48 stories by "Emily May"
Choreographer-led works at the annual German theater event range from the transgressive to the melancholic.
Les Vêpres Siciliennes is an epic undertaking by the Royal Opera. Spanning five acts and four hours, it is somewhat of a marathon, where against all the odds the performers continue to ba…
Alice (Olivia Williams) and Jenny (Olivia Coleman) live completely contrasting lives, geographically and intellectually. Alice lives in Geneva, is a mother and a scientist working on the dev…
Chinese Whispers " a play exploring the "bizarre life of Sir Edmund Backhouse" " is a difficult production to define. As it attempts to guide us through the audacious swindles of this Victor…
Emma Rice's "Summer of Love" at Shakespeare's Globe proves to be her farewell season as Artistic Director. And what a farewell her Twelfth Night has turned out to be. Rice invites you all ab…
With the current state of political affairs, discussions of post-truth, fake news, and green aliens in body suits running the country, it feels very poignant for Love & Will Productions…
Live sheep are being paraded around the stage. I would be surprised, but considering this opera's surrealist inspirations, one should come expecting the unexpected. From the appearance of be…
A black cloth, torn and irregular, is suspended over the stage of Shakespeare's Globe " reminiscent of a foreboding spider's web. From the very beginning, this ominous material hangs over th…
The stage is dark for several minutes. Almost unrecognisably, light begins to seep into the performance space, gradually revealing the cast of the National Youth Dance Company submerged unde…
A platform for the prominence of female characters, playwrights and issues, Women Redressed is an intriguing feminist theatre festival produced by Sheer Height Theatre. In its fourth instalm…
The stage is dressed with a plethora of brown. From brown leather sofas to brown wooden wall cladding, the colour scheme sets an expectation of a warm, cosy, and intimate setting. This expec…
Two men eat lit candles. A live chicken in paraded around the stage and is left to feed off a smashed watermelon. A vase of flowers is emptied into the skirt of one performer's gown. A woman…
One would not normally compare the plights of the British Army in the Battle of Agincourt and WWI. Yet despite the obvious contrasting features " the former casting the English as aggressors…
Resolution 2017 is the 28th edition of the celebrated platform for emerging contemporary dance choreographers. With a different triple-bill every night for just over a month, Resolution prov…
With Christmas just around the corner, many of the audience at the Bridge House Theatre may be able to empathise with protagonist Carole's disdain for the commercialism of the season. "It st…
The stage is set with an unlikely assortment of objects. A utilitarian platform, instruments, ladders, wiring and microphones conjure thoughts of a warehouse. It is as if the backstage of th…
English National Ballet (ENB) are fast becoming one of the most intriguing companies at work in the UK today. Under the artistic direction of Tamara Rojo, they have collaborated with choreog…
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." The infamous Austen quotation rings throughout Richmond Theatre as i…
It is not every day that an audience member enters the world's oldest surviving music hall and is confronted with staging adorned with aggressive graffiti. This juxtaposition of antiquated s…
It is irrefutable that choreographer, Charlotte Vincent, is passionate about her subject. The Place's bar is filled with pre-show information and activities that encourage the audience to en…
As we enter the intimate auditorium above The Hen and Chicken pub in Islington, raucous jazz music fills our ears. We are confronted with a simplistic set reminiscent of a stereotypical Lond…
Originally the protagonist of Carlo Collodi's book set in 19th Century Italy, and then the eponymous star of the Disney classic, Pinocchio is a fairytale character that many of us remember f…
As you enter the Jack Studio Theatre, he's there. Bleach blonde wig in place, he dances around on an office chair accompanied by the Flying Lizards' 'Money'. Already inciting an atmosphere o…
"The stumbling blocks of our teenage years where emotions and friends rule" are the focus of Erik Kaiel's O Snap, a piece of dance theatre aimed at children from age ten and up. Moments of i…
Erik Kaiel's company " Arch 8 Dancers " have hit Dance Umbrella 2016 with a programme of three contrasting works aimed at younger audiences. Tetris " the first of the three " encompasses ins…
