It felt a little bit strange going into a theatre that looked like a theatre I had become very familiar with, but was slightly different. In reconstructing the Courtyard in the Roundhouse, the RSC have created a version of the Stratford theatre, rather than a replica theatre. There’s no upper circle and the rusts and reds are transformed to…
Read more Romeo and Juliet again..(RSC at the Roundhouse, 4th December 2010)
Trailers – Romeo and Juliet | RSC.
Two productions of the same play in Theatre Royals in the North of England, yet very different experiences. In the past month, I have had chance to revisit the RSC’s production of Romeo and Juliet in Newcastle and have seen the Pilot Theatre’s production of the same play in York. Having seen both productions so…
Read more Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Royal, Newcastle and York)
In the final episode of the television series ‘Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes’, we learnt that everyone was dead after all. Sam Tyler and Alex Drake had been catapulted back in time into a kind of purgatory which resembled an old-fashioned cop drama. Gene Hunt had been shot dead as a young policeman on the beat on coronation day. He couldn’t…
Read more Romeo and Juliet (The Courtyard Theatre, w/c 17th May 2010)
Romeo and Juliet is not my favourite play and I think that it is because I get so frustrated with Romeo and the way he constantly changes his mind. It’s this lack of focus which ends up with Metruchio being killed. I found this production a little too fussy. Firstly, there was a sense of…
Read more Romeo and Juliet (21st and 22nd January 2009) Courtyard Theatre
(Photo shows Alex Waldmann as Jasper and Paul Rider as Old Merrythought in The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Photo by Alastair Muir) I would say that a visit to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is a delightful experience. Without doubt, it is a beautiful little theatre, with its oak interior and the candelabra hanging over the…
The trailer for this production promises lots of blood, and you go you won’t be disappointed if that’s what you expect. Of course, if that’s your thing, one of the highlights has to be sitting in the front row and getting splattered in blood. However, it is stage blood so it washes out very easily,…
Read more Titus Andronicus (The Swan 16th May to 25th October)
I decided to go to the three new plays at the Hampstead Theatre, as part of the RSC long ensemble project. To do this required some complex travel arrangements and a hit on my budget. I’d been watching this long ensemble for three years, and really wanted to see their final performances together on British…
Read more Little Eagles, Silence, and American Trade (Hampstead Theatre)
I am writing this blog as part of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Happy Shakespeare blog project www.happybirthdayshakespeare.com I decided to join the project, because as a blogger I am often writing about going to see Shakespeare’s plays performed, and felt it appropriate to write about why I enjoy seeing Shakespeare in performance so much. Charles…
Read more Happy Birthday Shakespeare – On going to see Shakespeare’s plays and why I do.
“Oh dear, I went for a restricted view seat which cuts off the top of the set, and clearly there is a top of set which looks like things will happen on it” I think to myself as I sit down. The wooden set is uncluttered and is obviously meant to resemble the Globe/Curtain…
Read more Shakespeare in Love (Noel Coward Theatre, 4th April, 2015)
Julie Raby 