Don't bother, they're here
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
Manor would have seen the great Nancy Carroll
For we’ll have to do with this teaser
And this interesting interview with Buffini, M.
For the National Theatre
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“You must be famished coming all the way from Wigan”
I’ve been a big fan of Mike Leigh’s film work, since discovering it in the last decade or so, and loved his last film Mr Turner. So news of his return to period drama, albeit through his idiosyncratic process, in Peterloo was a plus for me. The reality though is an epic that proved a real slog for me, even boring by the end. Continue reading “Film Review: Peterloo (2018)”
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be”
After Emma Rice’s promises to ‘rock the ground’ found little purchase with the board at Shakespeare’s Globe, it’s fair to say there have been a few people holding their breath with incoming Artistic Director Michelle Terry’s debut season about to start. One of our finest Shakespeareans, she’s placed the actor at the heart of her programming, which opens with the Globe Ensemble performing As You Like It and Hamlet in rep.
And not to belabour the point, but the difference does feel like the gap between someone who sees Shakespeare as a challenge and someone who sees it an opportunity. Terry’s approach may be less ostentatious but it feels no less quietly radical in flexibility to gender, race, disability and more. Across the two productions it provides some blissful and thought-provoking moments that feel quietly revolutionary. Continue reading “Review: As You Like It / Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Globe”
Catrin Aaron – Phoebe
Yarit Dor – Fight Director
James Garnon – Audrey
Federay Holmes – Director
Colin Hurley – Touchstone
Bettrys Jones – Orlando
Richard Katz – Silvius
Jack Laskey – Rosalind
James Maloney – Composer
Nadia Nadarajah – Celia
Ellan Parry – Designer
Pearce Quigley – Jaques
Shubham Saraf – Oliver
Helen Schlesinger – Duke Frederick
Michelle Terry – Adam
Elle While – Director
Siân Williams – Choreographer
Tanika Yearwood – Amiens
Catrin Aaron – Horatio
Yarit Dor – Fight Director
James Garnon – Claudius
Federay Holmes – Director
Colin Hurley – Ghost
Bettrys Jones – Laertes
Richard Katz – Polonius
Jack Laskey – Fortinbras
James Maloney – Composer
Nadia Nadarajah – Guildenstern
Ellan Parry – Designer
Pearce Quigley – Rosencrantz
Shubham Saraf – Ophelia
Helen Schlesinger – Gertrude
Michelle Terry – Hamlet
Elle While – Director
Siân Williams – Choreographer
Tanika Yearwood – Marcellus
“A man dare not play the tyrant in London, because there are so many examples to encourage the subject to rebel.”
It may be The Beaux’ Stratagem but it is Mrs Sullen’s play. The most striking thing about Simon Godwin’s production of George Farquhar’s final Restoration comedy is its determinedly proto-feminist stance as Mrs Sullen – an independently wealthy woman now desperately unhappily married – is given surprising agency to express herself in a meaningful way and attempt to extricate herself from her situation. And in Susannah Fielding’s superbly silken performance, she’s exquisitely played as an almost tragicomic figure, endlessly entertaining in the raucous romping around but as Jon Clark’s lighting picks her out at the end of each act, capable of holding the entire Olivier theatre’s hearts in her hands.
The beaux ain’t too bad either. Farquhar’s plot centres on their attempts to marry into money after squandering their fortunes in London. Hoping news of their disgrace hasn’t reached the provinces, they head north and stop off in Lichfield, pretending to be master and servant, where their attentions fall on a rich young heiress and her unhappily married sister-in-law. Samuel Barnett’s Aimwell and Geoffrey Streatfeild’s Archer are a witty pair of fellows indeed, with a cracking line in beautifully cut overcoats too, as their avaricious adventures are soon overturned by amorous attentions as they can’t help but fall head over well-turned heel for their marks. Continue reading “Review: The Beaux’ Stratagem, National Theatre”
“We had to plump for M16s for the altos because they have a tendency to get a bit flappy, the last thing they needed was an easily jammable firing mechanism”
Despite the alluring thrill of this note on the webpage for the show – “Special thanks to Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes for their donation to this production” – for one reason or another it has taken me until practically the end of the run to finally get along to Rory Mullarkey’s The Wolf from the Door at the Royal Court.
And to be honest, I have to say it would have been no great loss had I missed it. Mullarkey posits a world in which the middle classes are a seething mass of discontent and an aristocrat is spearheading a movement for radical change that taps right into it, cue beheadings in Tesco, marauding morris dancers and a fully armed WI. An arresting concept but one which increasingly reveals itself to have little to say, a particularly disappointing ending the cherry on this barely-risen cake. Continue reading “Review: The Wolf at the Door, Royal Court”
| Winner | Runner-up | Other nominees | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Actress in a Play | Marianne Jean-Baptiste, The Amen Corner | Michelle Terry, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Globe) | Lucy Ellinson, Grounded Stella Gonet/Fenella Woolgar, Handbagged Lesley Manville, Ghosts (Almeida) Shuna Snow, Iron |
| Best Actor in a Play | Philip Duguid-McQuillan & Jamie Samuel, Jumpers for Goalposts | Al Weaver, The Pride | Brian Cox, The Weir Hugo Koolschijn, Scenes from a Marriage (Toneelgroep Amsterdam) Benedict Wong, Chimerica |
| Best Supporting Actress in a Play | Linda Bassett, Roots | Deborah Findlay, Coriolanus | Anna Calder-Marshall, The Herd Isabella Laughland, The Same Deep Water As Me Hadewych Minis, Scenes from a Marriage (Toneelgroep Amsterdam) Cecilia Noble, The Amen Corner |
| Best Supporting Actor in a Play | Pearce Quigley, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Globe) | Roeland Fernhout, Scenes from a Marriage (Toneelgroep Amsterdam) | Richard McCabe, The Audience Jeff Rawle, Handbagged Andy Rush, Jumpers for Goalposts Alexander Vlahos, Macbeth (MIF) |
| Best Actress in a Musical | Rosalie Craig, The Light Princess | Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple | Zrinka Cvitešić, Once the musical Anita Dobson, Carnival of the Animals Scarlett Strallen, A Chorus Line Charlotte Wakefield, The Sound of Music |
| Best Actor in a Musical | Kyle Scatliff, Scottsboro Boys | Declan Bennett, Once the musical | David Birrell, Sweeney Todd Nick Hendrix, The Light Princess Matt Smith, American Psycho Michael Xavier, The Sound of Music |
| Best Supporting Actress in a Musical | Leigh Zimmerman, A Chorus Line | Nicola Hughes, The Color Purple | Amy Booth-Steel, The Light Princess Katie Brayben, American Psycho Cassidy Janson, Candide Sophia Nomvete, The Color Purple |
| Best Supporting Actor in a Musical | Kit Orton, The Hired Man | Michael Matus, The Sound of Music | Ben Aldridge, American Psycho Christian Dante White, Scottsboro Boys Kane Oliver Parry, The Light Princess Gary Wood, A Chorus Line |