Bethan Cullinane as Innogen photo by Ellie Kurttz For reasons I don’t pretend to understand 2016 has been the year of Cymbeline, a production of the play formed part of the winter season at the Globe’s Sam Wanamaker playhouse at the start of the year, Matthew Dunster’s “renamed and reclaimed” Imogen ended Emma Rice’s debut […]
The Shawshank Redemption @ The Mayflower, Southampton
It’s one of Hollywood’s great anachronisms, a movie that underwhelmed at the box office but came to define the burgeoning home video market, and all from a throwaway short story by an author better known for horror than drama. Can this new touring production from Bill Kenwright live up to the version we all know and […]
Love's Labours Lost/Much Ado About Nothing @ Chichester Festival Theatre
the company of Much Ado About Nothing There’s something special about seeing a Shakespeare play for the first time – so the chance to see two, on the same day and in linked productions couldn’t be missed. A couple of years ago the Royal Shakespeare Company paired Love’s Labours Lost with Much Ado About Nothing […]
This House @ The Minerva Theatre, Chichester
Ahead of Headlong‘s new production of ‘This House’ heading to the West End we dispatched Emma van Kooperen to check it out in the cosy confines of Chichester’s Minerva Theatre.
Imogen @ Shakespeare's Globe
Photo: Tristram Kenton Cymbeline has long been regarded as perhaps the most challenging of Shakespeare’s “problem plays”, a hodge-podge of plots thrown together without any consistency of tone or style – it’s almost like a series of sketches more than a coherent play. It’s normally best presented as comedy or fairy tale, but this gritty […]
The Alchemist @ The Barbican Centre
Photo by Helen Maybanks (c) RSC After two nights of pretty intense action from the Royal Shakespeare Company I was glad to be seeing something a little lighter on my return visit to the Barbican Centre (we were in Stratford-Upon-Avon on Monday to see their new production of King Lear before heading to London and […]
Doctor Faustus @ The Barbican Centre
It’s a rare feeling to sit in the audience for a play and feel you truly don’t know what to expect – in the age of social media it’s impossible not to have a good idea what to expect, but when two men walk onto the stage at the beginning of Faustus, stare each other […]
Children of Eden @ The Union Theatre
Photo by Scott Rylander The 70s were a hotbed for edgy takes on musical theatre so it’s remarkable that some of the shows that have lingered with us the longest share a common source – the bible. From the Lloyd Webber one two punch of the twee Joseph and the ballsy rocking Jesus Christ Superstar […]
Fracked @ The Minerva Theatre, Chichester
While we can lay claim to a lot of things here at Sitting In The Cheap Seats we’ve not, as yet, mastered the act of being in two places at once. As such it was a case of divide and conquer on Friday night as Matt headed to London to see The Fix (review here) while Emma van Kooperen braved […]
The Fix @ The Union Theatre
credit: Darren Bell There are times when theatre can seem almost too prescient, where a show can offer a glimpse into a possible future that seems a little too real. There are moments in Michael Strassen’s production of The Fix that make you wonder just how much we are manipulated by the public view of […]