Tag Archives: Shakespeare

Adapted by: Hannah Drake and Justin Palmer, from the play by William Shakespeare Director: Hannah Drake Designer: Sarah Warren Composer: Ellie Showering Lighting: Edmund McKay Reviewer: Leah Tozer Shakespeare, ‘star-cross’d lovers’, ancestral strife, and … an open-air swimming pool? Insane Root Theatre’s ‘fair Verona’ is Eastville Park Swimming Pool, an empty, open-air pool just east of the city, and it’s ...

Creator: Damien Warren-Smith Reviewer: Simon Topping As the impressively filmic announcer welcomes Garry Starr to the stage, the performer bundles on to proclaim theatre is dead. The disgruntled ex-Shakespearean actor is here to save the dying art form by performing all the genres of theatre for us and reignite our flame of joy for the stage, which he says has almost ...

Writer: Bella and Samuel Spewack  Music and Lyrics: Cole Porter     Directors: Jo Davies/Ed Goggin Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood Opera North’s Kiss Me Kate returns to the Leeds Grand Theatre after its successful revival back in 2015.  This acclaimed production, in collaboration with Welsh National Opera, makes a short stop in Leeds before transferring to the London Coliseum.  Kiss Me Kate premiered ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Directors: Federay Holmes and Elle White Reviewer: Scott Matthewman After a major venue such as Shakespeare’s Globe changes its artistic director – and particularly when its last, controversial AD, Emma Rice, had her three-year contract terminated a year early – it is only natural to take the first major productions of the new season as a statement ...

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 ...

Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave Music: Giuseppe Verdi Director: Ellen Kent Reviewer: Ray Taylor It’s a sobering thought to learn that this considered masterpiece by Verdi was originally in danger of being banned and not performed at all because of its depiction of aristocratic immorality, sexual depravity and murder. It did in fact, receive its first performance on 11 March 1851 ...

Director: Phillip Zarrilli Playwright: Kate O’Reilly Reviewer: Emily Pearce Sara Beer’s personality and incredulity at an unknowingly ignorant society shines through in this warm, but unpolished one-woman show. Shakespeare’s Richard III that was so famously portrayed by Oliver, McKellen and many others, gets a different kind of treatment by the articulate Sara Beer. Part biographical work, part analysis of a seemingly ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Rufus Norris Reviewer: Scott Matthewman If there was such a thing as a National Theatre acting company any more, Rory Kinnear would be at its head through longevity, if nothing else. Macbeth marks his tenth leading role for the South Bank venue. His costar, Anne-Marie Duff, is not far behind, on her ninth. So for this ...