John Forth examines both the poetic and the performance aspects of Sue Boyle’s new book
theatre
Embracing art’s ability to transcend national divisions, a young pan-European ensemble delivered Tchaikovsky at his most triumphantly Russian, as part of a vivacious and compelling beginning to its new season, known as the Hulencourt Art Project, which runs until May next year.
Romeo Castellucci at Brussels’ La Monnaie (De Munt in Dutch) opera house takes a real-life sufferer of locked-in syndrome and turns her into the protagonist of Ophee et Eurydice (adapted by Hector Berlioz from Gluck).
Noel Coward wrote of his musical Ace of Clubs that “the idea is to do it as simply as humanly possible”. For the first professional London revival since the original 1950 production, Southwark’s Union Theatre draws on its decade of experience of producing loveable, low-budget musicals and takes Coward at his word.
Thomas Ovans is impressed by Roger Owen’s absorbing and lucid introduction to the work of the Welsh dramatist Gwenlyn Parry
The Donmar Warehouse stages Josie Rourke’s own take on Coriolanus, the Roman general who could not stoop to flatter the public and who pays the highest price for his `arrogance’.
How do we acknowledge the mess that Britain made in 1947 when the Indian subcontinent was carved into two countries? This is the central question underlying Howard Brenton’s caustic new play. Drawing The Line explores the moment when the line between India and Pakistan was made and British rule in India ended.
In her new collection of stories, Deborah Tyler-Bennett gives a lively evocation of 1940s Music Hall, both on and off the stage
In 1931, in Alabama, a terrible miscarriage of justice took place. Nine young African-Americans were arrested on a trumped up charge for rape on two young white women. All nine were sentenced to death.
Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons has a sizeable reputation and presumably had a budget to compare for his docu-drama Trashed, on release across the globe to expose how much our society wastes and the damage that results.
The Passion of Pierre Clémenti: European cinema’s christ-devil child. by Helen Donlon. “I hung out in St. Germain. Picking up cigarettes from the street. One day, a guy came up to me and said, ‘Come with me, we need you.’
Margaret Hollingsworth finds herself needing to think deeply about an intentionally chaotic modern mystery play devised by the Birmingham based company Stan’s Cafe
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • festivals, performance, plays, theatre, year 2015