Julius Caesar, dir. Danielle Irvine, September 1, 2019 at Perchance Theatre at Cupids (NL) Reviewed by Tracy O’Brien Director Danielle Irvine had no shortage of real-world inspiration on which to draw for Perchance Theatre’s production of Julius Caesar this summer. In an era dominated by “fake news” and social media, it is easy to forget […]
Measure for Measure, translated and directed by Jack Nieborg, Shakespeare Theater Diever, The Netherlands, 7 September 2019. Review by Paul Franssen (Utrecht University) As usual in Diever, the auditorium was split in two by the narrow central stage. Spectators were faced with the one-dimensional outline of a row of houses in the middle, and churches […]
Othello, Shakespeare Company of Japan and Pirikap, dir. Kazumi Shimodate and Debo Akibe. Tara Arts, London. 7 August 2019 By Sarah Olive It’s a popular fallacy in Japan that it is difficult to produce Othello because the country is too culturally homogenous: fallacious because, in Japan, there are several marginalised indigenous populations plus zainichi Koreans […]
King Lear, dir. & libretto by Joke Hoolboom. Holland Opera, Jong Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and “155” dance group. Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen, 12 July 2019. Review by Paul Franssen (Utrecht University) Holland Opera, formerly known as Xynix, has a long history of musical adaptations of Shakespeare, particularly for the young, including children’s versions of Romeo and […]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare from Russia. Part of the RSC open air Dell performances, July 2019. Reviewed by Sara Marie Westh Sometimes you stumble on something truly excellent, and it becomes all the more so by being unexpected. I have attended the RSC Dell performances for several years now, and have enjoyed myself […]
Hamlet directed by K.D. Schmidt for the Mainz State Theatre, Mainz, Germany. March 13, 2019 And A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Hilmar Jónsson for the National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. March 16, 2019. Reviewed by Justin B. Hopkins I went on holiday to Germany, with a long layover in Iceland on the way […]
The Taming of The Shrew, directed by Justin Audibert, at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, RSC, Stratford upon Avon, March 11th and 12th 2019 www.rsc.org.uk/the-taming-of-the-shrew/ By Jeannie Farr and Sonia Perello ‘1590s. England is a matriarchy.’ An invitation to historical, meta-theatrical reflection, or the product of careless thinking (the setting being Italy), thus this production presents an […]
The Provoked Wife by John Vanbrugh, directed by Phillip Breen, at the RSC, Stratford upon Avon, May 2019. Or, Why good comedy takes time. Reviewed by Lucia Deyi, University of Birmingham. With a running time that scares most audiences even if they are used to Shakespeare performances, the RSC’s current production of The Provoked Wife has […]
Richard II, directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins for the Almeida Theatre (https://almeida.co.uk/). The Almeida Theatre, London, 9 January, 2019. Reviewed by Joseph F. Stephenson Two popular casting trends in recent years of Shakespeare productions are star-driven—in which a major star, often from film or television, plays the main role—and small cast—in which a cast much smaller […]
