Richard III manages to be at once resounding royal propaganda and an unsettling reminder of the fragility of the status quo given Elizabeth I’s lack of an heir: the Tudors had rescued the kingdom from the murderous House of York, but they hadn’t secured the future for long.
plays
Ibsen’s original text, which he never imagined being staged, is a wild poetic fantasy far removed from his naturalistic works. Irina Brook’s version is inspired by her days in New York during the 1980s when she was in love with the rock scene and Iggy Pop. It is a brave production which tries to take this impossible text on a new journey.
This is and is not Ibsen’s text. The huge moral concerns of Ibsen’s 1882 original drama, where Dr Stockmann reveals that the new city baths are poisoned and threaten the whole of his society, are still the core of the plot.
This is a hugely funny spoof on creating a play for the Edinburgh Festival. It is a mixture of boulevard comedy, clowning and absurdism.
Art is at its most powerfully dramatic when it gives voice to the oppressed. By using the device of a play within a play to utmost effect, The Island communicates the oppression of a recent generation by drawing on tragic defiance from classical times.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2017 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre