Hilarious, brilliant and sumptuous - the RSC shows a mighty confidence to import all of Shakespeare’s genius whilst addressing the disquieting messages of this folio by employing the simple but perfect device of flipping its characters’ genders. No humour is sacrificed - in fact the mirth is enhanced. For example, the famous tussle between Catherine and Petrucio, (now … [Read more...]
About Mary Beer
Macbeth by William Shakespeare at Theatro Technis | Review
The Tragedy of Macbeth is an intrinsically thrilling and eerie play and it’s no bad thing to be reminded every now and then that that fellow William Shakespeare really could turn a phrase and hatch a plot. The Guardian’s Michael Billington, reflecting on nearly half-a-century of reviewing British theatre, recently noted that, whilst the nation’s theatre has never been … [Read more...]
I Do! I Do! at Upstairs at The Gatehouse | Review
Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate is one of the 40 or so independent, often above-a-pub, theatres in London. Usually pub theatre is of a surprisingly good quality: well-trained professional actors stand out amongst restricted (or sometimes seemingly non-existent) budgets that limit set and costume design options but it’s one of the great privileges of this city to … [Read more...]
When The Crows Visit at The Kiln Theatre | Review
A strong, imagistic play, Anupama Chandraksekhar’s When the Crows Visit is a study in tragic construction that will leave you pondering its themes long after the final black-out. Set in modern-day India and structured on the bones of Ibsen’s 1881 Ghosts, this familial and social drama takes us to a world in which everyone is haunted by the limiting narratives of … [Read more...]
Botticelli in the Fire at Hampstead Theatre | Review
Despite director Blanche McIntyre’s rich production values and a script enabling much visual sensation, this play is a bit of a one-dimensional and obvious scree. Whilst clearly hoping to pull out every iconoclastic stop on the organ, Jordan Tannahill’s two-act drama is unfortunately rather predictable and, even with some strong and interesting touches, still mainly … [Read more...]
Beryl by Maxine Peake at the Arcola Theatre | Review
Director Marieke Audsley’s production of the London transfer of Beryl, a two act dramatisation of the true story of British sporting legend Beryl Burton, is so sweet, charming and cheerful that I began to wonder why it’s not a musical. Despite its Yorkshire roots, (it was originally staged at the East Riding Theatre in 2014) or its author (the acclaimed actor and … [Read more...]
Vassa by Maxim Gorky at the Almeida Theatre | Review
Conceptually interesting, droll and energetic - with some fine actorly moments - Tinuke Craig’s Vassa embraces too many genres, muddling the play’s central dramatic purpose and depriving us of the killer punches latent in Gorky’s text. This production nonetheless delivers moments of quality entertainment value with both excoriatingly unsympathetic character renderings … [Read more...]
The Dong with a Luminous Nose at Little Angel Theatre
Peter O’Rourke has taken Edward Lear’s 704-word 19th century nonsense poem about finding and losing love and - after five years of development - turned it into a 70-minute-long puppet play. Technically brilliant, painstakingly crafted and heart-breakingly beautiful in parts, this production of The Dong with a Luminous Nose is simply not as mesmerising nor as … [Read more...]
Breakin’ Convention Presents at the Lilian Baylis Studio
If surreal slapstick clown Bill Irwin and gravity-defying danseur Sergei Polunin had a love child, who was raised by suave French actor Jean Reno in a house built with the economic absurdity of Samuel Beckett, you’d have Yaman Okur. Whilst pianist Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven opens the act with a commanding turn at the grand piano, looking a groovy kind of gangly, like … [Read more...]