Mid-September turned out to be a great time for theatregoing. I saw four excellent plays in less than ten days. Starting with Al Smith's Harrogate at the Hightide Festival in Aldeburgh, I we…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 11:21AM'Have you read much Kierkegaard? Has that question ever been asked in Oldham?' Taking the piss can land you in big trouble. Particularly in Oldham, and particularly in a pub whose landlord u…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 03:14PMThe relationship between middle-aged men and their daughters seems to be in the news at the moment, which means that Al Smith's excellent and unsettling new play may turn out to be more topi…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:50PMA review in five acts 1. O vkusakh nye sporit' (Don't argue about taste). I was reminded of this old Russian proverb during my August week in Edinburgh when I read a glowing five-star review…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:37PMShe pouts, she flirts, she lies, she falls in love, she bewitches the men who come near her and deceives herself just as much as her victims. Amanda Drew's scintillating portrayal of Turgene…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 02:31PMThere are as many ways of staging this drama by Euripides as there are days in the year. It's a deeply ambiguous play, and the relationship between Dionysus and the audience is the key to th…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 12:09PMMy theatre blog is honoured to present a guest review of this production at Southwark Playhouse by Lord Scrawdyke of Huddersfield, better known as Malcolm Scrawdyke MP, one of the architects…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 09:52AMThis is an exemplary production of one of Shakespeare's most fascinating plays, with a terrific actor (Charles Edwards) playing the doomed king, and a wealth of strong supporting performance…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 07:10PMDominic Dromgoole's farewell production at the Globe goes overboard into slapstick comedy, which overwhelms and disguises the the dark heart of one of Shakespeare's most bitter plays. Before…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 07:10PMVisitors to Tate Modern will probably have spotted a classic conceptualist work made in 1973 by Michael Craig-Martin entitled 'An Oak Tree' which consists of a glass of water on a bathroom s…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 04:18PMDoes it matter how actors pronounce Russian names when they are acting Chekhov's plays in English? I think it does, and that's not just because I'm a Russian speaker or a pedant (or possibly…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 03:27PM'Who the fuck really cares?' asks one of the five characters in Stephen Adly Guirgis's play. Can't we just get along fine without a sense of right and wrong? The playwright's answer is an em…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 07:55PMGoing to see a Shakespeare play for the first time is a rare pleasure, especially when I have never read it and know next to nothing about it. So my trip to Shakespeare's Globe enabled me to…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 10:34AMHere's a question for the next pub quiz. Who was Graeme Knowles and why did he resign? Don't all shout at once. Yes, you, the gentleman in the dog collar -- I thought you might have the righ…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 08:37AMRupert Goold's promise to 'take the Greeks out of the attic' (pun intended, I think) has got off to a spectacular start at the Almeida. His longtime collaborator Robert Icke, largely respons…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 01:00PMAnyone worried about low productivity in the British economy will be heartened to learn that things are far worse elsewhere. If this play by Pavel Pryazhko at the Soho theatre is telling the…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:54AMThe vast auditorium of the Olivier theatre isn't always the best place to stage comedy; it relentlessly exposes actors who can't adjust to its demands, and it makes exceptional demands of di…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:26PMWhat do you need to stage a successful play ? Six actors, six rugby shirts, a rugby ball and a good story, plus an excellent writer and an even more excellent director. It all looks deceptiv…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:44AMThis excellent production by Jonathan Munby, with Jonathan Pryce as Shylock, couldn't be more different from the last one I saw -- Rupert Goold's hyped-up version set in a Las Vegas casino. …
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:46AMThis is undoubtedly Michelle Terry's show. Whenever she's on stage as Rosalind, you just don't want her to exit. If there's a catalogue of famous Rosalinds whose performances shine on in the…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 11:53AMIf Florian Zeller's The Father was just a realistic play about a man with Alzheimer's, it would be well worth seeing for that alone. But there are several other elements in this production a…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 06:51AMI greatly admire James Graham as a playwright, and not just because almost everyone else does. He has the knack of turning really unpromising material into entertaining drama, something he s…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 02:49PMMichael Frayn is the author of Noises Off, the funniest play ever penned by a British dramatist. So Hampstead Theatre no doubt jumped at the chance to put on a selection of his unperformed s…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:57AMAny show with John Heffernan in the lead is worth seeing, but despite his excellent performances, this is a play that somehow never quite gets into top gear. Perhaps the ugly surroundings of…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:47AMI've been to see seven plays in the last ten days, more through coincidence than deliberate design. In six of those shows I enjoyed what I consider to be the essential quality of drama -- th…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:19AM'Happy Fucking Birthday!' they shout as Everyman's friends and hangers-on surround him, whipping up an orgy of shots-and-coke-fuelled celebration. The lights flash and the music is turned up…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 01:18PMBuying theatre tickets long before a show opens isn't an exact science, and sometimes I get it wrong. My biggest mistake recently was not to book ahead for what turned out to be the revival …
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:37AMBetter late than Nether, I suppose. I finally caught up with this play in the last week of its run at the Duke of York's theatre long after it transferred from the Royal Court. Like Mike Bar…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 04:49AMIn the hands of Declan Donnellan as director, very little can go wrong. I've been many times to the Barbican and elsewhere to see his Cheek By Jowl company perform Shakespeare, Chekhov and o…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 04:58AMWhile many theatres are staging election-related plays in the next three weeks, the National Theatre has shown a flash of genius by reviving a work that confronts all the big questions which…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 09:35AMDo any of these headlines ring a bell? HORROR AS IMMIGRANTS BARBECUE LLAMA AT PETTING ZOO WHITES IN MINORITY BY 2020 NOW PAEDOPHILES IN BURQUAS STALK OUR KIDS WHITE SUICIDE BOMBER IN BLACKBU…
SOURCE: John Morrison at 05:47AM
