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 […]
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 […]
Macbeth @ The National Theatre, dir. Rufus Norris, 2018 Reviewed by Ronan Hatfull Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest and sharpest tragedy, demonstrating the playwright’s mastery of the tightly-coiled thriller. What a pity, therefore, that Rufus Norris’s production of Macbeth fails to fulfil the promise shown by Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff in 2016, when they performed […]
The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, directed by Maria Aberg, RSC, Swan Theatre, 8 March 2018 Reviewed by Peter Malin I hadn’t intended to review this production but, given its enthusiastic reception in the press, I thought a dissenting voice might be of some value. In 2014, Maria Aberg inflicted considerable damage on Webster’s […]
As You Like It by William Shakespeare, directed by Kate Saxon for Shared Experience / Theatre by the Lake, at Oxford Playhouse, 18 November 2017 Reviewed by Peter Malin References to the play are to William Shakespeare, As You Like It, ed. by Alan Brissenden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) Where to start? With […]
Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Ann Ciccolella. Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, The Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin, TX. November 15, 2017 Reviewed by Michael Saenger. On an elegantly open stage, punctuated only by a standing lattice arch, Austin Shakespeare created an intoxicating sense of optimism and the distinct impression that […]
Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, London, April 2017 Reviewed by Madison Doss, Burning Coal Theatre Company The issue of race in Othello is inescapable—and it should be. Ellen McDougall, director of the Globe’s most recent production of Othello, acknowledges that “productions must take responsibility for the racism, misogyny, and sexual violence in both the […]
Venus and Adonis: A Masque for Puppets; directed by Gregory Doran for the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Little Angel Theatre at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. July 26, 27, & 28, 2017 Reviewed by Justin B. Hopkins, Franklin and Marshall College In 2007, I attended the RSC’s collaboration with Little Angel Theatre on Venus and […]
The Globe’s Much Ado About Nothing: Sombreros, Tequila, and Exoticization By Mayra Cano, California State University-Fresno Matthew Dunster’s reimagination of Much Ado About Nothing, set in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution, employs a variety of stereotypes about Mexico and Mexicans, demonstrating a misunderstanding of this period in Mexican history. This alongside the production’s use of […]
