National Theatre
Can We Talk About This? DV8 Physical Theatre, National TheatreTuesday, 13 March 2012“Do you feel morally superior to the Taliban? Well, do you?” And we’re off, with another of director/choreographer Lloyd Newson’s interrogations of a taboo subject. DV8 Physical Theatre is 25 years old this season, yet if anything, it, and Newson,... Read more... |
Island, National TheatreTuesday, 21 February 2012Half-term may be nearly over for many, but there is no shortage of children’s theatre on offer in London at the moment. Long-running family favourites including Shrek the Musical and The Lion King have recently been joined by the mighty Matilda the... Read more... |
She Stoops to Conquer, National TheatreWednesday, 01 February 2012With its mistaken identities, a meddling mother, a chest of precious jewels, gulling of fops and two pairs of thwarted lovers, it's easy to see Shakespearean overtones in Oliver Goldsmith's 1773 masterpiece. And because She Stoops to Conquer's witty... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Director Barrie RutterSunday, 29 January 2012In 1992 Northern Broadsides, the Halifax-based theatre company founded by Barrie Rutter, staged its first production, Richard III. Rutter (b 1946), an established actor who had worked with some of the most distinguished names in theatre such as... Read more... |
One theatre, five awardsTuesday, 24 January 2012When the London theatre critics gathered to hand out their annual awards at lunchtime today in person, a notable percentage of the gongs were carried off by the National Theatre. There was no surprise, for example, that the best new play was One Man... Read more... |
Travelling Light, National TheatreThursday, 19 January 2012An interfering producer, an accountant who keeps trying to cut corners and costs, even a casting couch – making movies was never easy, according to this amiable new play by Nicholas Wright. Set in 1930s Hollywood and, in flashback, in turn-of-the-... Read more... |
National Theatre, 2012 SeasonWednesday, 11 January 2012The National Theatre's summer highlights include Simon Russell Beale directed by Nicholas Hytner in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens and Julie Walters as an ageing society dropout in the debut stage play by TV writer Stephen Beresford, The Last of the... Read more... |
2011: We Need To Talk About Grandage and GuvnorsTuesday, 27 December 2011And what a year it was! Comedy was king on stages around town, while a variety of Shakespeare royals -- Richard III à deux courtesy Kevin Spacey and the lesser-known but far more electrifying Richard Clothier, Richard II in the memorably tremulous... Read more... |
2011: All Watched Over by Matilda and MelancholiaMonday, 26 December 2011At its best, theatre is enthralling, and this year's offerings were led by one brilliant musical and one amazing comedy. With the West End immune to the chills of the recession, its profits went up, and it warmly welcomed a couple of hits from the... Read more... |
The Comedy of Errors, National TheatreWednesday, 30 November 2011Sex, spending, violence and debt: life in the city is lived raw in this caustic interpretation of Shakespeare’s comedy by Dominic Cooke. The setting is grimy, graffiti-daubed; shiny apartment blocks vie with sleazy strip joints and brothels, and the... Read more... |
Juno and the Paycock, National TheatreThursday, 17 November 2011“The whole world's in a terrible state of chassis,” says Captain Jack Boyle more than once during Sean O'Casey's great play, set in 1922 and the second of his Dublin trilogy, bookended by The Shadow of a Gunman (1923) and The Plough and the... Read more... |
Collaborators, National TheatreWednesday, 02 November 2011“Smackhead, groin doctor and smut-scribe”: that’s one way in which writer Mikhail Bulgakov is described in John Hodge’s debut stage drama. A kind of wild fantasia spun around incidents from Soviet history, the piece goes on to show how Bulgakov –... Read more... |