REVIEW: Twelfth Night at the Space Theatre

The intimate surroundings of this converted church is a perfect setting for Pell Mell’s production of Twelfth Night, allowing the audience to feel as though they are intimately involved with the events in the play.

Set in and around a Victorian music hall, this production combine’s dance with circus acts that can be distracting to watch and makes certain sequences such as the opening scene feel overly long and unnecessary – despite how creative it is.  The dance opening the play although well choreographed feels out of place in this Shakespeare play.

However because of the intimate nature of the production, it allows the audience to purely focus on the characters and what is happening. But director Natalie York has also added a darker element to the play that changes the perspective thanks to the circus setting – scenes such as when Malvolio is being taunted by Maria, Sir Toby and others bring to mind bear baiting and other similar activities which adds a cruel streak, making it hard to watch at times.

Shakespeare’s Globe launches Globe Player, becoming the first theatre to create its own dedicated video-on-demand platform

Shakespeare’s Globe today launches Globe Player, a brand new online platform offering full-length HD films of over 50 Shakespeare productions at the Globe to rent or buy.

​

Shakespeare’s Globe is the first theatre in the world to offer this kind of on-demand platform for digital content. Every foreign-language production from the 2012 ‘Globe to Globe’ festival of international Shakespeare has been made available on film, alongside main productions from the 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 summer seasons, as follows:

• 2012: Twelfth Night starring Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry, Henry V starring Jamie Parker and The Taming of the Shrew starring Samantha Spiro
• 2011: Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, Much Ado About Nothing starring Eve Best and All’s Well That Ends Well with Janie Dee
• 2010: Henry IV parts 1 and 2 with Roger Allam and Jamie Parker and Henry VIII with Miranda Raison
• 2009: As You Like It directed by Thea Sharrock, Love’s Labour’s Lost directed by Dominic Dromgoole and Romeo & Juliet starring Ellie Kendrick

Shakespeare’s Globe announce full casting for Michael Longhurst’s 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE

Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce full casting for Michael Longhurst’s forthcoming ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, opening in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 28 October.

Designed by Alex Lowde and composed by Simon Slater, this new production of John Ford’s blackly sensual and viscerally violent play will find a perfect home in the shadowy intimacy of the candlelit Playhouse. Max Bennett and Fiona Button star as Giovanni and Annabella, the siblings whose doomed incestuous passion both threatens and throws into relief the incense-laden hypocrisy of the Italian court.

Full cast includes Max Bennett, Stefano Braschi, Fiona Button, Sam Cox, Philip Cumbus, Noma Dumezweni, James Garnon, Michael Gould, Alice Haig, Dean Nolan, Jethro Skinner, Daniel Rabin, Morag Siller & Edward Peel. 

Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST to play the Cockpit Theatre, produced by Tree Folk Theatre

“Be not afeard. The Isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not”, Tree Folk Theatre will take you through the Tempest, guided by masks, puppetry and music. 

After two well-received shows (Tsarevich and The Wolf + Nights of Enchantment), Tree Folk Theatre are producing an in-the-round version of The Tempest in the Cockpit Theatre, 15th July - 3rd August. 

Phyllida Lloyd to direct all-female production of HENRY IV at Donmar Warehouse

The Donmar Warehouse today announces its next season of work.

Premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012, Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female production of Julius Caesar sparked fierce critical and public debate both in the UK and in New York where it transferred in 2013 for a sold out run at St Ann’s Warehouse. The Donmar is delighted to announce a second production in what will become an epic trilogy of shows all of which will challenge the notion of who owns Shakespeare. Once again her cast will feature Harriet Walter as King Henry, Jade Anouka as Hotspur and Clare Dunne as Hal. The cast will also include Ashley McGuire as Falstaff.  The production will develop and enhance what was begun with Julius Caesar in a series of Education and Outreach projects. The company will work extensively with twenty schools, run over 75 workshops as well as offering £5 tickets to over 500 young people. The Donmar and Clean Break Theatre Company will work together on a series of workshops around the production.

A Midsummer Nights Dream: Theatre Review

Linking a classic Shakespeare play to the Traveller culture which most people know about from the hit TV show 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' sounds like a bizarre and almost ridiculous idea. But it works. For the 2012 season at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre they are doing two shows in repetition, Ragtime and A Midsummer Night's Dream and I had the pleasure of attending a preview for A Midsummer Night's Dream. This theatre seems like the perfect place to put on this play, and of course it is. You're outside in one of London's most beautiful parks, add a few coloured lights to it and it would be the most enchanting setting for this play. Not in this production, obviously they have the beauty aspects that they use to full advantage (how could you not?!) but add in two caravans, a crane and a load of gypsies then you've got this adaptation of one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays. The Open Air Theatre is currently in their 80^thSeason and continues to amaze audiences with their productions. Their most recent and most famous ones include the Olivier Award Winning productions Crazy For You, Into The Woods and Hello, Dolly! Their decision to do yet another production of A Midsummer Night's Dream may not come as a surprise but when you see what they've done with the piece, you'll never forget it.