creative ideas and continue to find joy in sharing their stories and laughter with people of all ages.
‘Offers psychological chills from the start’: MACBETH – Big Telly Theatre Company (Online review)
With some scenes of conflict filmed in a style which evokes the “found-footage” style seen in The Blair Witch Project and others, this Big Telly Theatre Company’s Macbeth – for which audience members are instructed to draw the curtains and dim the lights – offers psychological chills from the start.
‘The subtleties & concerns of this story are universal’: SAFE SPACE (Online review)
Teater V’s Safe Space faces a tough subject head on with some style while always staying one step ahead of its audience.
New opportunities in the world of Zoom Zj-ing
Over the last few months I have moved so much of my life and work online, often using Zoom, as so many of us have. Yesterday someone decided I should now call myself a Zj…which sounds fun.
‘A courtroom setting gets round socially distanced difficulties’: THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS – Guildford Shakespeare Company (Online review)
Guildford Shakespeare Company first performed their adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic in 2015. After a successful series of Zoom murder mystery evenings, they decided to recreate their hit family production.
‘A cautionary tale about the importance of ideas & the value of human connection’: THE MACHINE STOPS – Big Telly Theatre (Online review)
Imagine a world where social contact is limited by a raft of regulations. A world where everyone communicates via computer instead of face to face.
Lost Labour of Love: ‘All I had to do was turn up & say the words wot Shakespeare wrote, didn’t I?’
Knowing that some 600 people had applied the week previous to that, I had no great expectation that I would be selected but, to my amazement, I was offered the part of Costard.
In Praise of Love… & Zoom: How can a classic play be shown in a medium never designed to present it?
In Praise of Love is a complex play which relies on a claustrophobic gathering of people in one place and the tensions which come from hiding their feelings.
Over the past two weeks they have brought…
‘This was the best time I’ve had on a Zoom call’: JURY DUTY – Exit Productions ★★★★ (Online review)
In this world turned upside down, emergency legislation has been rushed through to do away with barristers. Now the accused in court have only you.
‘A real gem’: Philip Ridley’s online series The Beast Will Rise is ‘sublime storytelling’
The problem with creating theatre in an era of lockdown is that the constraints of working online tend towards a uniformity of creativity
How does a couple manage the work/life balancing act in lockdown?
Work is something that every single on of us is thinking about at the moment. Charlie & Jeff are having entirely different Lockdown work experiences under the same roof. Is it possible to balance the workload, balance the books AND balance married life?
‘Each piece is bold in its message, brave in its execution & a thrill to watch’: BETTER IN PERSON – Burn Bright (Online review)
‘There is no doubt that this is the first of many events from the Burn Bright family. A family that has staked it very existence on the fact that we need a seismic shift in the way we create, present and support theatre.’
‘Christopher Green is a performer of charisma, with interesting body language & a vision in pink’: NO SHOW – Yard Theatre
I wanted to try out something from The Yard Online’s day of fun, and chose No Show, a Zoom performance which sounded something a bit different.
‘No one has any road map for this’: Rehearsing theatre over Zoom
In the first of a series of Notes From The Front Line interviews, I speak to director Max Lindsay about his experiences working on a show over Zoom in lockdown, to find out about how he’s been getting on and see what tips or advice he has to share.
‘Philip Ridley’s masterly monologue explores the anxieties of our current culture of fear’: GATORS (Online review)
Gloriously surreal monologue about everyday anxieties in extraordinary circumstances: welcome back the glittering dark!