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.
Paul Ready as Benedick and Ellie Piercy (c) Manchester Royal Exchange I was very lucky to see two excellent Shakespeare productions recently. The first was Twelfth Night at the newly refurbished Liverpool Everyman and the second was Much Ado About Nothing at the Manchester Royal Exchange. Both productions were directed by women, Much Ado About…
Read more Shakespeare up north (Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing)
(Photo shows Alex Waldmann as Jasper and Paul Rider as Old Merrythought in The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Photo by Alastair Muir) I would say that a visit to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is a delightful experience. Without doubt, it is a beautiful little theatre, with its oak interior and the candelabra hanging over the…
A version of the ‘…all hail!’ to me? So Judas did to Christ..’ (Revisiting Richard II, RST and Barbican, October 27th to Wednesday 8th January 2014) post can be found on http://bloggingshakespeare.com/reviewing-shakespeare/author/julieraby/
The post contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen this production yet and don’t want to know about some of the production’s surprises, then it is best not to read this post. Having seen this production again in Stratford after the Previews had taken place and then at the Barbican, I have had more time…
Top Shakespeare 1. All’s Well That Ends Well, (RSC RST and Theatre Royal Newcastle). 2. As You Like It (RSC, RST and Theatre Royal Newcastle). 3. Titus Andronicus (RSC, Swan Theatre). 4. Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse). 5. The Taming of the Shrew (Propeller, Newcastle Theatre Royal) 6. Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios). 7. Richard II (RSC, RST and…
The Summer RST Company have left, and the barriers have appeared around the stage door. Tweeters twitter about how wonderful David Tennant’s performance is. It’s an ‘enthralling performance’, ‘just extraordinary’ and ‘mesmerising’ they say. Richard II enters the stage and is at the centre of his court with his flatters whispering in his ear. The casting of David Tennant…
Read more Richard II (RST, Preview performances 10th, 11th, 12th October 2013)
The trailer for this production promises lots of blood, and you go you won’t be disappointed if that’s what you expect. Of course, if that’s your thing, one of the highlights has to be sitting in the front row and getting splattered in blood. However, it is stage blood so it washes out very easily,…
Read more Titus Andronicus (The Swan 16th May to 25th October)
All’s Well That Ends Well isn’t performed very often, so it is always really a refreshing change from the normal schedule when a production comes along. After seeing Marianne Elliot’s stunning fairy tale version at the national a few years ago, it is hard to envisage how the play might be staged without the fairy…
Read more All’s Well That End’s Well (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 25th July 2013)
I took part in the As Yet Unnamed London podcast this week discussing the Globe’s production of Tempest. http://t.co/LAQDTFdwZc The discussion on The Tempest is at the end of the podcast.
Much has been made of the thrust stage in the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) and how it would change the way the RSC approached its productions. I was particularly fascinated by the way that a production could be developed for both a thrust stage and a proscenium arch tour. That’s why I wanted to see…
Julie Raby: A Dyslexic Writer 