Tag Archives: Rae Smith

Writer: Inua Ellams Director: Bijan Sheibani Designer: Rae Smith Reviewer: Charlotte Broadbent Inua Ellams was inspired to write Barber Shop Chronicles after being handed a flyer in 2010 which detailed a pilot project aiming to teach barbers the rudiments of counselling. He went on to consider the cultural and historical significance of the local barbershop. Whether it be in south ...

Writer: Henrik Ibsen Adaptor: Duncan Macmillan  Director: Ian Rickson  Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Beth Rosmer is perhaps the most influential character in Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, despite her suicide a year before the curtain rises. Rae Smith’s set contains a tangible reminder of her death: when she jumped into the river by the Rosmer family home, her body clogged up the water ...

Writer: William Shakespeare  Director: Rufus Norris Reviewer: Charlotte Broadbent The National Theatre is taking its latest production of Macbeth around the country. The London run was met with mixed reviews and ran at a similar time to the Royal Shakespeare Company's production, which inevitably prompted comparisons. Rufus Norris's offering is undeniably unique and the entire design team has constructed a ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Rufus Norris Reviewer: Joan Phillips Raven-black and using the full depth of Theatre Royal Plymouth's deep stage, designer Rae Smith's cavernous, almost subterranean set, ominously establishes the doomed atmosphere that permeates throughout the National Theatre's production of Macbeth. A huge arched bridge descends sharply to the front of the stage at floor level, and ascending to ...

Writer: Brian Friel Director: Ian Rickson Reviewer: Scott Matthewman In the latest episode of his podcast Lexicon Valley, linguistics professor John McWhorter considers what it may take for one language to become universal. Dismissing both Mandarin Chinese and Esperanto’s prospects – the former relying too much on intonation of the same vowel sounds to form completely different words, the latter ...

Writer: Barney Norris Director: Laurie Sansom Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Opening in October last year, the new Bridge Theatre created plenty of excitement, particularly with its plan to focus primarily on new work. The stunning revival of Julius Caesar aside, two new shows in and all that early promise is waning. In the time that Nicholas Hytner’s new auditorium was conceived and ...

Writer: Nick Stafford From the novel by: Michael Morpurgo Directors: Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris Reviewer: Gareth Davies More than a decade after first galloping onto the stage, the National Theatre's production of War Horse has been a major theatrical export, having played to over seven million around the world. In the centenary year of the end of the war ...

Writer: James Graham Director: Jeremy Herrin Reviewer: Selwyn Knight The mid-to-late 1970s was a turbulent time for British politics. The Conservative Government under Ted Heath had already had a torrid time with two miners’ strikes, power blackouts and the Three-Day week; in 1974 Heath called a snap election to get a new mandate. It was a miscalculation: the result was ...