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Twelfth Night – NT 2017

Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare

 

Directed by Simon Godwin
Designed by Soutra Gilmour
Music by Michael Bruce
 

Olivier Theatre, National Theatre

Friday 10th March 2017, 19.30

CAST

Adam Best – – Antonio
Oliver Chris – Duke Orsino
Claire Cordier – ensemble
Imogen Doel – Fabia
Mary Doherty- ensemble
Ammar Duffus – officer
Daniel Ezra – Sebastian
Phoebe Fox – Olivia
Tamsin Greig – Malvolia
Whitney Kehinde – servant
Emmanuel Kojj – Curio
Tamara Lawrence – Viola
Andrew Macbean – ensemble
Doon Mackichan – Feste
Tim McMullen – Sir Toby Belch
Brad Morrison- Valentine
Daniel Rigby – Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Imogen Slaughter- ensemble
James Wallace – Captain / Priest
Niky Wardley- Maria

MUSICIANS

MD, piano, accordion – Dan Jackson
guitars – Jon Gingell
kit /percussion – Martin Briggs
bass – Nicola Davenport
woodwind – Hannah Lawrence

Twelfth-Night-Tamsin-Greig-as-Malvolia-Phoebe-Fox-as-Olivia-image-by-Marc-Brenner

Malvolia (Tamsin Greig) and Olivia (Phoebe Fox)

2017 is the year of Twelfth Night, even more than 2016 was the year of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When it comes to choosing Shakespeare’s finest comedy, you’re either a Twelfth Night person (Michael Billington, Peter Hall) or a Dream person. My companion and I are firmly in the Dream camp.

The National Theatre gets its Twelfth Night in first, with The Globe doing the play in the summer, and The Royal Shakespeare Company in the autumn. The Watermill Theatre get their version in second, with a long tour. Two of our three best-known theatres tend to do the same play in a year, but all three is unusual. Not only that, but the big USP on this one is casting Tamsin Greig as Malvolia. Guess what? The Globe have announced a female Malvolio (no name change) too. Gender switching is becoming the norm. There are two types … a woman playing a male character without further explanation (or vice versa), or switching  a male character to become a female one  (or vice versa, not that it ever happens that way around). This is the latter. The Globe authentic practices version five years ago had an all-male cast with Viola played by Mark Rylance, so it does cut both ways.

Twelfth Night productions tend to “star” Malvolio(a) as here. It’s supposedly one of the shortest lead parts in the canon, and the two best versions I’ve seen were the Michael Grandage version in 2008 (starring Derek Jacobi as Malvolio) and the Globe / Apollo authentic practices one (starring Stephen Fry as Malvolio). Significantly, in both versions, the role of Olivia (Indira Vharma in 2008, Mark Rylance in 2012) was what I remembered most. I found some 1950s reviews that focus on Sir Toby Belch as the “star”, though in every production I’ve seen, Sir Andrew Aguecheek is far funnier.  Peter Hall said Feste was the most important character in the play. While we’re quoting opinions, Michael Billington, who had seen the play forty times by the time he wrote “101 Greatest Plays” in which he includes Twelfth Night, puts Peter Hall’s 1960 version as one of the best.

Way back in 1966 Peter Hall also said:

There are three dangerous traditions in the play. Malvolio is by custom played by the leading actor. But the star in this role cannot help playing for sympathy, and even if he wishes to avoid it, the public will insist on giving it. A sympathetic Malvolio raises questions which should never be asked. We must still laugh at his final exit. The play only works if a brilliant actor can play the part in order to be completely detested, laughed at, and finally understood.
( Hall’s other two dangerous traditions are playing Olivia as too old, and Sir Andrew as too effeminate).

Well, Malvolia and the gender switch dominates reviews of this one, and Tamsin Greig is such a wonderful comic actor, that she justifies the switch on that alone.

Twelfth_night_rehearsal_pic_2

Feste (Doon Mackichan) and Malvolia (Tamsin Greig)

Regular readers may remember that Episodes is my favourite TV comedy of the last decade. She is the schoolmarm / prison warden from hell in black culottes and rigid hair style. Her letter scene, straight to audience, milked every possible nuance and laugh from the letter and her range of expressions. She tries to alleviate her stress with a bit of tai chi. Her yellow cross gartered stockings were topped by a Pierrot costume, which she removes to reveal a swimsuit with nipple tassels. And yes, they are electrified.

Phoebe Fox is a young, pretty, sparky Olivia, full of verve, and ticks Peter Hall’s second box. Mark Rylance knows a lead role when he sees one, and he’s played Olivia twice. This is the third time I’ve come out thinking Olivia both the best role AND the best performance of the night. Against great accomplished comic actors playing Malvolia, Orsino, Sir Andrew and Feste, that is some achievement.

twelfth_night_daniel_rigby_as_sir_andrew_aguecheek_niky_wardley_as_maria_image_by_marc_brenner

Andrew Aguecheek (Daniel Rigby) and Maria (Niky Wardley)

Twelfth-Night-Tim-McMullan-as-Sir-Toby-Belch-Doon-Mackichan-as-FesteDaniel-Rigby-as-Sir-Andrew-Aguecheek-image-by-Marc-Brenner

L to R: Sir Toby Belch (Tim McMullen), Feste (Doon Mackichan), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Daniel Rigby)

Daniel Rigby does a largish Andrew Aguecheek who is funny without any mincing about, nor being tall and skinny. Ticks the third box. I’ll add another virtue, and that is that Tim McMullan’s Sir Toby Belch is a permanently drunken rock musician in type, of normal build, at last not a waddling fatty Falstaff. The scene where he describes dance types to Sir Andrew (all of which are obsolete dances) usually sounds like sheer waffle, but here with demonstrations, it made sense. Both demonstrated with aplomb.

twelfth-night-nt-production-shots-700wx457h

Duke Orsini (Oliver Chris) and Viola (as Cesario) – male bonding

The twins, Viola and Sebastian are twinned in clothes and by both being Afro-Carribbean. The programme points out that Viola is never named until right at the end of the play, so perhaps we should think of her as her imitation boy, Cesario, first. One criticism is that Sebastian has a slight African tinge to the accent and Viola has not. It is usual to mark them with an identical accent. Shakespearean lines were not his forte either.  Tamara Lawrence as Viola works superbly direct to audience, but then most of the cast do. She does boyish perfectly, and is as good as you can get in incorporating modern teen gestures into Shakesperean lines.

a_scene_from_twelfth_night

Duke Orsino (Oliver Chris) + 1972 TR6 and scooter. Hannah Lawrence on saxophone.

Oliver Chris is very funny as Orsino, as always, though the first “If music be the food of love” speech was cut about and interrupted for laughs, possibly inappropriately, though I laughed along with everyone else.  One has to add that Hannah Lawrence’s live saxophone on stage makes this scene. His gazing at the revelations in the final scene are brilliant. The scene where he realises he fancies Cesario lacked the poignancy and surprise it can have.

Doon Mackichan was in a glorious Abigail’s Party on tour a few years ago. She is Feste, in rust coloured tights, glittery boots and shorts. Having a female Feste makes not a jot of difference, and with a female Malvolio to mock, it works better with Feste as a woman. She’s a major singer too, and ends the whole show with a song as the stage revolves, showing a series of tableaux. The lonely Sir Andrew with suitcase had me laughing. The teddy bear was OTT.

I’ve never seen the blindfolded, mad Malvolia with the Fool playing the doctor scene work. It’s intrinsically a poor scene to me. It still doesn’t work here, though I’m sure no one could play it better than Tamsin Greig and Doon Mackichan.

twelfth_night_nt_aud-765_0

L to R: Fabia, Cesario, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (with fountain)

The instant star of the show, as so often at the National, is the set design. It’s a series of triangular shapes on the revolve stage. At the beginning it’s the prow of a ship in a storm, but it can be flight of steps full on, both flights combined, or open into Olivia’s modern glass-walled house (the set designer must know Poole, gradually filling with them), be a brick walled street, frame a garden. Be The Elephant gay disco bar. We get a fountain. We get a hot tub. It works so well throughout, allowing rapid changes, walking through it from one scene into the next. The bright costumes for some, black for others is first rate. The introduction of a swimming costume scene round the hot tub is funny, as is the running joke about the sexy bronze swimming trunks that Olivia tries to press on Cesario, then later on Sebastian.

twelfth_night_nt_aud-652

Olivia (Phoebe Fox) and Cesario (Tamara Lawrence) in the hot tub

There is always a “loadsa money” aspect to the National Theatre that mildly disturbs me. Did they need a Triumph TR6 and an accompanying scooter too? Did they need a whole elaborate set of costumes and a piano for the transgender disco scene? Did they need the transgender disco scene at all?  Was the rain at the end with umbrellas for all but poor Malvolia gratuitous? (Feste didn’t have an umbrella but was out of the rain). There is a “Have rain machine / Use it” aspect which also appears at the RSC in Stratford and at Chichester. It’s a hell of a lot of fuss for one effect. It looks really good to have five servants in sunglasses surrounding Olivia when Cesario arrives seeking to establish which one is her, but you can do it with one. I am as far as you can get from Grotowski’s “Towards A Poor Theatre” but sometimes the NT’s consumption of resources crosses a line of “conspicuous” that even the RSC doesn’t reach.

I ponder why there were so many three star press reviews … I’m a four, my companion a three (she adds”at the most”). The gender switch didn’t alter the play. Malvolia’s pash for Olivia was played so well, it felt that was the way it was meant. Great actors, but production points did overwhelm at times, and the broad comedy of having a drag queen singing Hamlet’s To Be Or Not To Be soliloquy got the chuckles but the tender aspects of the play got swamped again and again by playing for effects. We’re usually the ones cheering when Shakespeare is played broadly, but here we felt a lack of flow and a lost dimension as a result. Yes, Malvolia splashing in the fountain was hilarious. Yes, Cesario being pulled into the hot tub was hilarious too, but something was lost. I didn’t feel the “Aah!” Factor when everyone got together at the end. If it allows the tenderness and emotion to emerge, you should feel that.

overall:

****

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

5
Ben Dowell, Radio Times, *****
4
Michael Billington, Guardian ****
Susannah Clapp, Obsever ****
3
Domenic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph ***
Christopher Hart, Sunday Times ***
Natasha Tripney, The Stage ***
Paul Taylor, The Independent ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

TWELFTH NIGHT

  • Twelfth Night RSC 2012
  • Twelfth Night – Apollo 2012  Mark Rylance (Olivia), Stephen Fry (Malvolio)
  • Twelfth Night- ETT 2014, Brighton Theatre Royal
  • Twelfth Night, National Theatre, 2017
  • Twelfth Night, Watermill, Newbury 2017
  • Twelfth Night, The Globe, 2017
  • Twelfth Night, RSC 2017  
  • Twelfth Night, Young Vic, 2018
  • Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s Globe, 2021

SIMON GODWIN
Hamlet, RSC 2016
Richard II, The Globe 2015
Two Gentlemen of Verona, RSC, 2014
The Beaux Stratagem, National Theatre, 2015
Man & Superman, National Theatre, 2014
Candida, Theatre Royal, Bath, 2013

TAMSIN GREIG
Women on The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, Playhouse, London, 2015

PHOEBE FOX
A View From The Bridge, Young Vic, 2014 (Catherine)

OLIVER CHRIS
Fracked! Or Please Don’t Use The F-Word, Chichester 2016
King Charles III, 2014
One Man Two Guv’nors 2013

DANIEL RIGBY
One Man Two Guv’nors 2013

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        • 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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