Featured Stories
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Review – Love Love Love, Royal Court
02 May 2012 6:47 PM | No CommentsIs love all you need?
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Review – Misterman, National Theatre
30 April 2012 6:23 PM | No CommentsRemember the excitement last time we had a guest blog?
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Review – Hamlet, Young Vic
27 November 2011 3:35 PM | No CommentsMichael Sheen. Not Martin Sheen.
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Review – Comedy of Errors, National Theatre
27 November 2011 2:15 PM | 1 CommentA couple of years ago the idea of Lenny Henry as a Shakespearean actor was a joke. No longer.
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Review – Othello, Sheffield Crucible
22 October 2011 9:50 AM | 5 CommentsA guest blog (guest blog!)
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Archive for 2009
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Review – The Mountaintop, Trafalgar Studios
Posted on August 8, 2009 | No CommentsThe Mountaintop by Katori Hall invites us into the motel room in which Martin Luther King (David Harewood) spends his last night before his assassination and through an encounter with a maid (Lorraine Burroughs) to whom there is more than meets the eye. The portrait... -
A Night Less Ordinary
Posted on August 7, 2009 | No CommentsBefore the Arts Council decided that it was all about the middle aged, they used to think that theatre was all about the young people. A relic of this golden age is A Night Less Ordinary, a remarkable scheme whereby those under 26 years old... -
Arts Council Theatre Assessment 2009
Posted on July 30, 2009 | No CommentsACE The Arts Council has published its Theatre Assessment for 2009, which promises an “up to date picture of theatre in England” and examines whether the extra £25 million invested since 2003 has been worthwhile. You can read the whole thing here. Key points are:... -
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour returns to the National in 2010
Posted on July 29, 2009 | No CommentsEGBDF The superb Stoppard/Previn collaboration Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is slated to return to the National in 2010. The 2009 production, directed by Felix “Punchdrunk” Barrett, combined acting, music and dance in an utterly compelling and convincing way, and was one of the highlights... -
Bite09 at the Barbican
Posted on July 12, 2009 | No CommentsThe new season at the Barbican looks very, very exciting indeed. Quite serious. And certainly not for the faint hearted. Probably best to avoid for first dates. Roman Tragedies Most exciting for my money is Roman Tragedies, a six hour canter through Coriolanus, Julius Caesar... -
Edinburgh Fringe Picks – Part the Second
Posted on July 12, 2009 | No CommentsThe number of theatre shows has stayed broadly flat since last year’s fringe, but there’s once again been a sharp increase in the number of comics, with a staggering 775 acts performing this year. My thoughts below. Rhod Gilbert at Pleasance Courtyard The superbly funny... -
Edinburgh Fringe Picks – Part the First
Posted on July 6, 2009 | 1 Commentedfringe logo The Fringe. Where to start? 2098 shows, every young theatre company and comic in the country if not the world, descending on the Forth for an entire month, a festival of theatre and music and comedy and drunkenness. What to pick? A programme... -
Theatre, Live
Posted on July 5, 2009 | No CommentsNT Live, the new access project from the National Theatre, has been a recognized success. Even the critical press seemed to like it, although quite what “multi-video cameras” are remains a mystery to me at least. Broadcasting live performances to screens is nothing new: the... -
Review – Madam Butterfly, English National Opera
Posted on June 28, 2009 | No CommentsSo, off to the Coliseum to brave baking June temperatures and programmes full of private school adverts, all in the name of Puccini. This production is the first London revival of the famous 2005 production by Anthony Minghella, and the work has lost little since... -
Review – The Observer, National Theatre
Posted on May 21, 2009 | 3 CommentsFriends and family night at the Cottesloe. Richard Eyre in the house. The cast of Gethsemene ensconced up in the balcony (I didn’t introduce myself). I think I even spotted Jancis Robinson sipping a cup of water (not entirely surprising given the wine they serve...
