Size matters in theatre. No, I’m not referring to Simon Russell Beale’s comfortable girth, but to the size of the Olivier theatre’s vast stage, which adds something unique to this scin…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 08:42AMUntil a horrendous self-inflicted diary muddle which forced me to give away my Sunday matinee ticket to someone else, I had been looking forward for months to seeing Gemma Arterton in The Du…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:10AMI was a student when I first saw Eileen Atkins on stage In 1970, at the Chichester Festival Theatre where she played Elizabeth I in Vivat Vivat Regina, a play by Robert Bolt. While missing m…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 04:41AMThere are plays which are technically superb but never quite get into top gear, while others that are deeply flawed (John Osborne's are a good example) grab the audience by the guts and won'…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 02:20PM'You must feel such grief.' 'I take it to dull the pain.' 'We are artists. We must have a surfeit of everything!' 'Was it really seven years ago you placed your poems in Lizzie's coffin?' Ye…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 07:11AMIn olden days a hint of stocking was looked upon as something shocking, but that didn't stop them using electric vibrators to bring women to orgasm -- strictly for medical reasons, of course…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:56AMAfter completing an inordinately long online RSC online survey about how much I enjoyed the live cinema broadcast of David Tennant's RIchard II, I barely have the energy to blog about it. Ok…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:46PMMore than 40 years ago David Storey wrote a terrific series of plays, three of which I saw at the Royal Court and elsewhere when I was a student. Home, directed by Lindsay Anderson in 1970, …
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:29AM'Old Ibsen is as dead as a doornail' wrote the Pall Mall Gazette after the first London performance in 1891 of Ghosts, a Scandinavian in-yer-face shocker. Well, Ibsen is still a household na…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 11:46AMYes, I forsook the final round of the Great British Bake-Off for a night at the theatre. But who needs technicolour TV cheffing when you can see Jessica Raine and Linda Bassett cooking away …
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:20AMHenry Goodman is one of our greatest stage actors, and his performance in Bertolt Brecht's satire on the rise Hitler is an unmissable masterclass. Arturo Ui starts the play as a washed-up Ch…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 07:09AMA trip to the Finborough, one of London's smallest and best fringe theatres not far from Earls Court, almost always pays off, and last night was no exception. Black Jesus is an 80-minute pol…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 02:20PMNo, I wasn't in New York, just at the IMAX cinema at Waterloo to watch Saturday's live relay from the Metropolitan Opera, the first in the annual HD season. Technically, apart from one or tw…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 04:03PMAt the risk of spoiling the plot, I can tell you that there is no ritual slaughter in this play. Gorge Mastromas is alive at the end. And though his name is spelt Gorge, it's pronounced Geor…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:41AMOrford in Suffolk is a magical place and I love taking pictures of the weird landscape, half natural and half man-made, particularly around Orford Ness. So naturally I was drawn to the Finbo…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:34AMNo, this isn't the title of a play. This blog is getting a sudden deluge of spam 'comments' from alleged readers who are actually trying to sell bathrooms, garden furniture and other less de…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:13PMAt the end of the day (sorry) there's only one question that has to be answered about a farce: is it funny? I'm afraid that the answer regarding this production at the Park Theatre is no. Be…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 10:18AMI'm not sure why or how I missed Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride when it was first on stage at the Royal Court in 2008 (though I did see Apologia at the Bush the following year). The origina…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 04:51PMTwo really exciting shows in one week! First Jessica Swale's Blue Stockings at the Globe. And now Marlowe's Edward II at the National Theatre, which kept me on the edge of my seat for nearly…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 01:24PMContemporary plays have mostly struggled to make an impact in the daunting arena of the Shakespeare's Globe, where the Bard's ghost lurks behind every oaken pillar. But this one is different…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 02:56PMI was drawn to see this show at the Tricycle in Kilburn for two reasons. The first was the name of Denton Chikura, one half of the Zimbabwean 'Two Gents' who staged The Two Gentlemen of Vero…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 04:36AMLike most reviewers, I loved Nick Payne's two-hander Constellations when it transferred to the West End from the Royal Court a few months ago. On the back of that deserved success, the Donma…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 09:35AMHere's a declaration of interest: these two Camden Fringe plays are written by members of Player-Playwrights, which I chair, and our group is supporting them a small amount of funding. But I…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:21AMThere are some theatre directors who seem to have a better sense of time and space than others. James Macdonald is one of them. He uses the relativity of time and space to conjure exquisite …
SOURCE: John Morrison at 01:48PMWhich British theatre director also has a PhD in anthropology and wrote a classic study of spirit mediums and guerrilla fighters in Zimbabwe? The answer is David Lan, for the last 13 years t…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:26AMShakespeare's Globe is a wonderful open air venue for music -- not just the musical accompaniment to Shakespeare's plays which has always been part of the theatrical mix, but potentially for…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 08:23AMWhen he's good he's very very good. I mean Tennessee Williams, with his soaring dialogue, his larger-than-life characters, and that peculiar recreation of the Old South, a ship of fools fuel…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:22PMI can't think of any new play I've enjoyed more this year than this corker by Anya Reiss, the opening work in the National Theatre's all-too-brief Connections festival. My exhilaration after…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 10:34AMMacbeth is the play that introduced me to Shakespeare. I played Fleance, son of Banquo, in a school production 50 years ago. I can't remember very much about it, though one black and white p…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 07:16AMBy coincidence I was at Wilton's Music Hall last night, a few hours before they announced a big Heritage Lottery grant to help save their ancient building. Great news for this wonderful atmo…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 09:11AMFinsbury Park is no longer London theatreland's equivalent of Outer Mongolia. The spanking new Park theatre, whose main space seems to be designed to mimic the intimacy of the successful Don…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 07:11AM
