Tag Archives: Shakespeare

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Gavin McAlinden Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Finding a new take on a Shakespeare classic is a tricky task at the best of times. For a fringe production, sharing a stage and set with plays by Ibsen and Strindberg, it is certainly an uphill battle. The Acting Gymnasium’s Macbeth, in repertory with the company’s Miss Julie and A ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Eleanor Rhode Reviewer: Katie Burchett Neon lights, foam hands and political sparring in a boxing ring; Eleanor Rhode brings Shakespeare’s unsung King John to the Swan Theatre in an explosion of visual splendour. It is a rare thing to go into a Shakespeare play with no preconceived ideas of how it’ll be done, but from the ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Rae Mcken Reviewer: Scott Matthewman It is a sign of how much cruft there can be in a Shakespeare play that cutting Twelfth Night down to just an hour and fifteen minutes, as director and adapter Rae Mcken has done for the Scoop’s sixteenth annual season of free open-air theatre, retains all the touchpoints of the comedy. ...

Choreographer/Director: Matthew Bourne Music: Sergei Prokofiev Reviewer: Sophia Moss In the not so distant future, a group of young men and women dance in pairs underneath a UFO-shaped chandelier. The dancing is rigid and stiff under the watchful eye of the uniformed guards – one hand up, one hand on wait and box step -, but turns into a loose, ...

Adaptation and Original Direction: Lewis Ironside Directed by: Stacey Norris Reviewer: Christie-Luke Jones Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Hamletis Magnificent Bastard Productions’ booze-fuelled and delightfully sweary take on Shakespeare’s tale of royal revenge in the Danish court. The concept is a simple one – a cast of professionally trained, Shakespearian actors rattle their way through a potted 70-minute adaptation of The Bard’s classic ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Hal Chambers Reviewer: Scott Matthewman In a time where everything right now seems to be defined by our relationship with Europe, where we get the leaders we deserve and who then prove unable to lead, there is perhaps something of the comforting in Shakespeare’s Henry V. The young Prince Hal – depicted in both parts of Henry IV as ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Brice Stratford Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Midsummer’s Night Drollbegins with great promise as lead actor and director Brice Stratford presents a short lecture on the interregnum when the theatre was banned. Despite the law, acting persisted with some actors going to Europe to continue their craft while others stayed in England and became involved in drolls, illegal ...

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 ...