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Othello- Wanamaker 2017

Othello
By William Shakespeare

21787_show_portrait_large

Directed by Ellen MacDougall
Dramaturg: Joel Horwood

Music by Orlando Gough

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Sunday 12th March 2017, 13.30

CAST
Kurt Egyiawan – Othello
Natalie Klamar – Desdemona
Sam Spruell- Iago
Joanna Horton – Michelle Cassio
Jon Foster – Brabantio / Montano
Peter Hobday – Roderigo / Duke of Venice
Nadia Albina – Bianca
Thalissa Teixeira – Emilia
Natasha Cowley- ensemble

MUSICIANS

(with Nadia Lbina – lead vocal)
Jeremy Avis – MD, vocals
Peter Braithwaite – vocals
Joyce Moholoagae- vocals
Malinda Parris – vocals

Sam Wanamaker has my unswerving admiration for creating The Globe complex. The 2016-2017 Wonder Noir season draws to a close with the play that Wanamaker himself was best-known for. He played Iago against Paul Robeson’s Othello in 1959.

8f76f9a03875dcf1aa0abda801172cd9-1

Paul Robeson – Othello, Sam Wanamaker- Iago, 1959

What would the founder of the theatre make of the 2017 production? Othello is the first major Shakespeare  tragedy performed in the Wanamaker Playhouse. The Winter’s Tale was done there, and is also a major play, but you have to admit that Cymbeline, Pericles and Two Gentlemen of Verona are not Shakespeare’s premier league. Othello is.

Cassio is now Michelle Cassio, so female … is the constant gender switching just beginning to get tired? Tiring? Tiresome? On the other hand, my companion has always disliked the sexism in the original play and welcomed a change. Any change. The Emma Rice regime requires dramaturgs for everything. I guess a good director cuts. But a dramaturg not only cuts but decides Shakespeare will benefit from a bit of polishing and addition.

The play opens with a bed covered with bloody sheets. It’s supposed to be the marriage bed, stay on stage throughout, then be the death bed. The amount of blood on it at the beginning would require a couple of sacrificial goats, or a full human eight pints, rather than a hymenal stain. An actor takes a SmartPhone shot of it … more later.

Othello SWP PROD-1536.jpg_captioned_0

Othello (Kurt Egyiawan) by candlelight

There is excellent use of candlelight … the Wanamaker is becoming more confident and more adroit with the possibilities. Roderigo and Iago waking Brabantio, to inform him that his daughter has run off with Othello, the Moor, is lit by single handheld candles. It’s supposed to be a dark Jacobean night. It definitely is. Jon Foster is the strongest and most furious Brabantio I’ve seen.

Accents struck me  … most of the cast is light conversational estuary, leaving Othello, Desdemona and Emilia as the RP well-spoken trio. When Peter Hobday is the Duke of Venice, he’s lightly chatty in an Essex man way. I didn’t like his onstage transformation back into Roderigo (removing the crown and cloak) at all, as it brought laughs in a quite unfunny moment. Later, I disliked Brabantio’s onstage transformation into Montano, the Governor of Cyprus. Apparently they used a strobe light to cover it (with no warnings on the door – a bit careless when Othello later succumbs to an epileptic fit!) On the upside they are doing the whole play with just NINE actors and four singers. A major achievement.

Othello-SWP-PROD1

Kurt Egyiawan (Othello) and Sam Spruell (Iago)

Kurt Egyiawan has the lead role as Othello. A natural inclination, given a mighty warrior, would have been to cast physically larger. His intensity wins through. I thought him a superb Othello, and I have to say I hadn’t liked his Angelo in the Globe’s Measure for Measure much, though it was hard playing cold and straight among so much jollity. Here he was magnificent. A little production side moan though, is that he puts on his armour breastplate before stabbing himself by shoving the blade up and under it. It shouted “The sack of stage blood is inside the breastplate.” It looked convoluted. I guess there was a thing about dying with your boots on, or for Vikings, with weapon in hand, but I don’t think it extends to Venetian breastplates.

Sam Spruell is a somewhat wide boy Iago. Also excellent. He had to fight against a bizarre costume decision. In both the recent big modern dress Gulf War uniform versions, at the National Theatre and at the RSC, much was made of the drunken carousing which ends up with Iago getting Cassio drunk, so that he can get him to start a fight and get into deep trouble with Othello. In both it was done as modern soldiers, and a disco beat helped. They must have seen those … both were very good. So they decide to do a squaddie piss up here. They put Iago in a net curtain skirt, black female wig and bare chest and had him dancing close up with Othello. Bad. Othello is NOT part of the piss up. The cross-dressing stuff may be what squaddies do, I don’t know, but it shoehorned a gender issue in from nowhere … you begin to think being transgender or homosexual will be made compulsory …. It also left Sam Spruell having to do serious scenes in a net curtain and bare chest. Full credit to the man for carrying it off against the costume.

The other  thing about our squaddie piss up, is that an amp and microphone is brought on for Nadia Albina (Bianca … but I say Nadia, because Bianca hasn’t been established yet) to sing one of the contemporary pop songs. No beats track. As she has proven earlier in the play, Nadia Albina is perfectly capable of filling the space unaccompanied, and actually handclaps to establish a beat and unaccompanied voice would have avoided the deliberate anachronism. I think forcing that in seemed to me a deliberate digit in the air to the critics of electrics and speakers at the Globe. OK., I sympathise to a degree, but it was totally unnecessary. And doing stuff to deliberately irritate a section of the audience may be why The Globe is having a new director in 2018.

othello-1

Natalie Klamar (Desdemona)

Contemporary pop songs are used throughout sung acapella by the four vocalists, sometimes plus Nadia Albina. They’re sung almost like Gregorian chant, and it works very well indeed. See below … PLEASE CREDIT THE SONGWRITERS in the programme. Everyone else gets credited.

Natalie Klamar is a vulnerable, slight Desdemona, and casting had to be careful here … a taller actor would have been larger than Othello. She fights back so well at the end as she realises that Othello is going to kill her, that a larger lady would have looked easily able to beat the slight Othello.

Thalissa Teixeira is a first-rate Emilia too, but I found the physical casting a little odd here. Emilia is Iago’s wife. Iago gets the worst racist lines. It’s not explained … OK, maybe the audience should seek subtexts about their relationship, but given a cast of just nine, and the subject matter … Othello’s isolation and “otherness” … I’d have cast Othello plus eight white actors. Yes, that would automatically have meant being slagged off by critics (as Peter Hall was at the Rose for nearly all white casting in Wars of The Roses), but it is what the play is about. My old boss always told me about how he played Othello in Nigeria as the only white actor in an otherwise all-black cast.

othello-2

Emilia (Thalissa Teixeira)

Joanna Horton’s (Michelle) Cassio opens the play, tying up her hair and donning armour. In those Gulf War mega productions, female soldiers made perfect sense and they had them. So transpose that to early 17th century? She’s great … fierce, easily winning the fights, distraught when she loses her reputation by getting into a drunken brawl. Yes, every bit of being a female soldier works fine BUT … the concept fails on Othello’s motivation for suspecting her. See below.

big

Michelle Cassio (Joanna Horton)

So how do you rate it? In many ways with a tiny cast of nine, and a powerfully intense set of performances, this truly begs for five stars. BUT …

You can add lines as the Dramaturg (or rather Dramaturd … I’m playing to his sense of alleged “humour”) did so often. Yes, sometimes you applaud stuff like naming characters more often than Shakespeare did. I liked many short, pithy additions. There were a lot of cuts of the Jacobean text and a lot of additions. Some worked, some stood out like a sore thumb. The long verse where Iago does a “back of the school bus”  rhyme, ending with what has to be “cunt” but leaves a pause, was childish. I do not mind C-word (if you prefer) puns. Heaven knows, Shakespeare used them, “let us speak of country matters” indeed. But a little subtlety is required.  Not a question of offence, just bad writing. MINUS ONE STAR

I’ll be Glad, if you’ll be Frank. Michelle Casio. An assumed Lesbian crush on Desdemona? I never believed it. It relies on us knowing that (a) Michelle Casio has a female mistress, Bianca (b) the offensive connection, which heterosexuals often make, that all homosexual people fancy all other people of their gender. At the National Theatre, two days earlier, a female lesbian Malvolvia played by Tamsin Greig, worked so well that you accepted it totally. It fitted, you never thought whether it was reasonable or not.  Tamsin Greig’s appearance and repressed air made it credible.  She only fancied Olivia, not “any female.” Yet, here I thought I was being hammered over the head with someone’s personal agenda which had nothing whatsoever to do with the play.  Should we have to explain this? Othello is an early 17th century Moor. No one gave a flying fig about what the concubines or indeed male eunuchs did or diddled in the Moorish harem. The point is that Renaissance Venice would require a gentlewoman to be chaperoned with all non-family males.  Other contact might be suspicious. A female being in the same room as a gentlewoman? Not worthy of mention. Why on Earth would Othello see it as odd, or Iago be able to twist it into a lesbian affair?  Only by that thought that all homosexuals are after every person in the world of the same gender.

Male jealousy, as in the great apes, is (however reprehensible)  a biological imperative.  I heard of a cameraman who found himself lifted up and dropped into a bush by a male gorilla after a female gorilla started grooming the camera man on a wildlife shoot for the gorilla sequence on Life on Earth. If the male is to invest years in foraging and hunting to feed the offspring of the female, he needs to know that his paternity of the child justifies his investment of time and effort. You have to have a male Cassio suspected of “topping” Desdemona.  We were never convinced that Michelle Cassio, in spite of a fabulous performance by Joanna Horton, was a credible sexual partner for Desdemona. So we were never convinced that Othello was sent into a frenzy at the prospect. The theatre is far too tolerant of personal agendas interfering with plays. MINUS ONE STAR.

feminis books

Book store: Tate Modern, 15 minutes after seeing the play, next door to. The display at the National Theatre on Friday was much larger … explain the theatre / play significance …

At he start and end, a character takes a SmartPhone picture of the bed. Neutral to mildly daft at the start. At the end, they have built up a tight and intense drama with bodies strewn everywhere. Then an arsehole (the Duke of Venice) takes two flash Smartphone photos of the carnage. Sniggers. Had I been playing my heart out as Othello, Desdemona or Emilia (and all three did), and lying there dead,  I would have been incensed. Major magic moment totally broken for a fast cheap laugh. Then they try and recover the sense of tragedy with Cassio and Bianca. The Smartphone is such a crass and pathetic idea that I cannot envisage how it ever survived previews.

Look, if you are introducing SmartPhones, Strobes, Amplifiers and Mics to the Wanamaker, go back and put some seat backs in first. The Wanamaker ALWAYS loses spectators in the interval. Five today in the premium priced Lower Gallery.  I listen to the chatter; extreme discomfort and backache causes it. The Jacobean spine was used to sitting on a bench for three hours. The 21st century one is not. We suffer for authenticity, if you’re throwing that away, then OK, I’ll accept it, but only if they give us decent seats as well!  MINUS ONE STAR.

So … two stars, or how a director with talent but a political-sexual agenda can create a five star production with five star performances, then totally screw it up with shoehorned in  issues and silly anachronisms. The artistic director should have intervened over that crass SmartPhone, if over nothing else.

BUT … the quality of mercy is not strained …   Two stars would be far too harsh on such brilliant personal performances. No balaclavas. No thespians running around in battledress with toy guns. No cast of forty plus, as at the National Theatre … I’m putting one star back. PLUS ONE STAR.

***

SONG CREDITS

There are hundreds of names in the programme, from Film Distribution Assistant to Theatre Finance assistant. A major part of this production was using acapella versions of pop songs by Lana de Rey, Katy Perry, Britney Spears and P.J. Harvey. Do they get a credit in the programme? None at all. Appalling. Every theatre skips these credits. I will keep mentioning it.

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID
4
Emma Henderson, The Independent ****
Tom Wicker, The Stage ****
Sarah Hemming, Financial Times, ****
3
Dominic Maxwell, The Times ***
Lyn Gardner, Guardian ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

OTHER PRODUCTIONS OF OTHELLO
Othello – NT 2013
Othello – RSC 2015
Othello – Wanamaker Playhouse, 2017
Othello – Globe 2018
Othello – English Touring Theatre 2018
Othello, Watermill, 2022

KURT EGYIAWAN
Measure for Measure, Globe 2015 (Angelo)

NATALIE KLAMAR
All’s Well That Ends Well, RSC 2013 (Diana)

JOANNA HORTON
All’s Well That Ends Well, RSC 2013 (Helena)

NADIA ALBINA
Macbeth, Globe 2016 (porter)
Hecuba, RSC 2015 (Cassandra)
Othello, RSC 2015 (Duke of Venice)

THALISSA TEIXEIRA
The Broken Heart, Wanamaker (Euphrania)

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        • Simone Felice Sept 2012
        • Simone Felice- Oct 2016
        • Sly & The Family Stone
        • Spiers & Boden 5.13
        • Spiers & Boden, 6.13
        • Spiers and Boden 2014
        • Steeleye Span
        • Suzanne Vega
        • Symphonic Pink Floyd
        • Taj Mahal
        • The Australian Pink Floyd
        • The Band
        • The Bleedin Noses
        • The Bootleg Beatles 2018
        • The Bootleg Beatles 2022
        • The Cactus Blossoms
        • The Civil Wars
        • The Decemberists
        • The Delines
        • The Demon Barbers
        • The Foundations
        • 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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