I am slightly confused as I walk up the hill to Racks Close, I can hear German 1930s music playing, I thought it was As You Like It tonight, not Cabaret! The confusion is cleared up when I sit down with my programme. Director Caroline Devlin has chosen to set this production in 1930s Europe, aligning the banished Duke Senior’s court with the liberal ideas of the Weimar Republic and the ruling Duke Frederick’s court with the fascists that sought to control individual ideals. The play … [Read more...]
HENRY V: live online – Guildford Shakespeare Company | Review
This production of Henry V is the eighth of Guildford Shakespeare Company’s (GSC) Zoom shows. I am watching on St. Georges’ Day, Shakespeare’s birthday, normally a day to be out enjoying a sonnet walk. Well, hopefully, next year. Caroline Devlin directs this online version, with sound design by Matt Eaton, digital design by Beth Mann, costume design by Anett Black and Philip d’Orleans as Fight Director. I have purposefully mentioned the artistic team first as they have done such a fantastic … [Read more...]
Kneehigh’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk | Review
I have a confession; I have seen The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk before, actually, I’ve seen it twice before in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and at Wilton’s Music Hall. I loved it so much I jumped at the chance to see it again, this time virtually from Bristol Old Vic. It gave a completely different perspective to the performance, seeing the actors so close up. I could appreciate their facial expressions so much more than I normally can, many rows back through myopic eyes. The Flying Lovers tells … [Read more...]
Guildford Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
This production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an adaptation of Guildford Shakespeare Company’s (GSC) 2017 open-air production. Lotte Wakeham, who is now Artistic Director of the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, has returned to GSC to direct this online version, a co-production with the Octagon Theatre. I am really pleased that this, like all GSC’s online productions this year, has been so popular that two extra performances have now been added on the 2nd and 3rd October. Puck (Emma Fenney) is our … [Read more...]
UK Tour of Bang Bang! at Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford | Review
Bang Bang! is, perhaps, rather surprisingly, John Cleese’s stage-writing debut. It is an adaption of Georges Feydeau’s farce “Monsieur Chasse”, written in French in 1892. John Cleese and Director Daniel Buckroyd’s version keeps the story in the time and place that it was originally set: Paris in the mid-1890s but, thankfully, it is performed in English. David Shields’ set is brilliantly designed, beginning at Monsieur and Madame Duchotel’s (Tony Gardner and Tessa Peake-Jones) Parisian home … [Read more...]