Hi, I’m Julie.
I am a retired Principal Lecturer. I continue to research contemporary Shakespeare performances. In retirement, I no longer teach Shakespeare but I now get to visit new places. I love theatre, outdoor swimming and writing about those experiences in my blogs.
This was a very well-played piece, which worked beautifully in York Theatre Royal studio space. The thing with Beckett is that you find yourself laughing when you feel maybe you shouldn’t. A member of the audience felt that he has to leave early because he had a fit of giggles at the start of the performance, but…
Read more Krapp's Last Tape (York Theatre Royal, Friday 23rd October 2009)
I am starting to feel that I am becoming addicted to review broadcasts and reading reviews in newspapers. The addiction includes watching my favourite programme, The Culture Show and making sure Newsnight Review has been recorded on Sky + to watch later in the week. My keenness for reviews also includes listening to Radio Four’s Front Row and Saturday Review, as…
I saw some excellent theatre this week. Having seen The Caucasian Chalk Circle in Leeds, The Trial in York earlier in the week and now Punk Rock in Manchester, I feel that I have experienced the best of theatre and what’s great is that it isn’t all happening in London. When I read on notices around…
Read more Punk Rock (Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, 11th October 2009)
As I stand outside York Theatre Royal in the chill of the evening, I have no idea where I am going. The interval crowd from Equus has inhabited the foyer bar and it is clear that Belt Up’s The Trial will not be using the front of stage of the Theatre Royal as mentioned on my ticket. …
I really enjoyed this production of Brecht’s play at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Quarry Theatre was an ideal venue for this big production with a choir on stage. There was that sense of a theatrical event that the National Theatre were trying to achieve with their production of Mother Courage, but none of…
Read more The Caucasian Chalk Circle (West Yorkshire Playhouse 9th October 2009)
I failed miserably in my attempt to read all the Booker novels before the winner was announced. I manged to read Sarah Walters The Little Stranger and J.M Coetzee Summertime. However, I think I’ll plod on and read the other four as soon as I can. I normally buy the shortlist when they are in…
I have seen Belt Up before, but only in the Studio space at York Theatre Royal. In their energetic production of The Tartuffe, the company of young actors, use the whole of the auditorium and stage of the main house to great effect. The audience loved this production, which explored the idea of playing and theatre,…
Read more The Tartuffe (York Theatre Royal, 2nd October 2009)
I saw the National production of All’s Well That Ends Well in July and thought it was a fantastic production with its focus on the fairytale elements of the play. I felt at that time it will be interesting to see how the cinema experience captures the wonderful set. For the most the screening, as part…
Read more All's Well That Ends Well (NT Live – City Screen, York, 1st October 2009)
This was a beautiful production playing with boundaries between cinema and theatre. The plot was very straight forward but carefully worked out, which managed to build up tension throughout the two parts. I felt that we didn’t particularly like any of the characters but we wanted justice to be done in the end. What I…
Read more Dial M for Murder (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 30th September 2009)
This was a lovely clear and very straight forward production with a focus on the text that brought Shakespeare’s words alive. It was without the set design frills (thrills) that the RSC production have adopted, and so stripped away some of the sense of a busy court. You have to do this with a small…
Read more The Winter's Tale (York Theatre Royal, 29th September 2009)
Julie Raby: A Dyslexic Writer 