Monday, January 27, 2025

Theatre

Exploring ‘Into the Woods’

Last week, I sat down with Luke Nixon, Lydia Free, and Isobel Connolly, the directorial force of a new ‘vivid and visionary’ production of Sondheim’s timeless classic Into the...

Review: Moth – ‘An unabashed, piercing piece of theatre’  

An acute attention to detail marks Moth as a standout in the world of student theatre.

Review: Endgame – ‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness’

The play invites us to laugh at our powerlessness in the face of an apocalyptic fate.

Review: NUTS – ‘a harrowing portrait of deceit and desire’

NUTS works in its ability to keep the audience on edge, waiting for the delicately thin emotional facades the characters have built to come crashing down. 

Review: The Madness of George III

Alan Bennett’s acclaimed 1991 exploration of George III’s first bout of mental illness and the constitutional crisis it triggered is reborn in this National...

Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ follows four main plots: the wedding of the king of Athens; the complicated love affairs between four young Athenians;...

Navigating the Theatre Interval

Intervals. I know you have been dying to read an article about them for as long as you can remember, so I’ll put you...

Blasted: Sarah Kane’s Vision Today

Trigger Warnings- Rape and Violence Sarah Kane’s first play, Blasted, begins with the ageing Ian grooming his young girlfriend Cate in an expensive hotel room....

Ballet: bewitching, beautiful, bold

I have loved ballet all my life. Since day one it has been filled with Barbie ballet DVDs, ballet dolls and of course ballet lessons. While...

An unhealthy obsession? The cult of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’

I must confess – I am quite obsessed with Cats. Not the animal, of course, but Andrew Lloyd Webber’s seminal 1981 musical and the 2019 film...

Coriolanus: Review

Coriolanus is set in the early stages of the Roman republic, in the midst of plebeian revolts for grain. Caius Marcius (Tom Hiddleston), nicknamed...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Interview

Video may have killed the radio star, but Jazz Hands Productions’ radio play A Midsummer Night’s Dream aims towards resurrection, encouraging audiences to “escape...

Review: The Globe’s Macbeth

Touted as one of their ‘relaxed performances’, the Globe’s Macbeth seeks to “break down walls to cultural access and empower teenagers to develop their...

“I don’t want realism, I want magic”: NT Live’s A Streetcar Named Desire

“Don’t you just love these long rainy afternoons when an hour isn’t just an hour—but a whole little piece of eternity dropped into your hands—and...

Being True to the Book

Adapting books for the stage or screen seems to be completely irresistible. We are compelled to take words on a page and transform them...

Are we blind to the need for blind casting?

Perhaps the biggest debate surrounding ‘gender-blind and colour-blind’ casting (with which actors are cast regardless of the traditional race/gender of their role) is the...

Bare derrieres for bums on seats? Shock value on stage

By the time Iqbal Khan’s Anthony and Cleopatra reached its dénouement at the RSC, we were almost three hours in and, despite the production...

Stage Adaptions: Midnight’s Children

Iconic, encyclopaedic, and kaleidoscopic, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children has garnered a healthy sense of both wariness and respect from critics and readers alike over...

A ‘Clean Break’ from crime?

After mastering the downward facing dog-chaturanga-upward facing dog transition, my isolation development peaked and it was time to do some work. I watched the Donmar Trilogy’s...

The Last Five Years: Review

00 Production’s performance of The Last Five Years pulls off the ambitious project with surprising grace. I say surprising because bringing a musical to the small screen,...

The Last Five Years- Preview

Having watched the preview, I am excited to see and listen to the full-length production of the musical. Both Maggie Moriarty as Cathy and...

Review: Richard II

Not Way Forward Productions has managed to put up a brilliant virtual version of ‘Richard II’ in pre-recorded video format. It is well-executed -...

Ralph Fiennes: from Hamlet… to Lear?

With his aquiline nose, translucent skin and deep pale eyes, Ralph Fiennes certainly makes an impression. And that is even before he speaks or emotes -...

NT Live’s Twelfth Night: Review

The French philosopher and moralist Jean de la Bruyère once remarked “life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those...

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