Theatre Features
Seasons of love: Rent 20 years onThursday, 08 December 2016
On January 25 1996, after Rent's final dress rehearsal at the off-off-Broadway New York Theater Workshop, its composer Jonathan Larson went home to his scuzzy loft round the corner, switched on the electric kettle and, before the water had boiled, keeled over with an aortic aneurism. Later that night his roommate found his body on the floor of the kitchen. Read more... |
'Hamlet’s actors are kings of infinite space'Thursday, 01 December 2016
“I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, Were it not that I have bad dreams…” 2016, with all its protectionist voting, has been the year I’ve taken my production of Hamlet – with just six actors, a sofa and a drum-kit – around Europe. Read more... |
'What would it feel like to watch women sew?'Wednesday, 16 November 2016
It’s a strange time to be alive. Has it always felt like this? When else was there a time when so much felt to be at stake, and the ground moved beneath our feet with the continuous emergence of technologies that affect our everyday lives and our very being, where we know little of our interior selves and yet publish so much about our lives to strangers? We are the chosen generation, we are the people who will be witness to the most radical change in society the world has ever seen! Read more... |
'I am dismayed by the tone of the debate'Sunday, 30 October 2016
There is nothing more depressing than seeing people you like and admire lining up on opposing sides. Emma Rice’s parting from the Globe has resulted in some unedifying comment, often based more on prejudice than fact. I see value in the arguments of both “sides” but am dismayed at the tone of the debate. Read more... |
Howard Davies: An AppreciationThursday, 27 October 2016
Howard Davies, the theatre director who has died at the too-early age of 71, may not have achieved the renown of many of his colleagues. He didn’t direct blockbuster musicals, rarely ventured into TV and film, and didn’t possess the signature style that gets you noticed – and wins awards – early on. Read more... |
Half a century of the RoundhouseThursday, 20 October 2016
We've got a lot to celebrate in 2016: 50 years since the Roundhouse became an arts centre and 10 years of transforming young lives through creativity. In celebration of this momentous year we embarked on a journey of discovery to uncover the stories from train-enthusiast accounts of our humble beginnings to real-life high-wire love stories, from week-long raves in the 1990s to politically-charged spoken word in the 2000s. Read more... |
First Person: 'Schizophrenia is still a taboo subject'Sunday, 16 October 2016
On 10 October 2016, World Mental Health Day, the team of Belarus Free Theatre came back together to start the final stages of production for Tomorrow I Was Always a Lion, a new theatre show based on Arnhild Lauveng’s autobiographical book. Arnhild Lauveng is a Norwegian writer and practicing psychologist. In the book she tells the story of her own recovery from the incurable condition of schizophrenia. Read more... |
First Person: 'Leaving the house can feel like walking into battle'Monday, 19 September 2016
On a sunny afternoon in April four young women pile themselves into a toilet at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. They lock the door. They have come here to make some intimate recordings. Awkward giggles develop into discussion and discussion turns into confession. They are talking about their bodies. Something is always too small or big, or not the right shape. Read more... |
Who's afraid of Edward Albee?Saturday, 17 September 2016
"I've always thought there's nothing worse than coming to the end of your life and realising that you haven't participated in it, and so I write about people who've done that to a certain extent." Edward Albee has died at the age of 88, having participated in his life far more actively than George and Martha, the couple in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? whose idea of hell is each other. Read more... |
theartsdesk in Venice: Shylock comes homeWednesday, 10 August 2016
"In such a night as this..." begins Lorenzo's beautiful speech in Act V of The Merchant of Venice. Watching Shakespeare's play in the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo on a balmy evening under a darkening navy blue sky, with cicadas providing a busy background recitative, it might have been tempting to be lulled by the romance of the surroundings. Belmont itself could scarcely be more delightful than Venice on a moonlit summer night. Read more... |
Pages
Advertising feature
★★★★★
‘A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.’
The Observer, Kate Kellaway
Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.
★★★★★
‘This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.’
The Times, Ann Treneman
Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.
Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.
latest in today
Album: Tindersticks - Soft Tissue
It has to be hoped that Stuart Staples’ songs for Tindersticks aren’t a reflection of his actual life experiences. No-one really deserves that...
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, ZooNation, Linbury Theatre...
The Mad Hatter gets it about right when he tells Alice: “You’re entirely bonkers… but all the best people are.” Kate Prince takes this line and...
La traviata, Royal Opera review - a charismatic soprano in a...
Later this autumn Richard Eyre’s La Traviata celebrates its 30th birthday. Not bad going for the director’s first ever foray...
Red Rooms review - the darkest of webs
A woman sits at her computer. She copy-pastes an address into a search engine. She goes to street view. She zooms in. Click. Opens...
Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime, BBC Four review - satisfying nov...
Like the BBC’s documentary series The Yorkshire Ripper Files before it, the French six-part drama Sambre on...
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review - a lively resurrection
Sometimes love never dies and the dead never rot. A lot of water has flowed down the River Styx since...
Blu-ray: Floating Clouds
Once regarded as highly as Kurosawa and Ozu, Japanese director Mikio Naruse’s star has fallen in recent decades, with few of his films readily...
Starve Acre review - unearthing the unearthly in a fine folk...
Blame the high cost of city housing, or killer smog. What else can explain a bright young couple’s move from 1970s...
First Person: Alexandra Dariescu on highlighting women at th...
This year, I am delighted to be supporting the Alexandra Dariescu Award at the Leeds International Piano Competition for an outstanding...
Proms 63-65, Choral Day review - from Harris to Handel/Mozar...
The Proms’ Indian summer of big visiting orchestras is over – and what a parade...