There are times when I go to the theatre and at the time I realise that I am watching something special and something that I’ll remember for some time. Seeing Robin Soans’ Crouch Touch Pause Engage is going to be one of those plays. It is an excellent piece of theatre which is both harrowing…
Read more Crouch Touch Pause Engage (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 31st March 2015)
If this was just the first Act then I would really love it, because that first scene is great, but the rest of the play felt very dated. I realise that overall Top Girls is beautifully structured, and the doubling is intriguing. However, I felt the play now lacks elements of freshness and surprise. The…
Read more Short Review: Top Girls (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 6th March 2012)
In 2011, the sublime was a popular topic of discussion. At the National Theatre there was Frankenstein and in the John Martin exhibition at the Tate, the sublime was on show in a spectacular way. The John Martin exhibition was my favourite exhibition of the year. The epic was presented on grand canvases, but what…
Here is my best of.. lists. The following post discusses what I thought about the year. Shakespeare in the Theatre 1. Romeo and Juliet (RSC at the RST) 2. Much Ado About Nothing (Globe) 3. Hamlet (The National Theatre) 4. Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham’s) 5.The Comedy of Errors (Propeller at Sheffield) 6. Antony and Cleopatra with Katy Stephens and Darrell D’Silva (RSC…
Theatre: Shakespeare 1. Romeo and Juliet (RSC). 2. King Lear (RSC). 3. As You Like It (West Yorkshire Playhouse). 4. Measure for Measure (Almeida). 5. The Winter’s Tale (RSC/Roundhouse). 6. Henry IV part 2 (Globe). 7. Macbeth (Globe). 8. Antony and Cleopatra (RSC). 9. Antony and Cleopatra (Liverpool Playhouse). 10. Hamlet (The Crucible, Sheffield). 11.…
The outsider seemed to be dominating the theatre in the performances that I have seen over the last few weeks. I had listened to David Hare’s radio play Murder in Samarkand on iPlayer, and following this saw several theatre productions which had the outsider as an ongoing theme. Murder in Samarkand told the story of Craig Murray (played by David Tennant), who…
Watching Frankie and Johnnie at the West Yorkshire Playhouse felt like a very intense two hours. The play explored the lives of two lonely people getting together after they have had sex on their first date. It focuses on the conversations between Frankie and Johnnie who both work together in a diner. The characters move through a range of emotions and there is some humour. …
Read more Frankie and Johnnie (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 18th February 2010)
It is interesting that it is Alan Bennett’s image which is on the publicity materials for the new West Yorkshire Playhouse production of The History Boys. Normally, publicity materials give a feel of the production, can portray images of actors, but do not tend feature the image of the playwright, even Shakespearean productions. However, for me, the image…
Read more The History Boys (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 11th February 2010)
Over the last two weeks, I have seen two very different English Touring Theatre productions, one a comedy and the other a tragedy. The thing about English Touring Theatre is you do know you’re on safe ground, and the story will come first and I feel with these productions that there is little ambiguity. All of a…
I wouldn’t say that this was gripping theatre and some of the effects were just a little bit cliched. All those flashing lights on the white set with phrases about life in the 1980s such as ‘Greed is Good’ and ‘Material Girl’ and all that music from the 80s that was about power and material items,…
Read more The Black Album (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 21st October 2009)
Julie Raby 