Archives for 2009

They do these things differently in France. The thing in this case being not exquisite cuisine or bristling political protest, but how to approach their national tragic playwright. Last week I went to Oxford to see Cheek By Jowl's bracing, nervy production of Racine's 1667 tragedy Andromaque on its British tour (there's a brief review here). The production opened at the Bouffes du Nord, Paris in … [Read more...]

Looking for Hamlet in a theatre display? At the new Theatre and Performance Galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, you can see the prompt book and skull (signed by the cast) from the Royal Court's 1980 production starring Jonathan Pryce. There are Edward Gordon Craig's boldly monolithic sketches for his set designs. Or, rather madly, a Hamlet-themed costume for the girlie … [Read more...]

How do you tell a life through dance? Or, at least, give an impression of someone's life and work. A conventional printed biography can do this: but ballet? Kenneth MacMillan's attempt to encapsulate the phenomenon that was Isadora Duncan was considered tantalising but uneven when it premiered in 1981. An ambitious project, Isadora was a full-length ballet which cast two Isadoras - a dancer and an … [Read more...]

What are the uses of 'abroad' to a playwright? In a piece I wrote earlier today for the Guardian theatre blog, I wondered a little about how British playwrights had historically used foreign locations, and why. In Renaissance drama, this is particularly striking - above all, the Mediterranean was the place they selected for romances and identical twins, for baroque masques of poisoning and … [Read more...]

We often think about sound and vision in theatre - but what about smell? I saw a cracking first play at the Royal Court Theatre last night - A Miracle by Molly Davies, set in rural Norfolk, the arable corner of eastern England. The audience sat on all four sides of a small stage, which was floored with damp mud, scrubby bits of grass and a mess of fallen leaves turning to sludge by the roundabout. … [Read more...]

So many books, so little shelf space. I was weeding out playtexts today (I come from a line of great-aunt hoarders, and know that there's a bags-in-the-bathtub scenario which sits at the worst-case end of the stockpile spectrum). There's a version of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler that I've been havering over. It's by Lucy Kirkwood, and, to be honest, is pretty flawed. Performed by the Gate Theatre in … [Read more...]

'You can't come in without your ticket,' said the usher at the Roundhouse as I made my way back after the interval of Hofesh Shechter's rousing dance set. 'But but but, I've just come out of there,' I spluttered. 'I've left my coat on the seat. I've left my gloves!' Suddenly, I sounded like an Edwardian baronet. Thankfully a lovely press officer intervened and got me back inside before I could … [Read more...]

We've discussed before whether shows need programme notes to make sense to an audience. But what about shows that seem ready-made for academic discussion? Eonnagata, which premiered tonight at Sadler's Wells, was perhaps the most eagerly-anticipated show in the London dance season. Ballerina Sylvie Guillem and choreographer Russell Maliphant have collaborated on several dance pieces, but what … [Read more...]

Have you heard the story of Romeo and the gorilla? Christopher Gable was the dancer on whom Kenneth MacMillan created the role of Romeo for the Royal Ballet in 1965. MacMillan planned a harrowing final scene; the distraught hero, he said, should attempt desperately to revive Juliet, but when his efforts failed, she becomes no more than a piece of meat as his hopes fade. Gable was reminded of a … [Read more...]

Practical criticism is a loosely recurring strand of the blog in which we look at the outside world through the eyes of a critic. It's kind of a pun. But today, people, we're going to do old-school prat crit, the like of which I haven't done since college. We're going to look at a text, and decide what it's telling us. We'll look for rhythms and repetitions. We'll parse individual phrases. We may … [Read more...]