Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Barbican, LondonI've always thought there's a dodgy brilliance to Carousel. Musically it is far and away the most sophisticated of the Rodgers and Hammerstein operettas, yet lyrically it com…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:27AMMonday, August 20, 2012
Finborough, LondonOften pigeonholed as a comfortable, middlebrow dramatist, JB Priestley was in reality a restless experimenter – which may be why this play, although dedicated to and star…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:11PMFriday, August 17, 2012
Vaudeville, London"Let's blow trumpets and squeakers and enjoy the party as much as we can," says Elyot in Private Lives, written in 1930. "I'm tired of the noise you make with your shrill, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:13AMWednesday, August 15, 2012
Royal Shakespeare, Statford-upon-AvonThe title gives it away. This is not your standard Shakespeare but a hilarious piece of controlled anarchy that lasts 90 minutes and is directed by Dmitr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:05PMTuesday, August 14, 2012
Soho theatre, LondonBack in 1959, Lionel Bart wrote a jaunty musical called Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be that turned Soho into a place of primary-coloured romance. And there is something o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:30AMMonday, August 13, 2012
The stage masters turned what might have been orthodox Olympic rituals into a blast of theatrical vitalityHow do you review an Olympics closing ceremony? I'm not sure you can, especially whe…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AMSunday, August 12, 2012
'I've seen some woeful off-the-wall Shakespeare, including a Macbeth with Mark Rylance and Jane Horrocks where the sleepwalking Lady M peed on stage'Critics, like actors, need to avoid typec…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:30PMFriday, August 10, 2012
Hangar 858, RAF St Athan, Vale of GlamorganTwo summers ago, National Theatre Wales stunned us with a version of Aeschylus's The Persians set in a military training camp. Now the same directo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:08PMThursday, August 9, 2012
Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonOn paper, it looked an intriguing prospect. In reality, the union of New York's experimental Wooster Group and the RSC on this cynic's Iliad proves strangely inferti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AMSwan, Stratford-upon-Avon Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AMTuesday, August 7, 2012
Theatre Royal, BathTerry Johnson's dazzlingly original play reminds us that farce can be a vehicle for ideas. Even if the piece has lost some of its shock value since it was first seen at th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:00PMFriday, August 3, 2012
Cottesloe, LondonIt doesn't matter a damn what I or my colleagues say about this adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling novel. Last night it was greeted with a great roar of approval. And, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:55AMThursday, August 2, 2012
Courtyard, Stratford-on-AvonThis is not the first RSC Much Ado to be set in India. Veteran playgoers will recall John Barton's 1976 production, which set the action in a garrison town during…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:52AMWednesday, August 1, 2012
Donmar Warehouse, LondonExile and emigration are constant themes of Irish drama. But Brian Friel's 1964 play, beautifully directed by Lyndsey Turner, lends fresh life to a stock situation in…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:09AMTuesday, July 31, 2012
Criterion, LondonUnlike those theatre producers who regard the Olympics as an obstacle, Samuel Hodges, who founded Suffolk's High Tide festival, sees them as an opportunity. Accordingly he h…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:32PMFriday, July 27, 2012
Technical triumph showed Danny Boyle's great capacity for spectacle but was marred by strange shifts in toneWatching Danny Boyle's £27m spectacular, I was reminded of an old rhyme about a f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:10PMWednesday, July 25, 2012
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonHow to follow a phenomenal performance like Rooster Byron in Jerusalem? One answer is to play Shakespeare's dissembling double-Gloucester. And, although Mark Rylan…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:23PMLyttelton, LondonHaving overcome his indifference to Shaw, Nicholas Hytner has now made the old boy a regular part of the National repertory. Once again the decision pays off handsomely, in …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:12PMSunday, July 22, 2012
Finborough, LondonIt show enormous enterprise for an unsubsidised theatre to stage a verbatim piece based on reports from inside Syria. One also has to applaud the courage of BBC corresponde…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:47AMThursday, July 19, 2012
Royal Court, LondonThis is one of the most disturbing evenings I have ever spent in a theatre. Stephen Emmott, an acclaimed scientist, stands in a re-creation of his cluttered Cambridge offi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:38PMBritish Museum, LondonHow on earth do you represent Shakespeare in an exhibition? The short answer, in the exciting new show mounted by the British Museum in collaboration with the RSC, is t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:14AMTuesday, July 17, 2012
Olivier Theatre, LondonAlthough seldom seen, Timon of Athens always seems topical. It deals with a spendthrift hero who, fawned on when his credit is good, is rejected when poor and retreats…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:23PMStephen Joseph Theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn has always had an eye to the future, as we know from predictive pieces such as Henceforward and Communicating Doors. Now, in his 76th play, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:29AMMonday, July 16, 2012
Three new Ibsen productions suggest our fascination with the sage of Skien hasn't waned. What keeps us so enthralled?"Do you think Shaw is coming back?" a student once rashly asked the late …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:08AMSunday, July 15, 2012
Can they rival Hamlet's final duel? And how do they channel all that concealed aggression?"A hit, a very palpable hit." How often have I heard that cry go up while watching the climactic due…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:10PMJermyn Street, LondonImagine A Midsummer Night's Dream crossed with Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, and you get some idea of the wonderful weirdness of this early 1851 play by Ibsen only no…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:29PMFriday, July 13, 2012
Chichester festival theatreWhile Bertolt Brecht triumphs at the Chichester Minerva with Arturo Ui, George Bernard Shaw is blandly revived in the city's main house. In its angry indictment of…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:23AMWednesday, July 11, 2012
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonIt might at first seem odd to find Ibsen's tight-structured play forming the climax to a Festival of Chaos that has already brought us The Bacchae and Blood We…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:33PMRoyal and Derngate, Northampton Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:33PMTuesday, July 10, 2012
Young Vic, LondonCarrie Cracknell's production certainly puts a new spin on Ibsen's 1879 classic. As if to remind us that this is a play about domestic revolution, Ian MacNeil's design revol…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:07AMMonday, July 9, 2012
Riverside Studios, LondonThis delightful piece, conceived by Adrian Fisher and Stuart Barham, celebrates the lives and careers of Noël Coward and Ivor Novello. They had a lot in common: bot…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:37PM 
