135 stories by "Julia Rank"
In his memoirs, Arthur Conan Doyle expressed regret for not granting Dr Watson any sense of humour. This unabashedly comic adaptation of
In his crass and unfunny play Curtain Call, Simon Bradbury also takes the lead role of Stanley Shenton, a once distinguished classical
Charting the Malay Emergency of 1948, Peter Nichols' play with songs Privates on Parade is a curious cross between a pantomime and
New Zealand performer Penny Ashton has a personal connection with the lady on the new £10 note, being a fifth great niece
In 1957, Moscow street dog Laika was selected by the Soviet space programme as their canine guinea pig. Poor Laika had no
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (celebrating its bicentenary this year) is a messy, straggly, unapologetically raw novel that opens out like a series of
When he wasn't designing architectural masterpieces such as Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, polymath John Vanbrugh had a side line as a
In 1897, the women of Girton College Cambridge were warned. They were given an explanation. Nevertheless, they persisted until women were finally
Jack Stanley's apocalyptic comedy of manners Catastrophists is rooted in Alan Ayckbourn territory. Obnoxious young professionals Raf and Harry host a dinner
Committed suffragette Cicely Hamilton had a remarkable career using drama, journalism and novels to promote women's rights. Her 1911 play Just to
Jennifer Selway's three-hander Treating Odette is a treat to watch. Inspired by her friend Patricia Law who worked in an exclusive Mayfair
Based on the novel by Melvyn Bragg, Howard Goodall's first musical The Hired Man is a depiction of working-class northern life in
Steve Rodgers's 2012 play Food (receiving its first production outside Australia) is an abrasive affair, more of a haphazard buffet than a
Richard Bean's bittersweet two-hander stands in marked contrast to the brassier style he is known for, in plays including One Man Two
Few things are more relevant or chilling at present than alternative facts. In Naylah Ahmed's new play Ready or Not, the toxic
"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance", Charlotte Lucas informs Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. While the pragmatic Charlotte
A starry cast enlivens the UK premiere of Stephen Karam's one-act dark comedy. While a film version of Speech and Debate is
Chekhov considered The Cherry Orchard, his final play, to be a comedy, even though Stanislavsky staged it as a tragedy. Certainly it's
According Ersi Niaoti's one-woman play Stegosaurus, one of the many myths perpetuated by Hollywood is how easy it is to be bulimic.
Dorothy Parker once quipped about the love story between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith being one of the prettiest in history, and
This is perhaps the winter of most discontent in many years. In such times, theatre that stimulates and relates to the modern
The isle is full of noises in Amy Draper's production of The Tempest, this year's offering in Southwark Playhouse's Shakespeare for Schools
One of the most memorable and heart-rendering sequences in Planet Earth II was the penguin colony on Zavodovsky Island. It's hard to
Albert died shortly before Christmas, in 1861. Famously, Queen Victoria never got over her loss, wearing mourning for the rest of her
The festive period offers the perfect excuse for theatres not participating in pantomime to indulge in their own silly season. Bryony Lavery's
