Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet, Barbican review - plenty of action but not enough wordsWednesday, 07 November 2018
It’s clear from the start – from a Prologue that quickly dissolves familiar rhythms and words into a Babel of clamour and sound. This RSC Romeo and Juliet, newly transferred to the Barbican, isn’t much interested in what is said. Actions not words... Read more... |
Macbeth, RSC, Barbican review - Shakespeare's blood-boltered tragedy, tense but flawedWednesday, 24 October 2018
It has been said before: Macbeth's reputation for bad luck has more to do with the difficulty of bringing off a successful production than the supernatural elements in the play. Even those of us who have seen dozens of interpretations can count the... Read more... |
Measure for Measure, Donmar Warehouse review - Shakespeare twice-over packs a partial stingTuesday, 16 October 2018
Shakespeare exists to be refracted and filtered through the age in which he is presented. So there's every good reason for the Donmar's artistic director Josie Rourke to approach the eternally problematic Measure for Measure as a twice-told tale... Read more... |
Twelfth Night, Young Vic review - Kwame Kwei-Armah makes a big-hearted return homeTuesday, 09 October 2018
What better way to celebrate a homecoming than with a party? That is the capacious-hearted thinking behind this new musical version of Twelfth Night, which additionally marks Kwame Kwei-Armah's debut production at the helm of that undeniable dynamo... Read more... |
Antony and Cleopatra, National Theatre review - Ralph Fiennes in marvellous throttleThursday, 27 September 2018
You always wonder about those final scenes of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Are they really needed dramatically; do they work? We understand, of course, that a closing exhalation may add impact to high passions just witnessed. But is it just a romantic... Read more... |
Twelfth Night, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh - a touch too sweetThursday, 27 September 2018
“Well, that was really sweet,” one young audience member in front of me remarked on his way out of Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. And yes, there’s no denying that director Wils Wilson’s colourful, psychedelic, summer-of-love-set Twelfth Night, the... Read more... |
Henry V, Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol review - the pity of warFriday, 21 September 2018
Henry V is a play shot through with martial energy and the terrible chaos of war. The almost overpowering violence and energy that characterise the story give the unfolding of the drama a permanently disrupted form, as if the unpredictability of... Read more... |
Love's Labour's Lost, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - in praise of a fantastical SpaniardThursday, 30 August 2018
If ever there was a play of “well bandied” words, it’s surely Love’s Labour’s Lost. The early Shakespearean comedy may once have hit a highpoint for verbal wit, but much of that context – the word play, the allusions, the sheer stylistic preening... Read more... |
Pericles, National Theatre review - a fizzingly energetic productionMonday, 27 August 2018
A break-dancing mini Michael Jackson, a transvestite Neptune, and a hero who wears his hubris as proudly as his gold-tipped trainers, are unconventional even by Shakespeare’s standards, but they all play a key part in this joyful act of subversion.... Read more... |
Emilia, Shakespeare's Globe review - polemic disguised as a playThursday, 16 August 2018
It feels like Michelle Terry’s first summer season at the Globe has been building up to Emilia for a while now. The theme is Shakespeare and race, so Othello was something of a given. It's joined by The Winter’s Tale, as if the Emilias of these two... Read more... |
King Lear, Duke of York's Theatre, review - towering Ian McKellenFriday, 27 July 2018
Jonathan Munby's production starring Ian McKellen, first seen last year in Chichester and now transferred to the West End, reflects our everyday anxieties, emphasising in the world of a Trump presidency, the dangers of childish, petulant... Read more... |
As You Like It, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - love among the bucolic hippiesFriday, 13 July 2018
It's been raining in Regent's Park. On a balmy summer evening during a prolonged dry spell – perfect for outdoor theatrics – it seems ironic to tempt fate by creating artificial downpours and thunderstorms. But this music-filled, modern-dress... Read more... |
