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The Dresser

The Dresser
by Ronald Harewood

Directed by Sean Foley
Set and 
costume by Michael Taylor

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Chichester Festival Theatre
Saturday 28th January 2017. 14.30

CAST IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:

Reece Shearsmith – Norman
Harriet Thorpe – “Her Ladyship”
Selina Cadell – Stage Manager
Ken Stott – “Sir”
Phoebe Sparrow- Irene
Simon Rouse- Geoffrey Thornton (playing “The Fool”)
Adam Jackson-Smith- Oxenby
Anthony Hoggard – Kent
Simon Markey- Gloucester
Sarah Lambie – Her Ladyship’s dresser
Rhys Jennings – Albany
Pamela Hardman – Knight

The Dresser dates from 1980, and Ronald Harewood  based  the story on his experiences as Sir Donald Wolfit’s personal assistant in the 1950s, though he says in the introduction that the ageing actor-manager, “Sir,” in the play is not Wolfit.

The 2016 West End run of this production had glowing reviews, and it is now on tour. We wanted to see it in London last year, and we already had something booked for Saturday afternoon, so were looking at Friday night or Saturday night. Decent seats came up at a mind-boggling three figures … small change for Broadway, but very pricey for a London production, so we passed.  We didn’t know the play at all in spite of the praised 1983 film, and 2015 TV version. The publicity was a factor – it sounded like a two and a half hour dialogue, a two-parter set in a dressing room, so over-priced. Misleading. It has a cast of twelve. Tellingly, I could only find pictures of the two principals on line, plus one of Her Ladyship, the next most major role.

While we book six months ahead, we book very little for late January … snow or fog can change travel plans. We got an e-mail reminder from Chichester and booked at the last moment … at less than one third of London prices. It is of course a much larger theatre. That causes some issues, in that the stage is far larger than the set, stranding the cast three metres from the edge, and five or six metres from the front row. It works better in the sections where we see the onstage performance of the play-within-a-play and backstage simultaneously, so they can make use of the large semi-thrust stage. The dressing room sections of the play are like an island in a sea of stage though, and they have moved the play from a proscenium theatre to a semi thrust semi-circular stage with the audience curving round on three sides. Chichester is probably my favourite theatre, but The Dresser would obviously borrow ambience from a gilded, uncomfortable smaller West End Theatre … which looked like the one in the play.

The play is set during World War II based on the official attempts to bring Arts and Culture (my caps) to the provinces, with a production of King Lear.  The company are into rep at a mind-boggling rate. They did Othello the day before, and are doing Richard III then The Merchant of Venice on the following days. The obvious link is Terence Rattigan’s Harlequinade, also set in the war time provincial culture tour, but based on Romeo & Juliet.  The Branagh company’s recent Harlequinade definitely used the actual unpleasant West End building to support the feel of the play, as did Branagh’s other 2016 backstage venture, The Entertainer. The director here, Sean Foley, worked with the Branagh company in the 2016 season too, directing The Painkiller.

In this play, we are backstage before “Sir’s” 227th  performance of Lear … we recently watched the marvellous Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows, set backstage at the “Burbage Festival Theatre.” Season 3 (2006) is about an ageing thespian with health issues booked to do King Lear too.

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Norman (Reece Shersmith) offers tea and sympathy to Sir (Ken Stott)

Our central character is Norman, an ex-actor who has spent 16 years as the dresser to “Sir.” His service is only rivalled by the stage manager (Selina Cadell) who has been with the company for twenty years, and who carries a secret torch for Sir, its leader. The company is in trouble. All the fit young men are away at the war. Their main supporting actor, Davenport Scott, who plays The Fool, has been arrested as a “bugger.” It’s understudy time. They’re down to “cripples, old men and Nancy Boys.” Oxenby (Adam Jackson-Smith) has a stiff leg and limps around as Edmund in King Lear, Geoffrey Thornton (Simon Rouse) is the ageing understudy playing The Fool in Davenport’s much larger jester costume, and Norman the dresser (Reece Shearsmith) has to take over Davenport Scott’s audience announcements to the audience. That covers the three categories.

dresser2

Sir has finally been persuaded to begin getting made up.

There is a war on, and a running joke is Sir’s demands for a louder storm scene and the fact that the play-within-a-play (King Lear) is punctuated with air raid sirens and bomb explosions from without.

The title Sir is ironic in that Norman always addresses him as such in backstage etiquette but unlike his rivals, our Sir has never been knighted. While he pretends to be married to his lover and co-star, Her Ladyship, he had never actually divorced his first wife, hence is unacceptable at the palace … hang on, that inability to divorce is exactly the same plot device as Harlequinade. 

Her Ladyship is called “Pussy” by Sir, not his only Donald Trump note. Sir is a groper. The young Irene is the groped. There is also a joke on Her Ladyship playing Cordelia, which veers into Harlequinade territory too. Rattigan’s joke is that the actor-manager and his partner are way too old to be playing Romeo & Juliet. Here, Her Ladyship is far too old to be playing Cordelia, Lear’s youngest daughter. That brings in something that concerns me every time I see Lear, that is the task of the ageing actor at the end of carrying Cordelia’s body onto the stage. Over many years, it has given wispy actresses a head start in auditioning for Cordelia. I always find myself wondering how they will manage it. In the 2016 RSC production, Antony Sher got away with it by being pushed on, seated on a cart with Cordelia draped across him. It turns out here to be Sir’s excuse for groping. While Irene (Phoebe Sparrow), described by Norman as “the company mattress,” thinks his groping is her chance for success via the casting couch, Sir is really seeking a thinner and much lighter Cordelia whom he can carry without severe back strain.

The reason publicity makes it look like a two-parter is that Reece Shearsmith as Norman, and Ken Stott as Sir are the dominating personalities, in the script and on the stage. Both are towering performances. Their relationship makes it a tragicomedy, though with zero prior knowledge of the play, I thought the end signposted from about the tenth minute. Sir has broken down in the street, in a fit of nervous rage, and ended up in hospital. He discharges himself, but has to be coaxed throughout to keep going by Norman. In the depths of his despair and self-pitying tears, Norman can always bring the spark back to Sir’s eyes with the magic phrase “It’s a full house.”

Not surprisingly, most London 2016 reviews focus on these magnificent lead performances. I was surprised that some were sniffy about the short Lear section at the start of Act 2. I loved that, with Sir stranded twitching in the wings, while the thespians playing the start of King Lear are stranded out in the spotlights, wildly trying to extemporise cod-Shakesperean lines, while the backstage crew try to get him on stage. This is the kind of thing we expect in backstage comedies like Harlequinade and Noises Off, but The Dresser, like The Entertainer, is not a farce, nor an outright comedy either.

The play has a fascinating short dialogue towards the end, when Geoffrey comes to thank Sir for his elevation to the part of The Fool. In a long career, Geoffrey has never played big parts. He has faithfully followed Sir’s instructions to “find your own light” and keep out of Sir’s spotlight, and to be stock still while Sir is declaiming. Sir suggests that Cordelia / The Fool were played by one actor in Shakespeare’s day, as they never appear together. This is nonsense, as it is known that Robert Armin was Shakespeare’s Fool. We know that the clown parts changed, with songs and verbal humour coming in once Armin replaced Will Kemp with his talent for slapstick.

However, the conversation on doubling and making use of everyone to the full reflects on this play, because it does have eight quite minor parts, which is an imbalance in casting and production. Having said that, I though the minor characters excelled, especially in their Shakespeare roles. Special mention for Adam Jackson-Smith as the limping, bad-tempered Oxenby, who loathes “Sir” and resists being made to help with sound effects until the very last second.

image

Harriet Thorpe as Her Ladyship, who is playing Cordelia

Our main gripe was that some of the projection was not as good as it can be. It’s a huge theatre, and for its musicals, everyone has mics. Here we were on natural actor air. We were in Row N, to the side of the centre. These are still Band A priced seats. I don’t think they should be … we’re usually much further forward and more central at Chichester because we book early. We found some of the dialogue hard to hear, and in particular Harriet Thorpe as Her Ladyship. I thought she was brilliant on TV as Carole in The Brittass Empire years ago. Her projection was maybe slightly less than those around her, but compounded by a tendency to gabble the lines. I have heard actors discuss “matinee gabble” but actually this ran ten minutes over the advertised time, so I don’t think that was it, but rather “Carole”s trademark fast breathy delivery. She was superb in every other way, but we both found her speeches hard to grasp from the seats where we were. Interestingly, in 2015, friends sitting further back than us had made a similar complaint about Platonov, which had been crystal clear where we were sitting. So it is probably the sheer size of the auditorium.

I had had the impression until I read the reviews while writing this, that it had been garlanded with four and five star reviews.  The publicity has two “five star quotes” (Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday). Not so elsewhere. It gets some three stars, and some four stars from the national press. For me, it’s a three. I suspect in a closer, more intimate old theatre it would gain a star.

***

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID (London production):
Quentin Letts, Mail on Sunday *****
Michael Arditti, Sunday Express *****

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph ****
Susannah Clapp, The Observer ****
Mark Shenton, The Stage, ****
Neil Norman, Daily Express ****

Michael Billington, The Guardian ***
Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times ***
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard ***

LINKS ON THIS SITE:

Sean Foley (Director)
The Painkiller, Branagh Company 2016 – adaptor
Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense” 2013 – director
A Mad World My Masters, RSC 2013 – edited by Sean Foley
The Ladykillers, 2011 – director

Reece Shearsmith
Hangmen, Royal Court 2015- Syd

Simon Rouse
Hangmen, Royal Court 2015- Arthur

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      • 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
      • Pee’d off
      • Phones, concerts and copyright
      • 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
      • Tales of A & E
      • 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
      • Tulips April 2023
      • 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 2016
      • Cymbeline – Wanamaker
      • Dancing At Lughnasa- 2015
      • 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.
      • Fran Lebowitz
      • Frankenstein – NT Encore
      • French Without Tears
      • Funny Girl
      • Future Conditional
      • George’s Marvellous Medicine
      • Girl From The North Country
      • God of Carnage
      • Guys and Dolls
      • 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
      • Hamnet
      • 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
      • How The Other Half Loves
      • 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
      • Julius Caesar – RSC 2023
      • 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
      • Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter
      • Noises Off
      • Noughts and Crosses
      • 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
      • Pride and Prejudice * (*sort of)
      • Private Lives – 2021
      • Private Lives – Donmar 2023
      • 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 & Julie
      • 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
      • Shirley Valentine
      • 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 2023
      • 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 & Globe 2023
      • 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
    • The Motive & The Cue
    • The Vortex – CFT 2023
    • 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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