Reviewed by Alun Thomas Venice, the suppurating city, bursts into new and malignant life in London’s docklands in this astonishing play. Venice Preserv’d, a site-specific production staged in the empty shells of half-built luxury flats in Greenwich, immerses the audience in the decadent world of La Serenissima, conjuring up the City of Masks in all […]
Review by Rob Ormsby Celebration, festivity and inclusiveness are the dominant tones in the Chris Abraham-directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Stratford Ontario’s Festival Theatre. He signals this festive spirit of community before the show begins by sending many cast members in semi-casual summer dress out to mingle and chat on the theatre’s thrust stage, […]
Review by Rob Ormsby Much has been made of the convention of “Original Practices” (OP) on display in the King John currently playing in the Tom Patterson Theatre at Ontario’s Stratford Festival. These practices appear at the Tom Patterson in the form of a bare wooden stage illuminated by real and simulated candles (augmented by […]
Coriolanus, dir. Josie Rourke. NTL broadcast seen on 08.05.2014 at Kino Silver Screen Łódź, Poland Come for Hiddleston, stay for Shakespeare Reviewed by Magdalena Popłońska and Katarzyna Bresler Only a few years ago if we wanted to see a National Theatre Live broadcast in Poland, it would mean travelling more than 200 kilometres to a tiny […]
Twelfth Night. Directed by Ben McLemore and performed by The City Theatre, Austin, Texas. 31 May, 2014. Review by Michael Saenger (Southwestern University) Twelfth Night is often viewed as the greatest of Shakespeare’s comedies; his early ones show so much optimism that they win less respect, and his later efforts become so dark that it […]
Le Conte d’hiver (The Winter’s Tale), translated by Daniel Loayza, directed by Patrick Pineau, La Coursive, Scène nationale, La Rochelle, France, 13 November 2013, right stalls; Béziers Ouest, Béziers, France, 21 mars, centre stalls. Review by Stéphanie Mercier (Poitiers university) Patrick Pineau’s production of Daniel Loayza’s unpublished translation of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale made its debut […]
Othello, translated by Norman Chaurette, directed by Léonie Simaga, Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, Comédie-Française, Paris, 25 April 2014, middle stalls. Review by Stéphanie Mercier If Leontes has his reason stolen by interior fiends, the outward malignancy of this Iago’s (Nâzim Boudjenah) demonic machinations almost steals the show here – but not quite. What prevents the play […]
Directed by Lucy Bailey, Globe Theatre, London, 31 May 2014. Review by Steve Orman Being somewhat squeamish when it comes to violence, particularly of the bloody kind, I had a feeling that Lucy Bailey’s Titus Andronicus, a revival of her popular 2006 production, would be something that I would have to endure rather than […]
Directed by Wayne Jordan. 30th April 2014. Reviewed by Emer McHugh The Abbey Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night acts as a deliberate intervention into a very important conversation. In January 2014, Rory O’Neill, otherwise known as the drag artist and ‘gender discombobulist’ Panti Bliss, remarked on national television that ‘[t]he only place that… it’s okay […]
Directed by Maria Kjærgaard-Sunesen for The Royal Danish Theatre at The Royal Danish Playhouse. 23 May 2014. Lacquer red doors opening smoothly and silently at the slightest touch, black floors polished to a dull gleam reflect hazy shadows back up at us, warm, golden lightbulbs framing square mirrors bathe the scene in a glow like […]
