325 stories by "Michael Coveney"
Outstanding actor of stage and screen who made his name as Bri in A Day in the Death of Joe EggThe British theatre changed for ever when Joe Melia, as the sardonic teacher Bri, pushed a seve…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon: You never feel the Royal Shakespeare Company is comfortable with the bard's sitcom that brought Falstaff back from the history plays by r…
Versatile actor who for many years was closely associated with Alan AyckbournElizabeth Bell, who has died aged 71 of cancer of the oesophagus, was an accomplished and versatile act…
Actor who made her name during the early years of drama on televisionAs a captivating young ingenue in Shakespeare on stage, and Jane Austen on television, Daphne Slater, who has died aged 8…
Apollo, London: Lovely to see Roger Rees again, of course, but his solo turn of speeches by, and anecdotes about, Shakespeare is thin gruel for a West End stage, an after-dinner entertainmen…
Classical actor who graced the stage with decorum and stillnessAlthough perhaps best known as Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's moustache-twirling detective, on BBC radio, John Moffatt, who …
Almeida, London: Although Michael Attenborough's fast-paced and lucid revival edges dangerously from pagan neutrality into medieval monotone, Jonathan Pryce's Lear is a compelling …
Zany US comedian with a wise-cracking line in self-mockeryPhyllis Diller, who has died aged 95, was a raucous, zany comedian, with a special line in self-deprecation bordering on flat-out se…
Shakespeare's Globe, London: After ruling as the Rooster in Jerusalem, Mark Rylance returns to scenes of earlier triumphs as a comical Crookback, a childish villain of Gloucester who cloaks …
Arts Theatre, London,: The RSC is back in town, but not, this time, the Royal Shakespeare Company - it's the all too familiar Reduced Shakespeare Company, the American RSC, with an all-…
National Theatre, Olivier: The first thing you see is a row of tents, the encampment outside St Paul's, a world apart from the next scene, where a suited fat cat is moving like an oil s…
Toby Robertson, who has died aged 83, was the artistic director of the Prospect Theatre Company from 1964 to 1978, and re-established the good name and reputation of touring theatre in the U…
Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon: As part of the ongoing World Shakespeare Festival 2012, the RSC has joined forces with the National Theatre of Mexico to tell the story of the rise of the Aztecs i…
Shakespeare' Globe, London: The comedy is either a fantasy of the tinker, Christopher Sly, or a command performance, or a charade in the inn. But director Toby Frow does away with the framew…
Actor who made his name at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and appeared in three of the five Beatles films, making firm friends with the Fab FourVictor Spinetti, who has died of cancer ag…
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park: The rain-soaked opening night of the Open Air Theatre's iconic Shakespearean comedy was cancelled after the first two acts. But we had already seen enou…
Royal Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon: There's a carnival atmosphere as the crowds gather for the Feast of Lupercal and the acclamation of the conquering hero - Gregory Doran's br…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon: The third in the RSC's Shipwreck Trilogy is by far the best, using the new RST thrust to its full, with ghostly sprites emerging from tra…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon: There are so many labels in this summer's Olympic Games cultural beano that first-time buyers may get lost going round the supermarket.
R…
Royal Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon: Twelfth Night sometimes opens with Viola asking where she is, sometimes with Orsino asking for more music, but on opening night in Stratford it opened…
Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon: Richard III marks a new start for the Tudor dynasty, as well as the RSC's summer season in the World Shakespeare Festival. But there's nothing all that e…
Minerva Theatre, Chichester: The 50th anniversary season at Chichester opens with a straightforward, unexceptional revival of Uncle Vanya, a play that was directed by Laurence Olivier - who …
Playwright whose work combined poetry, politics and passionOne of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s, John Arden, who has died aged 81, was in later lif…
Old Vic, London: John Webster's Jacobean masterpiece used to be a fixture in the repertory theatre list, so Jamie Lloyd's magnificent revival, beautifully lit by James Farncombe, w…
Welsh actor with a flair for playing different nationalities " not least his own, as Lloyd George and DCI Noel BainThe actor Philip Madoc, who has died aged 77 after a short illness, became …
