Theatre
Olivia Williams interview: 'Are you on drugs?' 'No I've just spent the day acting'Monday, 24 July 2017
Olivia Williams’s first film was, (in)famously, seen by almost no one. The Postman, Kevin Costner’s expensive futuristic misfire, may have summoned her from the depths of chronic unemployment, but the first time anyone actually clapped eyes on her... Read more... |
Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's Globe review - swaggering Shakespeare with a comic Spanish accentFriday, 21 July 2017
When I say that Matthew Dunster’s Much Ado is revolutionary I’m not talking about the many textual updatings and rewritings, not the lashings of PJ Harvey, nor even the gunfire – weaponised punchlines that cut through the colour and noise of the... Read more... |
Dessert, Southwark Playhouse review - undercooked and overwroughtWednesday, 19 July 2017
"What is this, Saving Private Ryan?" a character randomly queries well into the actor Oliver Cotton's new play, Dessert. Well, more like a modern-day An Inspector Calls on steroids, with the volume turned up so high in Trevor Nunn's production... Read more... |
A Tale of Two Cities, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre review - it was the longest of timesMonday, 17 July 2017
Much loved, yes. But Dickens’s novel is probably little read by modern audiences and so a chance to see a new adaptation of this tale of discontent, riot and general mayhem set in the French revolution and spread across London and Paris in the late... Read more... |
Enter theartsdesk's Young Reviewer of the Year AwardSaturday, 15 July 2017
The Hospital Club’s annual h.Club100 awards celebrate the most influential and innovative people working in the UK’s creative industries, with nominations from the worlds of film and fashion, art, advertising, theatre, music, television and more.... Read more... |
'You win in the end!' Deborah Bruce introduces her play 'The House They Grew Up In'Friday, 14 July 2017
My inspiration for The House They Grew Up In, my new play at Chichester Festival Theatre came about five years ago, in the café of an art gallery near my house. This café had a slightly intimidating air, full of its own importance, as if the art in... Read more... |
Bodies, Royal Court review – pregnant with meaningWednesday, 12 July 2017
Surrogacy is an emotionally fraught subject. The arrangement by which one woman gives birth to another’s baby challenges traditional notions of motherhood, and pitches the anguish of the woman who can’t have children herself against the agony of... Read more... |
Queen Anne, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - slow, long and dullTuesday, 11 July 2017
How well do you know your British history? Fancy explaining the causes and origins of the Glorious Revolution or listing the members of the Grand Alliance? What about the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement or the Occasional Confirmity Bill of 1702... Read more... |
The Tempest, Barbican Theatre review - sound and fury at the expense of senseFriday, 07 July 2017
Can The Tempest open on stage without a tempest – of crashing, shrieking and torment – and thus without what can become five minutes-plus of inaudibility? In Gregory Doran’s 2016 Stratford production for the RSC, revived at the Barbican Theatre... Read more... |
The Mentor, Vaudeville Theatre review - having fun with artistic integrityWednesday, 05 July 2017
German writer Daniel Kehlmann’s light-touch 90-minute comedy is a chic satire on the slippery business of making art – and especially on the difficulty of assessing it. Whose judgement matters, after all? This production now in the West End was... Read more... |
Matthew Dunster on adapting 'A Tale of Two Cities'Tuesday, 04 July 2017
When you are adapting a novel like A Tale of Two Cities, it's a privilege to sit with a great piece of writing for a considerable amount of time. You also feel secure (and a bit cheeky) in the knowledge that another writer has already done most of... Read more... |
Committee review - we're all on trial in new Kids Company musicalTuesday, 04 July 2017
A memorable 2015 parliamentary select committee hearing asked Kids Company CEO Camila Batmanghelidjh and chair of trustees Alan Yentob whether the organisation was ever fit for purpose. Tom Deering, Hadley Fraser and Josie Rourke’s new verbatim... Read more... |
