Shakespeare
theartsdesk in Hay-on-Wye: More Light than Heat at Hay 25Sunday, 10 June 2012
To each their own Hay. The Roman encampment that is the modern-day literary festival, circled by pantechnicons and trending in the Twittersphere, looks very much like a monomaniacal content provider for all comers. Astroturf walkways deliver the... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: Hamlet, Shakespeare's GlobeMonday, 04 June 2012
We’re fresh out of superlatives. The Globe to Globe season has put a girdle around the earth in 37 languages, and the visiting companies have now left the building. You have to high-five the Globe’s chutzpah for mounting this wondrous contribution... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's GlobeSunday, 03 June 2012
Productions at the life-changing Globe to Globe sequence of international takes on the Bard have had numerous points of origin, from shows conceived directly for the event to reprises of stagings that in the case of the Brazilian Romeo and Juliet... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: Timon of Athens, Shakespeare's GlobeSaturday, 02 June 2012
Diamonds one day, stones the next: compulsive giver Timon’s swift descent into raving misanthropy would be better packed into a gritty pop ballad than a full-length play. Still, Shakespeare just about pulls it off: having had more of a hindering... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: Henry VIII, Shakespeare's GlobeThursday, 31 May 2012
Now here's a surprise. In English, Henry VIII gets dismissed as a Shakespearean dud (well, let's apportion the blame as well to the play's generally acknowledged co-author, John Fletcher), its karma not exactly enhanced by one's awareness that this... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare's GlobeMonday, 28 May 2012
The battle of the sexes took on a bright and breezy tone in Pakistan's contribution to the Globe's ongoing Bardathon, the Theatre Wallay-Kashf's rumbustious production of The Taming of the Shrew. It's been more customary of late to treat this most... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare's GlobeSunday, 27 May 2012
The Winter’s Tale may not be one of the best loved of Shakespeare’s plays – not quite a comedy, not quite a full-blown drama – but the Globe was packed on the hottest night of the year for this vibrant Yoruba version direct from Lagos. South-East... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: All's Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare's GlobeFriday, 25 May 2012
It's both easy and fashionable to render ironic, or scoff at, the title of All's Well That Ends Well. This is the Shakespeare "comedy" in which the rabidly obsessed Helena finally ensnares her none-too-doting Bertram in a putative happy ending that... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: Coriolanus, Shakespeare's GlobeThursday, 24 May 2012
Had one listened to the Chiten company from Kyoto performing Coriolanus with one’s eyes closed, it would have seemed as if the stage were teeming with performers. And without understanding a word of Japanese, a theatregoer could respond to... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's GlobeMonday, 21 May 2012
The Globe to Globe season has enjoyed tremendous goodwill from audiences and critics alike. And this has been largely repaid, for it’s been a joy and a wonder to learn just how much contemporary relevance can be mined and brought into sharp relief,... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: King Lear, Shakespeare's GlobeSunday, 20 May 2012
Like a post-Soviet Oedipal X-Factor, the Belarus Free Theatre on Friday night gave one of the greatest productions of King Lear London has ever seen. Forget our local Lears, with naked theatrical knights and casts in emotional straitjackets: this... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: King John, Shakespeare's GlobeSaturday, 19 May 2012
You might have wondered if, when Armenia was offered King John as part of the Globe to Globe season, they felt they’d drawn the short straw. Not a bit of it. Shakespeare’s early history play, the action of which pre-dates those for which he is... Read more... |
