The Merchant of Venice, Bell Shakespeare Company, Melbourne Arts Centre, 30 July 2017. Directed by Anne-Louise Sarks Bell Reviewed by Penny Gay, The University of Sydney Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, a production which will tour many Australian towns and cities before concluding in Sydney in October, is the company’s first return to the play since an unremarkable version in […]
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 […]
Hamlet (directed by Lars Romann Engel for the 2017 Shakespeare Festival at Hamlet’s Castle, Kronborg Castle, Elsinore, Denmark. Seen: 3 August, 2017. https://hamletscenen.dk/en/platforms/the-shakespeare-festival/hamlet-2017-uk/ The review also makes brief reference to Ophelia – Noh (idea and script: Ujin Sakurama), performed by the Tokyo-based Koh Lo Sha Noh company at the 2017 Shakespeare Festival at Hamlet’s Castle, […]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Civil Brawl Theatre Company, directed by Richard Nunn at Number 1 Shakespeare Street, Stratford upon Avon, 18 July 2017 Reviewed by Sara Marie Westh “A sad tale’s best for winter”, says Mamillius, which implies that merry tales, such as Dream are perfect for summer. Civil Brawl’s production in the upper floor at […]
Titus Andronicus at The RST, dir. Blanche McIntyre, 1/7/2017. Reviewed by Sara Marie Westh The red warning posters warns prospective audience members at the RST that the play they are about to see is Shakespeare’s bloodiest, and that it contains “bad language”. The former statement is undoubtedly true, while the latter appears to pass judgement of […]
Twelfth Night, Watermill, dir. Paul Hart, York Theatre Royal. 19 May 2017. Reviewed by Sarah Olive This production was one of two offerings from Watermill Theatre at the second York International Shakespeare Festival (Romeo and Juliet was the other). Both traded heavily on the incorporation of live music into the productions: Romeo and Juliet with […]
The Cardinal by James Shirley, directed by Justin Audibert for Troupe at Southwark Playhouse, 2 May 2017 Reviewed by Peter Malin References to the play are to James Shirley, The Cardinal, ed. by E. M. Yearling, Revels Plays Series (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986) Conventionally-staged productions of early modern plays, in period costume, have […]
‘Know us by these colours’: Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2016 By Sheila T. Cavanagh, Emory University Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland, Oregon sparked considerable controversy last year when they announced their “Play On!” initiative, whereby current playwrights and dramaturgs are being commissioned to “translate” the plays attributed to Shakespeare into twenty first century English. […]
Tamburlaine by Christopher Marlowe. Adapted and directed by Ng Choon Ping for Yellow Earth Theatre at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, 13 April 2017. Reviewed by Peter Malin All textual references are to Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great: Parts I and II, ed. by John D. Jump, Regents Renaissance Drama Series (London: Arnold, 1967). […]
