Shakespeare

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi Text: Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei, after Shakespeare Conductor: Gerry Cornelius Director: James Dacre Designer: Frankie Bradshaw Reviewer: Ron Simpson English Touring Opera has, in recent years, built a formidable reputation for the quality of its productions of baroque opera, but the company’s Spring 2019 tour offers operas by Verdi, Mozart and (though not in York) ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Justin Audibert Reviewer: Katy Roberts William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is a notoriously tricky play, and a bold choice for the second production in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2019 season, directed by Justin Audibert. Not least because of the decision to turn the play’s central conflict - between a fiery, headstrong woman, Katherine, and ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Erica Whyman Reviewer: Caitlin Scollin Erica Whyman's production of Romeo and Juliet gives a contemporary edge to the most famous love story ever told. Whyman gives William Shakespeare's original text a sense of realism and humour, grounding the play in an environment much more familiar to the audience. This is reflected through a diverse cast which ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Conrad Nelson Designer: Lis Evans Musical Director: Rebekah Hughes Reviewer: Ron Simpson If you’re going to update Shakespeare, then it needs thinking through – costumes and hair-styles are not enough – and Northern Broadsides’ transference of Much Ado about Nothing to somewhere in England at the end of World War Two is a complete and highly ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Adaptation:  Helen Jeffery Director: Daniel Taylor Reviewer: Matt Forrest Following on from last year’s successful productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet at the Epstein Theatre, they once again have turned to the bard to welcome in the spring with something far more sinister; Macbeth. “The Scottish play” is as revered as Hamlet and King Lear and ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Amy Leach Reviewer: Jay Nuttall The play is the thing in Amy Leach’s solid production of Hamlet, as Leeds Playhouse’s ensemble season continues in their pop-up space while the theatre continues redevelopment. This radically cut-down, easily digestible version of Shakespeare’s masterpiece places story first and foremost and injects a pace that can very often be the ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Erica Whyman Reviewer: Barbara Michaels Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – the tragic tale of love at first sight between two young lovers doomed to die through the intransigency of their feuding families, has been performed innumerable times with varying degrees of expertise – plus film, ballet and operatic versions. In consequence, companies strive to present a ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Kimberley Sykes Reviewer: Katy Roberts The Royal Shakespeare Company is kicking off its summer 2019 season with As You Like It, and what a fine production to open on. As You Like It is a story of the joys (and confusions) of falling in love and has all the classic elements that makes it one of Shakespeare’s ...