Tag Archives: Paul Wills

Writer: Joshua Harmon Director:  Daniel Aukin Reviewer:  Richard Maguire This smart and talky new play by Joshua Harmon, who gave us Bad Jews, tackles racism within the high school and university admissions systems in America. Although the action takes places in leafy New Hampshire we have similar problems in the UK with Oxbridge accepting fewer black students than other less prestigious ...

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 ...

Writer: Oscar Wilde Director: Kathy Burke Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Although most famous for their endless witticism, Oscar Wilde’s plays also remind us that either for good or bad our past eventually catches up with all of us. Whether your origins have been obscured by being left in a London railway station, you’ve written indiscriminate letters selling cabinet secrets or walked ...

Writer: Sam Bain Director: Kathy Burke Reviewer: Richard Maguire Brotherhood or Buddhahood?  That’s the decision Luke has to make in The Retreat, The Park Theatre’s new comedy directed by Kathy Burke. Should Luke become a monk, severing his ties with the outside world or should he return to London and its wily ways with his wide boy brother, Tony? The Retreat is ...

Writer: Michael Morpugo Adaptor: Samuel Adamson Director: Timothy Sheader and Dale Rooks Reviewer: Andrea Allen For most people, a trip to Indonesia would be the holiday of a lifetime, but for Lilly it’s so much more, it’s the chance to start a clean slate, to discover the place her Mum used to call home and to meet so many more ...

Writer: E.M. Forster Adaptor: Simon Reade Director: Adrian Noble Reviewer: Bill Avenell It must be a bit of a challenge to turn a full-length novel into a two-hour play, but Simon Reade does a very reasonable job in this adaptation for the stage of E.M. Forster’s famous work. Social and political upheaval in Edwardian England is remarkably topical in the ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Simon Godwin Reviewer: Fergus Morgan This is Denmark in name alone. Simon Godwin’s Hamlet, with Paapa Essiedu in the title role, relocates the rotten affairs of the Danish state to an unspecified West African court, where Claudius rules Elsinore like a military dictator and tribal symbolism is mixed with junta-like soldiery throughout. The shift is a ...