The Two Gentlemen of Verona in it’s natural outdoor setting Shakespeare’s early plays are often problematic, with the bawdier comedies such as The Comedy of Errors the faults are hidden within some gloriously silly slapstick, but in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona (quite possibly the first play in Will’s canon) the flaws are writ large. […]
The Truth @ Wyndham's Theatre
Florian Zeller’s name is fast becoming a byword for gripping, fascinating and often brilliantly funny theatre. Productions of The Mother and The Father have racked up critical raves and when The Truth opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory it was greeted with equal fervour.
Macbeth @ Shakespeare's Globe
Like most of Shakespeare’s tragedies Macbeth works best when viewed on the strength of the relationships between its characters. Sure the blood and guts murders are ways to get bum on seats but even with a literal thunderstorm overhead foreshadowing the tumultuous effects of Macbeth’s actions it all boils down to a marriage made strong by the […]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream @ Shakespeare’s Globe
Anarchy! It’s not what you expect from a Shakespeare play… even one that has been performed in as many ways as A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been tackled.Emma Rice’s debut piece in her first season as Artistic Director for the Globe throws the rulebook right out of the window though with performers wearing head mics, […]
The Taming Of The Shrew @ Shakespeare’s Globe
Shakespeare’s Globe’s Wonder Season is in full swing on Bankside, with the theatre becoming more and more of a fantasy world. I have to confess that The Taming Of The Shrew would not have been one of the plays I’d have picked for such a whimsical programme, but this production has a magic of its […]
An Enemy Of The People @ Chichester Festival Theatre
There is a stark, depressing, inevitability to Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy Of The People. He rather masterfully makes us believe that one man can make a difference if he is morally right before pulling a 180 degree turn by introducing money into the decision making process of his characters. It is perhaps a more striking […]
Sunset Boulevard @ London Coliseum
It isn’t often that you can sit in the theatre and be certain, before the show begins, that you are about to bear witness to something special that will be talked about by theatre fans for years to come!
Avenue Q @ The Mayflower, Southampton
I’m a bit of an Avenue Q fan, I think we can admit that. In fact, every time this production has appeared anywhere near home I’ve made a point to go see it, you can read my thoughts on this production in Winchester and Portsmouth to find out just how much I loved it the last time […]
DVD REVIEW: RSC’s King and Country Box Set
I’m a relatively new convert to Shakespeare. Going to an all-boys secondary school in the mid-nineties there was very little focus on arts subjects and it put me off the bard for a long time. Even when I finally started going to see productions of Shakespeare’s plays I was wary of the Royal Shakespeare Company. […]
An Inspector Calls @ The Mayflower, Southampton
We’ve always been intrigued by Stephen Daldry’s highly revered production of this classic play but it has somehow consistently eluded us. Determined to cover it when the next chance came we dispatched Emma van Kooperen to report in for us!