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Eyam

Eyam
by Matt Hartley

globe_eyam_small_pic__230x230

Directed by Adele Thomas
Designer Hannah Clarke
Composer Orlando Gough

Shakespeare’s Globe, London
Saturday 13th October 2018, 14.00

CAST:
Annette Badland – Rev Thomas Stanley, Puritan minister
Zora Bishop – Elizabeth Hancock / Elizabeth Sheldon
Adrian Bower- Phillip Sheldon, local landowner
Priyanga Burford – Katherine Mompesson
Sam Crane – Rev William Mompesson, new vicar
John Paul Connolly – John Hancock
Becci Gemmell- Elizabeth Sydell /Mary Talbot
Will Keen – John Sydall
Norah Lopez Holden – Emmott Sydall+
Luke McGregor – Edward Cooper / Rolland Torre
Jordan Metcalfe- Francis Bockinge / George Viccars
Oliver Ryan – Unwin
Sirine Saba – Mary Cooper
Howard Ward – Marshall Howe
Rose Wardlaw – Harriet Stubbs

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Eyam was a plague village in Derbyshire, that is one where most of the population died in one fell swoop in 1665. What put it into history is that the population quarantined themselves to avoid spreading the sickness. I’ve always been fascinated by Knowlton in Dorset, another plague village. The church was inside an ancient earthwork, and is all that remains of a once thriving community. Spookier are the two ancient twisted yews which must have marked the entrance gate. There were outbreaks of bubonic plague for over 300 years. Note that therefore we are all mainly descended from plague survivors, or those with natural immunity.  Sounds like a Dan Brown novel plot. Oh, yes, so it is.

The Globe has had some good modern plays recently (set in the past): Boudica in 2017, Nell Gwynne in 2015, Farinelli & The King in 2015, Pitcairn in 2014. We continue the tradition. For this they have added two zig zag stage extensions into the audience.

Eyam is a village divided, just five years after the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660. Memories of recent divides in the Civil War are strong. Royalists v Parliamentarians. Anglicans v Non-conformists, which might be exactly the same thing. Anyway, they are all dressed in dusty musty fusty Puritan black which suggests which side they are on. We open with a wild stomping dance as they proceed to hang the Church of England vicar. For the rest of the play they say he was “hung”, perhaps well-hung? That could get him into trouble. Apparently he was a fornicator, which is appropriate.  Anyway, he was then, it is reported later, dragged to death behind a horse. So if the hanging didn’t kill him, maybe he WAS hung for a bit rather than hanged, but that was a hangman’s noose. Pedantic? Yes, but kids would get marked wrong in an exam for confusing ‘hung’ and ‘hanged.’ Let’s just say Derbyshire lead miners in 1665 were ignorant of the distinction.

So the local aristocrat, Sir Saville, or maybe Sir something Saville (not Jimmy, I hope), has appointed a new Anglican vicar from Yorkshire, William Mompesson (Samuel Crane) who wears dark grey rather than black – initially anyway, and arrives with his wife Katherine (Priyanga Burford). They are outsiders, they will never be local, and no one has told them the last vicar’s fate in advance. Katherine is a strong character, her husband, initially is trepidatious, and wants to get out of the place.

Annette Badland as Reverend Thomas Stanley

Thing is, the vicar before the deceased well-hung one, was chucked out for being a Dissenter, I.e. Non-conformist Puritan. This is the Reverend Thomas Stanley, who has returned to Eyam on the same day. In a wildly bizarre casting decision he is played by Annette Badland with a wispy stuck-on beard. This is a deliberate bit of cross-gender casting in a play which is 50/50 anyway. I guess it wouldn’t have been seven men / seven women without doing that, though there’s so much doubling up that they could have managed it. Would 8:6 be such a crime? There are more appropriate male roles for a woman to dress up as too, and I can see recasting and keeping it 50 / 50. She works hard, acts well, is a bit too quiet compared to the rest, but she is very petite (a polite but sexist word?) and just never, never looks or sounds the part. Weird casting. Totally ludicrous decision. Hellfire and damnation preacher? No!!!

So is it to be 50/50 at The Globe regardless of role or common sense? It’s one hell of an imposition on the female actor, knowing that ANY of the men would have impressed more. What with it being such a very male role. What worries me about British theatre, is that the professional critics mainly didn’t think this bit of absurd imposed casting worthy of mention.  In fact, they avoid mentioning the character at all. Miriam Gillinson in The Guardian was the honourable exception.

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Oliver Ryan as Unwin, and Rose Wardlaw as the mad Harriet. They plan to sell fake remedies.

In the first act we see that the main occupations of Eyam are beating each other, indulging in wife abuse, fornication, saying ‘fuck’ a lot, shouting at each other and tolerating the odder members of the community, such as Harriet (Rose Wardlaw) who has a girl’s name, dresses like a boy and digs up dead people’s fingers; or the pale and stuttering Francis (Jordan Metcalfe). Mark Rylance was in this afternoon’s audience, and I wondered how he rated Jordan Metcalfe’s stutter, an area of his expertise.  (It was very good). Four of the cast had to drift on and off as ravens of death from time to time, but maybe more than four shared that task which runs throughout. I agree with the reviewer who says the play is often incoherent. Some of them are speaking too fast with a strong accent as well.

The local rich guy Philip Sheldon (Adrian Bower) has a randy young wife (Zora Bishop) who in spite of having brightly coloured clothes as a respite from the universal black, and pretty curls, can’t get her obnoxious husband interested in sex. He seems in league with Reverend Taylor, but not out of piety.

A tailor, George Viccars,  turns up from London and lodges with Mary Cooper and her mummy’s boy son, Edward. Sirine Saba is powerful and funny as Mary Cooper throughout, as is Luke MacGregor as the soppy son. Mrs Sheldon (the colourful rich wife)  turns up wanting a bright new frock, and the material will have to be brought from London. They don’t do coloured cloth in Derbyshire. Like the Ford Model T you can have any colour you like as long as it’s black. Long standing legend is that plague spread through fleas in infected cloth, but surely that would be secondhand or used (or pre-loved) rather than expensive new silk? Or was it because the cloth came from Asia? By now, George and Edward have embarked on a gay romance. George is the first one to come down with the plague, demonstrating perhaps the other often held belief that a stranger brought it to the area from a city, which makes sense. Edward is next, and it’s a shock. I couldn’t help thinking that this was extremely risky ground in a PC world, or are they so extremely PC at the Globe that the very strong statistical collocation of ‘gay’ and ‘plague’ (i.e. AIDS) escapes them? I would certainly have avoided having two gay characters being the first to succumb.

Luke McGregor as Edward Cooper in that suspect cloth. Crows (or ravens) of death behind.

There is a lot of this. Undoubtedly at 95 minutes, the first act was far too long, because some of it was repetitive. The point was made and repeated. We were past ready for an interval. First though, poor Edward has to appear in a dress made from the suspect cloth, then be presented bollock-naked to the audience. I always think that demeaning to the actor, and a loincloth would not have detracted from the effect at all. I also wonder what the Globe heirarchy would have said if the director had suggested presenting a woman full-frontal naked. Jane Edwardes in the Sunday Times complains that everyone is named John, Elizabeth or Mary. She is actually quoting the vicar, William Mompesson in the play text, who makes that observation.

After the interval … there are little mounds of brown earth everywhere. We are into the burials. Mompesson persuades the villagers to quarantines themselves, initially for 28 days after the last death. It turns out to be a self-imposed siege of thirteen months. They discuss “immunity” a word not in common use at the time. It was first recorded in 60 BC, relating to snake venom, but really, the populace of 1665 did not have the concept.

After the interval: the burials start

Oliver Ryan stands out as Unwin, getting better as the play progresses. Howard Ward as the Sexton / gravedigger is another marvelous performance. Will Keen as vicious holy joe John Sydall was also outstanding. All strong, aggressive performances in fact. Brutal men in a brutal place.

Sam Crane as Reverend William Mompesson

At the end, Sam Crane, as Reverend William Mompesson, who has survived the plague but lost his wife, reads us a list of the 273 dead. We say an actor is so good that he/she can read the telephone directory (if they still existed), That’s precisely what Sam Crane does, including repetitions and losing alphabetical order. It takes 13 minutes. That is some list. Some critics found it the deeply-moving highlight of the play. Others thought it terminally dull. Remembering such a list without notes is an acting tour de force, but why? Wouldn’t a scroll of paper have fulfilled the same role? It was a legitimate place to read it aloud. He didn’t. He learned it. Hugely admirable as technical acting, but just those dead people we have actually seen in the play and their families would have sufficed. I thought it brilliant work from Sam Crane, but it was 350 years ago. I found tears in my eyes at the Vietnam wall in Washington DC, as these were my contemporaries. I felt sadness at the war memorial in my grandad’s village, but so many people have died in 350 years that, no, I was not moved.

I didn’t really like the play as it stands. A good editor could make it 30 minutes shorter and therefore better. Great efforts from the cast, however. It’s been easily the poorest year from the Globe since I started this blog.  Overall? Two stars.

**

THE PROGRAMME

Excellent. An interview with Matt Hartley and two fascinating essays. Worth every penny, but I do wish they would separate the actor credits from the other creatives. In the 10 minute wait before a play begins, it is the actors we want to know about.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

3 star
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ***

At its best, often in maniacal, wild-limbed dancing (with soulful music composed by Orlando Gough), the play communicates the strangeness and dread of those distant times. At its worst, and I’m afraid I include the interminable final roll-call of victims, it feels like glorified home-work.

Jane Edwardes, Sunday Times ***

Apart from the shouting, fighting and unfortunate choreography, too much of the initial action is incoherent, not helped by the fact that everyone wears black and is called John, Elizabeth and Mary.

Adrezej Lukowski, Time Out ***

It’s frustrating that Hartley devotes the best part of 90 minutes (ie the entire first half) to preamble. He opts for a kaleidoscopic view of the assorted feuding eccentrics and rogues who live in the village. Some of his creations are highly entertaining, foremost Rose Wardlaw as ghoulish young nutter Harriet Stubbs. But it’s still too much and Adele Thomas’s production doesn’t have the razzle dazzle to style out so much exposition.

Alex Wood, What’s On Stage ***
Tom Birchenough, The Arts Desk ***

(It) makes full use of an extended front stage, with perpendicular flanks that come right out into the Globe’s pit. The amplified space is used for all sorts of action, from dialogue between characters cut off from one another, to a procession of burials that gives Eyam the quality of Hamlet on speed. It may reduce the space for groundings considerably, but lack of room for audiences is not going to be an issue here.

2 star
Miriam Gillinson, The Guardian **

In a distracting move, Stanley is played by a woman. Annette Badland performs the role with exacting gravitas but this isolated bit of gender-blind casting doesn’t feel like it serves a purpose. Countless other stories are thrown into the mix: of gay lovers, doomed sweethearts and black-toothed butchers. There’s an awful lot of sound and fury in Adele Thomas’s production but it signifies little.

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard **

The potent simplicity of the final 10 minutes can’t compensate for the previous meandering noisiness.

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

Many of the cast also appear in:
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018

ADELE THOMAS, Director
The Night of The Burning Pestle, by Beaumont, Wanamaker Playhouse 2014
The Weir, by Conor McPherson, English Touring Theatre 2017

ANNETTE BADLAND
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018

OLIVER RYAN
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018
Doctor Faustus, RSC 2016
As You Like It, RSC 2013
Hamlet, RSC 2013

SAM CRANE
Farinelli & The King by Claire van Kampen, Wanamaker Playhouse 2015

HOWARD WARD
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018
Monsieur Popular, by Labiche, Bath 2015

WILL KEEN
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018
Quartermaine’s Terms, Brighton 2013
Hysteria, by Terry Johnson,  Bath 2012

SIRINE SABA
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018
King Lear, Globe 2017

LUKE McGREGOR
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018
Titus Andronicus, RSC 2017

 

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        • The Full English
        • The Grand Ole Opry
        • The Imagined Village
        • The Manfreds – 2016
        • The Manfreds 2011
        • The Manfreds, P.P. Arnold 2003
        • The Manfreds, P.P. Arnold, Zoot Money, Nov 2016
        • The Mastersons, Hymn For Her
        • The Mavericks
        • The palmer james group
        • The Platters
        • The Searchers
        • The Transports
        • The Unthanks 03.11
        • The Unthanks 04.2012
        • The Unthanks 10.2012
        • The Unthanks 12.11
        • The Unthanks 2.2015
        • The Unthanks 2019
        • The Unthanks 2022
        • The Unthanks 5.2017
        • The Waterboys
        • Thea Gilmore
        • Tom Jones
        • Van Morrison
          • Van Morrison 1998
          • Van Morrison 1999
          • Van Morrison 2000
          • Van Morrison 2001
          • Van Morrison 2002 Jan.
          • Van Morrison 2002 Oct.
          • Van Morrison 2003 Jul.
          • Van Morrison 2003 Sep.
          • Van Morrison 2005 Mar.
          • Van Morrison 2005 Nov.
          • Van Morrison 2007
          • Van Morrison 2012
          • Van Morrison 2013
          • Van Morrison 2019
        • Ward Thomas, Hyde Park
        • Zawinul Syndicate
        • Zoot Money
      • Gigs, venues and prices
      • HMV. His Master’s Voice silenced?
      • Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
      • Music From Big Pink – 50th anniversary
      • Names, Scribble & Numbers
      • Nancy Sinatra
      • Note of Hope (Woody Guthrie)
      • Phil Everly RIP
      • Rock pictures
      • RoseAnn Fino
      • Shadows In The Night
      • Thank You For The Muzac
      • The Band reviews & pictures
      • The Beautiful Old
      • The Village Green Preservation Society
      • The Weight – covers
      • Twelve Songs For Christmas 2013
    • rants
      • 100 Days Plus and Counting …
      • Driving Me Mad …
      • A Fishy Story
      • A Legal Matter
      • A Post-Brexit Vision
      • Agatha Christie: Deduction in a dell’arte mask
      • Allergies … and lawyers
      • Baby Boomer v Wokeperson
      • Barcodes
      • Beaujolais Nouveau …
      • Best of 2011
      • Best of 2012
      • Best of 2013
      • Best of 2014
      • Best of 2015 – music
      • Best of 2015 – Theatre
      • Best of 2016 – Music
      • Best of 2016 – Theatre
      • Best of 2017 – Music
      • Best of 2017 – Screen
      • Best of 2017- Theatre
      • Best of 2018 – Music
      • Best of 2018 – theatre
      • Best of 2019 – Concerts
      • Best of 2019 – Theatre
      • Best of 2019- Music
      • Best of 2020
      • Best of 2020- Music
      • Best of 2022 – Music
      • Best of 2022- Theatre
      • Cars are cars
      • Chorizo is Vile
      • Christmas Markets
      • Christmases long past …
      • Civil Wars & Statues
      • Climate Change: my rant
      • Communication skills: Leaders TV debate 2015
        • Opposition Leader’s Debate, 16 April 2015
      • Crisis at the Cash Register
      • Culture Shock Bourbon Street
      • Cycling in London (and elsewhere)
      • Encounter: Saul Bellow
      • Eurovision 2022
      • Fawlty Towers and Tall Poppies
      • Flags and anthems
      • Football nicknames
      • Free Broadband in Every Packet!
      • Guilt and innocence
      • Hail, hail, the first of May
      • Howards End is a blur
      • In the April Garden …
      • In The Days of Covid-21
      • In the May Garden
      • Jangle Bells: shopping for Christmas
      • Jumble Sales
      • Land Of My Mother’s
      • London-centric theatre
      • Mail v Guardian
      • Major Brylcreem or My adventures in the CCF
      • Matinees
      • Not an amazing grace
      • On The Road: Information overkill
      • Parent and child spaces
      • Poppies
      • Princely Names
      • Quaint hotels
      • Remember, remember …
      • Secondhand Christmas
      • Shrink wrapping albums
      • Sloppy fiction?
      • Someone will call you back …
      • Sound … and Fury… at The Globe
      • SS-GB – Mumbling soundtracks
      • Supermarket check-outs
      • Surveys
      • Testing in schools
      • The “Poldark” Effect
      • The 2019 watershed?
      • The 70s were crap
      • The Building Behind Me …
      • The Cheerful e-bay seller
      • The Curse of The Crawleys: Downton Abbey Series 10
      • The Decline of Bournemouth
      • The End of Deference …
      • The Famous Five – by Paul F. Newman
      • The four day week?
      • The Great War
      • The Hacking Cough
      • The Long & The Short Of It
      • The March of The Halloumi Fries
      • The Shakespeare Cod-Piece
      • The Stitch Up
      • View From The Queue
      • What happened to car CD players?
      • What’s happened to air travel?
    • stage
      • ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore – Cheek by Jowl
      • ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore – Wanamaker
      • 8 Hotels
      • A Damsel in Distress
      • A Little Hotel On The Side
      • A Mad World My Masters
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – BBC TV 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Bridge 2019
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Filter 2011
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Grandage 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Propellor 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – RSC 2011
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – RSC 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Selladoor 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Watermill 2018
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Watermill Tour 2019
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Young Vic
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bath 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe 2019
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Headlong
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare
      • A Midsummer Nights Dream – Handspring 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream RSC 2016 Revisited
      • A Number
      • A Streetcar Named Desire NT Live
      • A Taste of Honey
      • A Very Very Very Dark Matter
      • A View From The Bridge
      • A Woman of No Importance
      • Abigail’s Party 2013
      • Absolute Hell
      • Ah, Wilderness!
      • Albion
      • All My Sons
      • All New People
      • All’s Well That Ends Well – RSC 2013
      • All’s Well That Ends Well- 2018
      • All’s Well That Ends Well- RSC 2022
      • Amadeus – 2014
      • Amadeus – NT 2017
      • American Buffalo
      • An Enemy of The People
      • An Ideal Husband 2018
      • An Ideal Husband- 2014
      • Antony & Cleopatra – RSC 2013
      • Antony & Cleopatra – RSC 2017
      • Antony and Cleopatra – Globe
      • Antony and Cleopatra 2012
      • Arcadia
      • Arden of Faversham
      • Around The World in 80 Days
      • As You Like It – Globe 2015
      • As You Like It – Globe 2018
      • As You Like It – National 2015
      • As You Like It – RSC 2019
      • As You Like It RSC 2013
      • Awful Auntie
      • Bakkhai
      • Balletboyz: The Talent
      • Barber Shop Chronicles
      • Bartholomew Fair
      • Beauty & The Beast (Ballet Theatre UK)
      • Before The Party
      • Birthday
      • Bitter Wheat
      • Black Comedy
      • Blithe Spirit
      • Blithe Spirit – Bath 2019
      • Blood Wedding
      • Blues For An Alabama Sky
      • Boudica
      • Bring Up The Bodies
      • Broken
      • Candida
      • Cardenio
      • Carmen Disruption
      • Caroline or Change
      • Comedy of Errors – Globe
      • Comedy of Errors – RSC, 2021
      • Comedy of Errors NT 2012
      • Comedy of Errors RSC ’12
      • Communicating Doors
      • Comus
      • Copenhagen
      • Coriolanus – NT Live
      • Coriolanus – RSC
      • Crazy For You
      • Curiosity Shop
      • Cymbeline – RSC
      • Cymbeline – Wanamaker
      • Dancing At Lughnasa
      • Death Of A Salesman
      • Deathtrap
      • Dedication
      • Dido, Queen of Carthage
      • Dinner With Saddam
      • Doctor Faustus
      • Don Carlos
      • Don Juan in Soho
      • Don Quixote
      • Doubt – a parable
      • Dream
      • Dunsinane
      • Echo’s End
      • Educating Rita
      • Edward II
      • Electro Kif
      • Endgame / Rough for Theatre II
      • Eyam
      • Fallen Angels
      • Fantastic Mr Fox
      • Far
      • Farinelli and The King
      • Fences
      • First Light
      • Flare Path
      • Follies
      • For Services Rendered
      • Forests
      • Fortune’s Fool
      • Forty Years On
      • Fracked! Or Please Don’t Use The F-Word.
      • Frankenstein – NT Encore
      • French Without Tears
      • Funny Girl
      • Future Conditional
      • George’s Marvellous Medicine
      • Girl From The North Country
      • God of Carnage
      • Gypsy
      • Hairspray, The Musical
      • Half A Sixpence
      • Hamilton
      • Hamlet – Cumberbatch
      • Hamlet – Globe 2014
      • Hamlet – Maxine Peake
      • Hamlet – NT 2010
      • Hamlet – RSC 2016
      • Hamlet RSC 2013
      • Hamlet- Almeida / BBC 2017
      • Hamlet- Young Vic 2011
      • Hangmen
      • Harlequinade / All On Her Own
      • Harlequinade / All On Her Own – review
      • Hay Fever
      • Hecuba
      • Hedda Gabler
      • Hedda Tesman
      • Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 RSC
      • Henry V – 2018
      • Henry V – Jude Law
      • Henry V – RSC 2015
      • Henry VI – Rebellion
      • Henry VI – Wars of The Roses
      • Henry VI: Three plays
      • Hobson’s Choice
      • Hogarth’s Progress
      • Home
      • Home, I’m Darling
      • Hysteria
      • Imogen (Cymbeline) – Globe 2016
      • Importance of Being Earnest 2010
      • Importance of Being Earnest – Suchet, 2015
      • Importance of Being Earnest – Watermill
      • Importance of Being Earnest 2014
      • Importance of Being Earnest- 2018
      • Inala
      • Institute
      • Into The Hoods – Remixed
      • Ivanov
      • Jack Absolute Flies Again
      • Jeeves and Wooster
      • Jerusalem
      • Jerusalem – 2018
      • Jitney
      • John Gabriel Borkman
      • Julius Caesar – Globe 2014
      • Julius Caesar – RSC 2012
      • Julius Caesar – RSC 2017
      • Ka
      • King Charles III
      • King John – Globe 2015
      • King John – Rose, 2016
      • King John – RSC 2019
      • King Lear Frank Langella
      • King Lear – Antony Sher, RSC 2016
      • King Lear – Barrie Rutter
      • King Lear – David Haig
      • King Lear – Globe 2017
      • King Lear – McKellen 2017
      • King Lear – Russell-Beale
      • Kiss Me Kate
      • Kunene and The King
      • La Bête
      • Lady Windermere’s Fan
      • Leopoldstadt
      • Life of Galileo
      • Little Shop of Horrors
      • Local Hero
      • Long Day’s Journey Into Night
      • Love
      • Love For Love
      • Love’s Labour’s Lost
      • Love’s Labour’s Lost – 2018
      • Love’s Labour’s Lost- 2016
      • Love’s Labour’s Won
      • Love’s Sacrifice
      • Love, Love, Love
      • Macbeth – Globe 2016
      • Macbeth – McAvoy 2013
      • Macbeth – National Theatre 2018
      • Macbeth – Tara Arts
      • Macbeth – Young Vic
      • Macbeth RSC 2018
      • Macbeth, RSC 2011
      • Macbeth, Watermill 2019
      • Macbeth- Chichester 2019
      • Macbeth- Wanamaker 2018
      • Mack & Mabel
      • Malory Towers
      • Man and Superman
      • Mary Poppins
      • Me and My Girl
      • Measure for Measure – Globe 2015
      • Measure for Measure – Young Vic
      • Measure for Measure RSC 2012
      • Measure For Measure- RSC 2019
      • Medea NT live
      • Miss Julie / Black Comedy
      • Miss Littlewood
      • Mojo
      • Monsieur Popular
      • Mrs Warren’s Profession
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Globe 2014
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Globe 2017
      • Much Ado About Nothing – NT 2022
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Old Vic 2013
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Rose 2018
      • Much Ado About Nothing – RSC 2014
      • Much Ado About Nothing- Northern Broadsides
      • Much Ado About Nothing- RSC 2016
      • Much Ado About Nothing- RSC 2022
      • Much Ado About Nothing- Wyndhams 2011
      • Murder On The Orient Express (stage)
      • Murder, Margaret and Me
      • My Brilliant Friend (play)
      • My Night With Reg
      • Neighbourhood Watch
      • Nell Gwynn
      • Nice Fish
      • No Man’s Land
      • Noises Off
      • Obsession
      • Oklahoma! – Chichester
      • Once
      • One Man, Two Guvnors
      • Othello – Globe 2018
      • Othello – RSC 2015
      • Othello NT 2013
      • Othello- ETT 2018
      • Othello- Wanamaker 2017
      • Othello- Watermill 2022
      • Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
      • Our Man in Havana (musical)
      • People
      • People Like Us
      • Pericles
      • Peter & The Starcatcher
      • Peter and Alice
      • Peter Gynt
      • Peter Pan (pantomime)
      • Peter Pan Goes Wrong
      • Photograph 51
      • Pitcairn
      • Plastic
      • Platonov
      • Playing Cards 1: Spades
      • Plenty
      • POSH
      • Present Laughter – Chichester 2018
      • Present Laughter – Old Vic 2019
      • Present Laughter- Bath 2003
      • Present Laughter- Bath 2016
      • Pressure
      • Private Lives
      • Privates On Parade
      • Punishment Without Revenge
      • Punk Rock
      • Pygmalion
      • Quatermaine’s Terms
      • Queen Anne
      • Quiz – James Graham
      • Racing Demon
      • Ralegh: The Treason Trial
      • Relative Values
      • Richard II – Globe
      • Richard II – RSC
      • Richard III – Almeida
      • Richard III – Apollo 2012
      • Richard III – Freeman
      • Richard III – RSC 2012
      • Richard III – RSC 2022
      • Richard III – Spacey, 2011
      • Robin Hood (panto)
      • Romantics Anonymous
      • Romeo & Juliet – Globe 2017
      • Romeo & Juliet – RSC 2018
      • Romeo & Juliet 2014 – Box Clever
      • Romeo & Juliet, Headlong 2012
      • Romeo & Juliet- Branagh 2016
      • Romeo and Juliet – NT, 2021
      • Romeo and Juliet- Globe 2015
      • Romeo and Juliet: Tobacco Factory
      • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
      • Ross
      • Rules for Living
      • Salomé – RSC
      • Same Time, Next Year
      • School nativities
      • Secondary Cause of Death
      • Separate Tables
      • Shakespeare in Love
      • She Stoops To Conquer – Bath 2015
      • She Stoops to Conquer – Rain or Shine
      • Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads
      • Skylight
      • Slava’s Snowshow
      • Snow in Midsummer
      • South Pacific
      • Spring Awakening
      • Stepping Out
      • Strife
      • Swan Lake
      • Sweet Bird of Youth
      • Switzerland
      • Tamburlaine
      • Tangomotion
      • Tartuffe- RSC
      • The Alchemist – RSC
      • The Argument
      • The Beauty Queen of Leenane
      • The Beauty Queen of Leenane – 2021
      • The Beaux Stratagem
      • The Birthday Party
      • The Book of Mormon
      • The Broken Heart
      • The Canterbury Tales
      • The Captive Queen
      • The Caretaker
      • The Chalk Garden
      • The Changeling
      • The City Madam
      • The Constant Wife
      • The Country
      • The Country Girls
      • The Country Wife
      • The Cripple of Inishmaan
      • The Crucible, NT 2022
      • The Crucible, Old Vic 2014
      • The Deep Blue Sea – 2019
      • The Deep Blue Sea-NT live, 2016
      • The Doctor
      • The Dresser
      • The Duchess of Malfi – 2012
      • The Duchess of Malfi – 2014
      • The Duchess of Malfi – RSC 2108
      • The Entertainer
      • The Famous Five: A New Musical
      • The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich
      • The Ferryman (Acts 2 & 3)
      • The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk
      • The Four Seasons: A Reimagining
      • The Game of Love and Chance
      • The Ghost Train
      • The Height of The Storm
      • The Homecoming
      • The Hot House
      • The Hypochondriac
      • The Hypocrite
      • The Jew of Malta
      • The Knight of The Burning Pestle
      • The Ladykillers
      • The Lie
      • The Lieutenant of Inishmore- 2018
      • The Lieutenant of Inishmore-2001
      • The Lock In
      • The Lock In Christmas Carol
      • The Magistrate – NT Live
      • The Magna Carta Plays
      • The Man In The White Suit
      • The Merchant of Venice – Almeida
      • The Merchant of Venice – Globe
      • The Merchant of Venice – RSC
      • The Merry Wives – Northern Broadsides
      • The Merry Wives of Windsor – Globe 2019
      • The Merry Wives of Windsor – RSC 2012
      • The Merry Wives of Windsor- RSC 2018
      • The Misanthrope ETT
      • The Miser
      • The Narcissist
      • The Nightingales
      • The Norman Conquests
        • Living Together
        • Round & Round The Garden
        • Table Manners
      • The Odyssey
      • The Painkiller (2016)
      • The Play That Goes Wrong
      • The Play What I Wrote
      • The Price
      • The Provoked Wife
      • The Recruiting Officer
      • The Rehearsal
      • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
      • The Rivals
      • The Roaring Girl
      • The Rover
      • The Ruling Class
      • The School for Scandal
      • The Seagull
      • The Seagull- Chichester
      • The Seven Year Itch
      • The Shoemaker’s Holiday
      • The Silver Tassie
      • The Southbury Child
      • The Spire
      • The Storm
      • The Syndicate
      • The Taming of The Shrew – RSC 2012
      • The Taming of The Shrew – RSC 2019
      • The Taming of The Shrew- Globe 2016
      • The Taxidermist’s Daughter
      • The Tempest – Bath Ustinov
      • The Tempest RSC 2012
      • The Tempest RSC 2016
      • The Tempest- Wanamaker
      • The Truth
      • The Two Noble Kinsmen- 2018
      • The Two Noble Kinsmen- RSC
      • The Unfriend
      • The Upstart Crow
      • The Wars of The Roses
        • Edward IV
        • Henry VI
        • Richard III
      • The Watsons
      • The Way of The World
      • The Weir
      • The Whale
      • The White Devil – Globe
      • The White Devil – RSC
      • The Winter’s Tale – Branagh
      • The Winter’s Tale – Cheek by Jowl
      • The Winter’s Tale – Globe 2018
      • The Winter’s Tale – RSC 2013
      • The Winter’s Tale – RSC 2021
      • The Winter’s Tale- Wanamaker
      • The Witch of Edmonton
      • There and Back Again – An Odyssey
      • Thérèse Raquin
      • This Happy Breed
      • This Is My Family
      • Timon of Athens
      • Timon of Athens – RSC
      • Titus Andronicus – RSC 2017
      • Titus Andronicus- Globe 2014
      • Totem
      • Travels With My Aunt (musical)
      • Travesties
      • Tristan and Yseult 2017
      • Troilus & Cressida RSC 2018
      • True West
      • Twelfth Night – Apollo 2012
      • Twelfth Night – Globe 2017
      • Twelfth Night – Globe, 2021
      • Twelfth Night – NT 2017
      • Twelfth Night – RSC 2017
      • Twelfth Night – Watermill
      • Twelfth Night – Young Vic
      • Twelfth Night RSC 2012
      • Twelfth Night- ETT 2014
      • Two Gentlemen of Verona – 2016
      • Two Gentlemen of Verona – RSC
      • Two Gentlemen of Verona- 2013
      • Uncle Vanya (Hare)
      • Uncle Vanya (McPherson)
      • Venice Preserved
      • Vice Versa
      • Volpone
      • Vulcan 7
      • Watership Down
      • Way Upstream
      • What The Butler Saw
      • While The Sun Shines
      • Wolf Hall
      • Woman in Mind
      • Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown
      • wonder.land
      • Worst Wedding Ever
      • Woyzeck
      • Yerma (2017)
      • Young Chekhov Season
      • Young Marx
    • video
      • A Weekend Away, A Week By The Sea
        • Sections: Weekend Away / By the Sea
      • Dennis Cook: A history
      • Drama, dialogue and video
      • Teaching with video: techniques
      • Video: non-authentic
      • Video: on location
      • Video: Peter Viney Interview
      • Video: What happened?

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