The text of James Baldwin and William F. Buckley’s 1965 Cambridge Union opposing speeches should be part of the national curriculum. For this reason alone, if you’re not yet familiar with the famous debate which asks, ‘Has the American Dream been Achieved at the Expense of the American Negro?’ that packed the Union - as Norman St. John-Stevas MP breathlessly intoned in his TV commentary, ‘hundreds of undergraduates, and myself, waiting for what could prove one of the most exciting debates in the … [Read more...]
About Mary Beer
Medea by Euripides @sohoplace
For a masterclass in scene study, you’d really have to go some distance to beat the formidable Sophie Okonedo (Medea) and Ben Daniels (Jason/Tutor/Creon/Aegeus/Servant). By having Daniels multi-role as all the male characters (save the two young sons of Medea and Jason), he shows off his range in voice, carriage and physicality on Vicki Mortimer’s pared-down in-the-round set with a minimal and subdued wardrobe. But I could not help but wonder if the choice to turn Euripides’ tragedy into almost … [Read more...]
Mythos: Ragnarök at Vault Festival
It’s not often that the entertainment tastes of an intellectually snobby middle-aged woman and an action-mad 10-year-old boy align perfectly, but thanks to its layers of spectacle and storytelling, Mythos: Ragnarök (at the Vault Festival this weekend before touring the UK) manages to find just such a sweet-spot of pure fun for everyone. Confession: you would have to pay me (a lot!) to attend a WWE event. I deplore violence and cringe even at fictional depictions of it; I take an active … [Read more...]
We Didn’t Come to Hell for the Croissants – Riverside Studios
Some one-person shows feel like full-fledged plays with various characters and moments enacted by a single actor; whereas other single-performer productions come across more like stand-up or story hour. Jemma Kahn’s We Didn’t Come to Hell For The Croissants is somewhere between the two. Using Japanese kamishibai (‘paper theatre’), Khan walks us through seven tales, each written by a different author, in which she plays distinct characters in relation to the story-board illustrations she presents … [Read more...]
Hex a new musical based on Sleeping Beauty – National Theatre
When revisiting fairy tales - especially in musical format at Christmas - there is as much in the Western canon to address as there is to inspire. Indeed, the Sleeping Beauty story has its own broad classification in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Folktale Index (‘ATU’ for short - and something with which I personally became obsessed when I visited the hometown of the Brothers Grimm a few years ago) before different sub-variations within it are noted. Whether Tchaikovsky’s ballet or the two recent … [Read more...]