Theatre
First Person: Boys Will Be BoysSunday, 26 June 2016
In the opening scene of Boys Will Be Boys, the lead character, Astrid, talks about how there’s a boys’ world and a girls’ world. Boys’ world is where you want to be. That’s where power is, that’s where fun is. Boys get to be boys and that means... Read more... |
Macbeth, Shakespeare's GlobeSaturday, 25 June 2016
It begins promisingly, a dark Gothic fairy tale – both Grimm and grim. The writhing witches (four, oddly) are summoned from a pile of dead bodies, Stefan Fichert’s eerie puppetry all chopped-up limbs and interchanging demonic heads, hands scuttling... Read more... |
Henry V, Regent's Park Open Air TheatreThursday, 23 June 2016
As we finally go to the polls, casting votes based on our view of national identity and Britain’s place in the world, here comes Shakespeare’s ever-topical play. Robert Hastie’s thoughtful take is contemporary dress but stripped back, not so much... Read more... |
Maggie and Pierre, Finborough TheatreThursday, 23 June 2016
There's a one-man play inside every politician – and a one-woman play behind each male leader. Linda Griffiths's and Paul Thompson's solo show, Maggie and Pierre, explores Maggie Trudeau's struggle with bipolar disorder and her temptestuous... Read more... |
The Mighty Walzer: ping-pong in the roundWednesday, 22 June 2016
It’s a little over two years since I was approached to adapt The Mighty Walzer by Howard Jacobson for Manchester Royal Exchange. I was living in Liverpool at the time and had recently seen That Day We Sang by Victoria Wood at the Exchange. It was... Read more... |
Vassa Zheleznova, Southwark PlayhouseWednesday, 22 June 2016
In the town of Nizhny Novgorod where Maxim Gorky was born, it was said that “the houses are made of stone, the people of iron”. Vassa Zheleznova, the titular matriarch of this rarely performed play, is one such person. She is a businesswoman of... Read more... |
Wild, Hampstead TheatreTuesday, 21 June 2016
Who do you trust? The EU Referendum campaign has exposed a mounting suspicion of the establishment, from financial institutions to press and politicians, and our sense of nationhood has never been murkier. But if we cease to believe in anything, how... Read more... |
Hobson's Choice, Vaudeville TheatreSunday, 19 June 2016
Harold Brighouse's time-honoured English comedy from a century ago survives, its virtues mostly intact especially once attention shifts away from the snarling patriarch of the title, Henry Horatio Hobson (a padded Martin Shaw), to the generation of... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Holland FestivalSunday, 19 June 2016
The Holland Festival is one of the greats. It has a British director, the articulate Ruth Mackenzie, formerly of the Chichester Festival and the cultural Olympiad, now into her second year. It’s the same age as Edinburgh and Avignon – 70 in 2017 –... Read more... |
Richard III, Almeida TheatreFriday, 17 June 2016
"I can add colours to the chameleon," Richard III remarks of himself early in his anguished, marauding ascent to the throne, and the description could equally apply to the electrifying actor, Ralph Fiennes, who is London's latest hedgehog/dog/toad/... Read more... |
Karagula, StyxThursday, 16 June 2016
Polymath playwright Philip Ridley is endlessly inventive. Having written a couple of exciting pieces of bravura storytelling – Tender Napalm (2012) and Dark Vanilla Jungle (2014) – he went on to pen a political comedy – Radiant Vermin (recently... Read more... |
Aladdin, Prince Edward TheatreThursday, 16 June 2016
If anyone harboured any doubts as to how diverse the world of musical theatre can be, this past week will surely have proved an ear and eye-opener. While Richard Taylor and David Wood's poetic take on The Go-Between pretty much threw out the... Read more... |
