Hamlet, directed by Maciej Englert, Teatr Współczesny w Warszawie, Warsaw, Poland. 30 November 2013. http://www.wspolczesny.pl/ http://www.wspolczesny.pl/repertuar/biezacy/hamlet Review by Magdalena Cieślak The curtain goes up. Centre stage, there is a chair slightly resembling that in Olivier’s Hamlet. A person is sitting in that chair in a pose slightly recalling Olivier’s brooding prince. As courtiers start pouring in, the solitary figure – […]
The Taming of the Shrew, unknown director, for Jaracza Theatre, Łódź, Poland, 24 October 2013. http://www.teatr-jaracza.lodz.pl/poskromienie.html Review by Agnieszka Rasmus In his review of Michael Bogdanov’s RSC production in 1978, Michael Billington famously wondered “whether there is any reason to revive a play which seems totally offensive to our age and society” (qtd. in Thompson 2003:17). […]
Macbeth, OPRA Cymru, dir. by Patrick Young, 28 September 2013 at Y Llwyfan, Carmarthen. Review by Alun Thomas Judging by the small scattering of people at ‘Y Llwyfan’ tonight there doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming demand for Welsh-language Shakespeare in opera form. This is a shame, because OPRA Cymru’s adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth is an […]
Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Tarell Alvin McCraney, RSC Swan Theatre, November 2013. Review by Andrew Cowie. When Charles Spencer described the RSC’s 2013 Antony and Cleopatra in The Telegraph newspaper as a ‘travesty’ and ‘a fiasco’ connoisseurs of train-wreck theatre hurried to book their tickets. All the warning signs were there; a young American director, Tarell […]
Hamlet, directed by Mikko Viherjuuri. Tampere Theater, Finland, 8 May 2013. By Nely Kein änen. Mikko Viherjuuri’s Hamlet opens not with a voice calling out “Who’s there?” but with a scene Shakespeare didn’t write (yet composed of lines he did), a private moment between Hamlet, Ophelia and Laertes before they’re forced to join […]
The Tempest, directed by Jeremy Herrin, Shakespeare’s Globe, 6 August 2013. Review by Pete Orford This was a troublingly untroubling production. With a group of students in tow, I had primed them all on key themes and characteristics to look for in the drama, not least the colonial echoes in Prospero’s enslavement of Caliban. How would […]
Romeo and Juliet Sydney Theatre Company, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, 1 November 2013. Review by Penny Gay. Kip Williams, one of the new generation of exploratory young theatre directors who are making waves in Sydney and Melbourne, was offered the chance to do his first Shakespeare play by the Sydney Theatre Company’s […]
Originally published on The Bardathon, 30 October 2013. As a statement of intent, Gregory Doran’s launch to his tenure as RSC Associate Director is perfectly judged. Richard II is the most ‘Doranish’ production one could imagine, from the gorgeously conceived lighting design to the sensitive treatment of male-male relationships, from the meticulous attention to detail in the tiniest roles […]
Hamlet, Belvoir St, Sydney, Australia, 16 October 2013. Australian theatrical royalty abounds in this new production at the Belvoir St Theatre, one of Sydney’s most loved theatrical spaces. Robyn Nevin and John Gaden as Gertrude and Claudius bring a lifetime’s experience of the stage and complete ease with the language of classical drama. So too […]
Romeo and Juliet, The Aboriginal Centre for the Performance Arts (ACPA), Brisbane, Australia, 9-11 May 2013, as part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival. The first order of business was to find the place. Kangaroo Point. Our two weeks in Australia were enough to teach us that we wouldn’t, alas, be greeted by […]
