wed 03/09/2025

Shakespeare

Fat Ham, RSC, Stratford review - it's Hamlet Jim, but not as we know it

$8.2B. That’s what can happen when you re-imagine Hamlet.I doubt that writer, James Ijames, had The Lion King’s box office in mind when he set out to create a Deep South, black and contemporary version of Shakespeare’s drama of familial dysfunction...

Read more...

Born with Teeth, Wyndham's Theatre review - electric sparring match between Shakespeare and Marlowe

The title refers to a line in Henry VI, Part III: the future Richard III boasts that midwives cried, "Oh Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth", a sign of both his monstrosity and his readiness to snarl and bite. Modern technological analysis...

Read more...

As You Like It: A Radical Retelling, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - breathtakingly audacious, deeply shocking

There is, let’s be honest, a certain self-congratulatory self-satisfaction among some particularly well-heeled sections of the Edinburgh International Festival audience, event-goers who’ve forked out a fortune to be fed high culture carefully...

Read more...

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, RSC, Stratford review - not quite the intended gateway drug to Shakespeare

I have two guilty secrets about the theatre – okay, two I’m prepared to own up to right here, right now. I quite enjoy some jukebox musicals and I often prefer schools-oriented, pared back, slightly simplified Shakespeare to the full-scale Folio...

Read more...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Lost Lear / Consumed

Lost Lear, Traverse Theatre ★★★★A rehearsal room; a tense preparation session for a production of King Lear, provocatively gender-swapped; a troublesome diva in the title role; and a near-silent understudy barely able to contribute.Dan Colley’s...

Read more...

The Winter's Tale, RSC, Stratford review - problem play proves problematic

There’s a deal to be made when taking your seat for The Winter’s Tale. It’s one the title alone would have signalled to the groundlings as much as those invited to rattle their jewellery upstairs back in the 17th century – it’s a fairytale, a...

Read more...

Hamlet Hail to the Thief, RSC, Stratford review - Radiohead mark the Bard's card

The safe transfer of power in post-war Western democracies was once a given. The homely Pickfords Removals van outside Number Ten, a crestfallen now ex-PM and family mooching about, for once trying not to be on camera, it's a tabloid front page...

Read more...

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bridge Theatre review - Nick Hytner's hit gender-bender returns refreshed

It’s a sign of the inroads that the term “immersive” has made in theatreland that it now gets jokily namedropped at the Bridge inside Shakespeare’s actual text, when Duke Theseus tells his new bride Hippolyta not to flinch when the Rude Mechanical...

Read more...

Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's Globe - swagger and vivacity cohabit with death

Holsters, Stetsons and bluegrass music bring a distinctive flavour to this Wild West riff on Romeo and Juliet that flings us into a vortex of frontier-town politics where men are men and bad girls wear gingham. Sean Holmes’ vigorous production stirs...

Read more...

Much Ado About Nothing, RSC, Stratford - Messina FC scores on the bardic football field

Fragile egos abound. An older person (usually a man) has to bring the best out of the stars, but mustn’t neglect the team ethic. Picking the right players is critical. There’s never enough money, because everything that comes in this season is spent...

Read more...

Richard II, Bridge Theatre review - handsomely mounted, emotionally muted

Screen stardom is generally anointed at the box office so it's a very real delight to find the fast-rising Jonathan Bailey taking time out from his ascendant celluloid career to return to his stage roots in Richard II.His director, Nicholas Hytner,...

Read more...

Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Theatre - Luke Thallon triumphs as the state succumbs to storms

The date, projected behind the stage before a word is spoken, is a clue - 14th April 1912. “Why so specific?” was my first thought. My second was, “Ah, yes”.Sure enough, Akhila Krishnan’s video and Adam Cork’s sound floats us on a sea of troubles,...

Read more...
Subscribe to Shakespeare