Chekhov's plays are amongst the highlights of world culture. So to have the pleasure of seeing/hearing Uncle Vanya in Russian performed by one of the best theatre companies on the planet - the Maly Drama Theatre of St Petersburg - is as good as it gets. Chekhov is famous for his nuanced blending of the tragic and the comic. He puts before us characters who are both trapped and yet yearning for happiness. Chekhov is the master of not saying what we mean. Instead, we talk about the weather. Lev … [Read more...]
Life and Fate: Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg
Life and Fate is a Russian epic in my view the 20th century’s version of War and Peace, written by Vasily Grossman in 1960 it could just as well be called Love and Death. It has been adapted for the stage by Lev Dodin, Russia’s greatest theatre director since Stanislavsky. He has put his team - Maly Drama Theatre of St Petersburg - through three years of rehearsals. Each cast member has read the 1,000-page novel twenty times. They have visited a labour camp in Siberia and slept overnight in the … [Read more...]
Our Country’s Good at Theatre Royal Stratford East | Review
Our Country’s Good (the title is a pun "We left Our Country for Our Country’s Good") tells the remarkable story of the 800 convicts sent to Australia from Portsmouth, England on the 13th May 1787. The play is both harrowing and funny. The play shows how the officers were divided about how to treat the convicts. The Hawks led by Major Robbie Ross (Colin Connor) advocate harsh punishment, hanging, flogging and degrading insults. Ross makes Robert Sideway (Alex Nowak) remove his shirt to show the … [Read more...]
Kindertransport by Diane Samuels at Richmond Theatre | Review
Kindertransport will undoubtedly take its rightful place alongside The Diary of Anne Frank, Schlinder’s List and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. It will play a big part in the education of all of us as we move towards global citizenship based on emotional intelligence. Written by Diane Samuels, Kindertransport tells the story of the 10,000 German Jewish children who were sent to Britain unaccompanied by their desperate parents. Most never saw their parents ever again. Diane Samuels, the … [Read more...]
Review of Quartet at Richmond Theatre
Quartet is a comic opera. Not in the sense of being an opera but rather in that it’s a comedy about opera. Or to be precise about four ex-opera stars who find themselves thrown together in a retirement home specifically for former opera performers. The four are two men Reg, Wilfred, and two women Cecily and Jean. The action takes place in the music room of a country house in Kent in 1998. Wilfred (Paul Nicholas ) lays down some ground rules for life in the home. NSP he reminds his fellow inmates … [Read more...]
WILL or Eight Lost Years of Young William Shakespeare’s Life | Review
The play Will about young William Shakespeare between 1585 and 1593 and the venue, The Rose Playhouse just around the corner from The Globe, complement each other. The Rose is the perfect setting to watch this play. I got a real sense of history and tradition. This was a theatre that Shakespeare himself had been associated with. Sitting amidst the archaeological footprints of this Elizabethan theatre is both profoundly moving and meaningful. But more than that the intimacy of the performance … [Read more...]