Journalist
TW: rape
(Original post at The National Student)
Titus Andronicus is not an easy play to stage. Perhaps Shakespeare’s most violent work, the play is famed for its excessive savagery; rape, mutilation, and cannibalism are so ubiquitous in Titus Andronicus that for years, many critics have derided the play for its sadism and narrative simplicity.
Continue reading “Titus Andronicus, Royal Shakespeare Company”
(Original post at The Boar)
In her new solo-show Lucy, Lucy and Lucy Barfield, Lucy Grace demonstrates the truth behind C. S. Lewis’ adage that “there are no ordinary people.” Moving, funny, and often deeply sad, Grace tells the story of her search for Lucy Barfield, C. S. Lewis’ god-daughter and the inspiration for Lucy Pevensie.
I recently returned from my first Edinburgh Fringe, and aside from the hellish cold I caught, I had a fantastic time. Here’s five hits from the 2016 line up.
(Original post at The Boar)
At the Edinburgh Fringe- that great festival into which all the actors and comedians of the world are irresistibly drained- there are more musicals than you could see in a week. Perhaps more surprisingly, there are a great many shows about Sherlock Holmes. Musical Theatre Warwick’s Holmes For Rent, an adaptation of Christian Blex’s German musical Sherlock H., is perhaps the only production that is both.
Photo by Helen Maybanks.
(Original post at The Boar)
Polly Findlay has staged a raucous, playful production of The Alchemist, Ben Jonson’s esteemed city comedy.
(Original post at The Boar)
I’ll admit it- I’m scared of interviewing Rachel Partington.
A student at Bristol Old Vic theatre school, Partington has written a play about the experiences of an Eritrean refugee she met in the infamous ‘Calais Jungle’. In Still Here, soon to be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, she’s recreated their conversation in the migrant encampment and assumed her role as questioner onstage once more. Imagine my trepidation at this intimidating prospect. How do you interview an interviewer?
Photo by Helen Maybanks
(Original post at The Boar)
Maria Aberg returns to the RSC to direct a lurid, fantastical production of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. By now, most of us know the story – an ambitious scholar makes a fatal deal with Lucifer’s agent Mephistopheles. In exchange, he receives near limitless power, and meets a tragic demise. Aberg’s play is chaotic to watch, yet rarely steps a foot wrong, and left me near breathless at its close.
Continue reading “Doctor Faustus, Royal Shakespeare Company”
(Original post at The Boar)
One of the most widely anticipated productions of the year, the Barbican’s Hamlet has been inundated by frenzied coverage across the media, largely thanks to the hysteria surrounding its illustrious star, Benedict Cumberbatch. From the record-breaking ticket sales to its controversial decision (and subsequent U-turn) to place the play’s famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy during its opening scene, the plagued production has been contentious from its inception.
Continue reading “Too much madness, not enough method: Hamlet at the Barbican”
Bethan Ackerley 