Tag Archives: Hamlet

Writer: William Shakespeare Directors: Federay Holmes and Elle White Reviewer: Scott Matthewman With a new artistic director at the helm who clearly believes in placing the actors at the heart of each production’s creative decisions, it is perhaps inevitable that Michelle Terry should cast herself in the title role of Hamlet. Performed in repertory with As You Like It, the ...

Writer: William Shakespeare  Director: David Thacker Reviewer: Jay Nuttall Brevity may be the soul of wit but brevity was certainly not on William Shakespeare's agenda when he wrote the Danish classic. It is easy not to appreciate, when seeing a production every few years, the mammoth task a director, lead actor and whole company undertake when committing to stage the ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Simon Godwin Reviewer: Kelyn Luther Just as many of Hamlet’s lines have now become clichéd, the look of a Hamlet production has also become somewhat clichéd; drably set in a vaguely futuristic police state. However, this vivid RSC production blows the cobwebs off. Hamlet’s youth is emphasised during the opening scene as we watch a glimpse ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Simon Godwin Reviewer: Jo Beggs When we first encounter Paapa Essiedu’s youthful Hamlet, he’s a black-clad teenager who won’t make eye contact with his mother and step-father. Just married, hot on the heels of Old Hamlet’s unexpected death, they’re seeing off the wedding guests, all smiles and back-slapping. Director Simon Godwin and Designer Paul Wills have ...

Director: Neil Armfield Composer: Brett Dean Librettist: Matthew Jocelyn Reviewer: Helen Tope Hamlet seems tailor-made for opera. A story of loyalty and revenge, it has all the core components. To amplify Shakespeare’s play into the larger-than-life dynamics needed for opera, nerves of steel are required. Too little, and the opera falls flat. Too much, and you lose the subtlety of ...

Reviewer: Peter Jacobs Dickie Beau – ‘award-winning lip sync maestro and drag fabulist’ - is the alternative performance identity of perfectly-decent actor Richard Boyce. But Dickie has decided – or accepted, maybe - that he will never play the Dane: that epic Shakespearean role so often used a marker for acting greatness. The result is Re-Member Me – a show ...

Libretto: Matthew Jocelyn  Music: Brett Dean Director: Neil Armfield Reviewer: Maggie Constable The disturbed, nay tormented, Hamlet, eponymous hero of Glyndebourne’s acclaimed opera, seeks revenge for his beloved father’s death and so begins one of the most infamous Shakespearean tragedies of all time at Milton Keynes Theatre tonight. It is worse still when poor, beleaguered Hamlet discovers the culprit of the King ...

Our Manc Mini series offers short, witty and slightly tongue-in-cheek insights into the offerings at the North West’s largest arts festival. Anne Davies of Truly Outrageous Productions, tells us about their showHamlet, which they will be performing at Joshua Brooks.   How would you describe your show in one sentence? Denmark’s a prison – can Hamlet ‘Shawshank’ his way out? ...