State of Theatre in England: The Classics
The steady decline in the amount and quality of classic plays performed in theatres in England seems not to have attracted much attention and, in any event, little protest. In the second half of the 20th century, one could find…
Arthur Miller’s American Clock at the Old Vic
The current revival at the Old Vic of Arthur Miller’s The American Clock prompts some thoughts on current trends in theatre productions and the problems that they create for audiences. In a number of recent revivals of the classics, there…
My Theatre Highlights 2018
Winter Solstice by Roland Schimmelpfenning performed by the Actors Touring Company A powerful but subtle exposition of the seductiveness of fascist-speak, given a Brechtian interpretation by the performers half-narrating, half-acting the text. A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed by Shakespeare’s…
David Greig’s Europe at the Leeds Playhouse
David Greig’s Europe was first performed in 1994, after the Soviet Union had collapsed and borders had opened up. But it was also a period of great hardship: there were the Balkan Wars; people had been displaced; and economies had…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream in York
The idea of creating a “pop-up” Elizabethan theatre for a summer season of Shakespeare in York was an excellent one, but would the quality of performances justify the effort and expense? After a disappointing Richard III, I was doubtful: this…
The Phenomenon of Matthew Bourne, Choreographer
Matthew Bourne is definitely a phenomenon. He and his company New Adventures have achieved a huge popularity among ballet and dance audiences. Take the Alhambra Bradford, a venue regularly used by touring groups. For most of their performances it has,…
The Actors Touring Company Production of Winter Solstice
Roland Schimmelpfenning’s play Winter Solstice, in the Actors Touring Company production seen at Scarborough, is an outstanding new play. Let me start with the content. A bickering couple, he a sociologist, she a filmmaker, are visited by her mother and…
The Kneehigh production of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk
Theatre at its creative best is a marvellous thing. Emma Rice’s production of Daniel Jamieson’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk now on a Kneehigh tour is just that. The biodrama of Marc Chagall and his wife Bella is by itself…
Franz Wittenbrink’s Secretaries in Cottbus
Franz Wittenbrink’s Sekretärinnen (Secretaries) has had an enormous success in German-speaking theatres since it was first performed in 1995. Best described as a musical revue, it contains no spoken text but a series of songs about women, their desires and…
Tribes by Nina Raine at the Dublin Theatre Festival
Nina Raine’s play Tribes is superb. Centring on the problems of relationships within a family, particularly between a profoundly deaf individual, his siblings and his parents, it is, on one level, a piece about the nature and problems of communication….
Joyce’s Ulysses at the Dublin Theatre Festival
I have always been sceptical of adaptations of novels for the stage and, in my experience, the greater the novel the less likely its success in this format. Having said that, one of the most impressive of my early theatre…
Eugene O’Neill’s Desire under the Elms at the Sheffield Crucible
Eugene O’Neill’s Desire under the Elms is a towering, craggy masterpiece of 20th century theatre. The play draws on themes from Greek drama, power (patriarchal and sexual), retribution and dynastic ties, but nevertheless remains quintessentially American. This is because the…
The Father by Florian Zeller at Oldham’s Coliseum
You have come to see a play which follows the progress of a dementia sufferer as his condition deteriorates. It is likely to be a moving, poignant experience, particularly if you know, or have known, someone with this condition and…
The Pulverised by Alexandra Badea at York’s Theatre Royal
The presentation of continental European drama on the British stage has become too rare for comfort in recent times, so the appearance at York’s Theatre Royal of The Pulverised by the Romanian-French writer Alexandra Badea is to be warmly welcomed….
The Goat by Edward Albee at London’s Haymarket Theatre
If you have had the experience of being irritated in a theatre when members of the audience laugh inappropriately at serious aspects of a drama – I have had it many times – then I recommend that you go to…
Aeschylus at Manchester’s Royal Exchange
I have always had a penchant for ritualistic theatre and there is no better medium for experiencing it than Greek drama. The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus, presented by the Actors Touring Company at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, provides an excellent…
Death of a Salesman at Harrogate
At a time when we are trying to make sense of what is going on the other side of the Atlantic, what better than to experience Arthur Miller’s tragedy about the American Dream, Death of a Salesman? Particularly when the…
Harold Pinter and No Man’s Land
Why do theatre-goers flock to see plays by Harold Pinter? The question is prompted by a visit this week to Sheffield’s Lyceum for No Man’s Land. It was a sell-out and I was lucky to get a seat in the…
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuinness
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, the play by Frank McGuinness on three hostages in Lebanon, is powerful and poignant. It also has an impressive structure, raising and lowering tension, mingling despair with hope, fantasy with grim reality, religiosity with agnosticism,…
The Plight of Regional Theatre
Regional theatre is having a tough time coping with the effects of cuts in public subsidy and this has led to a paucity of serious drama. Let me give the example of Yorkshire and its principal playhouses – I ignore…