Showing some impeccable taste, the Guardian spotlights one of our most impressive, and arguably undersung, actors – Lucian Msamati:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2020/sep/23/the-irresistible-rise-of-lucian-msamati-tristram-kenton-in-pictures
News: Tristram Kenton’s stage archive in pictures
Not really news, more a heads-up to this brilliant piece in the Guardian which covers the 30-odd years that Tristram Kenton has been taking pics for the Guardian’s theatre coverage. Highly recommended: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2020/jul/30/caesar-cilla-and-a-superstar-cast-tristram-kentons-stage-archive-in-pictures
Photos: Tristram Kenton
News: The Mono Box launch The Monologue Library
I mean, just look at this absolute treasure trove of theatrical talent!
We are proud to announce the launch of THE MONOLOGUE LIBRARY, an audio love letter to the industry. #MonoLibrary is a FREE resource of over 100 monologues recorded by professional actors in isolation to celebrate, commiserate & share speeches that mean something to them now… pic.twitter.com/GuT7Y7wQ1q
— The Mono Box (@TheMonoBox) May 1, 2020
I’m off to listen to Patsy Ferran read Tom Wells, and Gabby Wong read Alexi Kaye Campbell, and Sarah Niles read Winsome Pinnock and…and…
This incredible resource is free but like so many creative endeavours right now, would benefit hugely from your donations here.
Round-up of news and treats and other interesting things
The news of Tim Pigott-Smith’s passing at the age of 70 yesterday was a terrible shock, not least because he was still in a rich creative vein – a tour of Death of a Salesman was scheduled for next month and the long-anticipated TV adaptation of his multi-award-nominated turn in the lead role of King Charles III is due later this year.
This tribute from Mike Bartlett is beautifully done. Continue reading “Round-up of news and treats and other interesting things”
The Complete Walk, from the comfort of your sofa #9
“Man is a giddy thing”
Much Ado About Nothing
Quite a bold gambit here, as Jessica Swale’s Sicily-set scenes are interpolated with Jeremy Herrin’s glorious 2011 production. And most glorious within that production, Eve Best’s heart-breaking, life-affirming recounting of a star dancing is placed front and centre. So Katherine Parkinson and Samuel West are up against it a bit, swanning luxuriously but longfully around the Villa Ida in Messina, never too far from Best and Charles Edwards doing Beatrice and Benedick as well as they ever have been done.
All’s Well That Ends Well Continue reading “The Complete Walk, from the comfort of your sofa #9”
Review: The Inn at Lydda, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
“Some things are better left out of the history books”
Have you heard the one where Jesus, the three wise men and Caligula walk into a pub? No? Well it is pretty much the set up for John Wolfson’s curious new play The Inn at Lydda, at least once you’ve thrown John the Baptist and Tiberius Caesar in there as well. An eclectic bit of programming in the candlelit surroundings of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Wolfson has spun his tale from a tidbit in the New Testament Apocrypha and taken it to almost-farcical levels of comedy.
Ailing Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar has heard of a legendary healer over in Judea and so off he pops to be cured by him, only problem is we’re in the days between the Resurrection and the Ascension. Stopping off at a hostelry in the city of Lydda where this news filters through, their party bumps into Tiberius’ lascivious great-nephew and heir Caligula, plus three weary travellers who have been waiting 33 years to reunite with a man who might just be hiding in a nearby cave. Continue reading “Review: The Inn at Lydda, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse”
The Complete Walk, from the comfort of your sofa #5
The Complete Walk, from the comfort of your sofa #3
Review: Cymbeline, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
“Fear no more the frown o’ the great”
You wait for a production of relatively little-performed Shakespeare play and then three come along in the same year. Melly Still is doing Cymbeline for the RSC in the summer, Emma Rice is reclaiming and renaming it Imogen for her inaugural season at the Globe and inside at the same venue, it is being performed as part of a run of the Bard’s late plays in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, directed by Sam Yates.
Ah yes, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. I’ve not been much of a fan of this theatre, for purely practical reasons rather than artistic ones, but with this programming that has allowed me to tick off Pericles and see Rachael Stirling, Niamh Cusack and John Light onstage, I’ve succumbed to a rash of bookings. With that, I’ve opted to be brutally honest about the experiences as a paying customer. Continue reading “Review: Cymbeline, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse”
Review: King John, Shakespeare’s Globe
“Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!”
One of the terms most overused by reviewers and publicity writers alike is “timely revival” and this production of King John is no different, coinciding with the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta as it has processed on a mini-candelit-tour of Temple Church and Holy Sepulchre Church Northampton ahead of this run at the Globe. But Shakespeare dropped the ball here with this play, it is no surprise in the watching that it is one of his lesser-performed works and though James Dacre’s production has its bright spots, it can’t cover all of its inherent weaknesses.
Dacre heavily plays up the religious aspects of the play and whilst you can see the logic for the sacred venues and the atmosphere that the candlelight would have created, it’s less easy to see how it works as well at a sunny matinée in the open air on Bankside. Jonathan Fensom’s design imposes a red cross of a stage into the space and fills it with monks, but religion is only part of the story of John’s travails and weighting the emphasis so heavily here doesn’t seem to make a huge deal of dramatic sense (though I freely admit to not knowing the play at all well). Continue reading “Review: King John, Shakespeare’s Globe”