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Tempest with no temper
The Tempest is one of my favourite plays and Hag-Seed probably my favourite out of the Hogarth Shakespeare series. Had I any talent, I’d write my own retelling, with the tragic nature of Caliban’s story at its centre. Unfortunately, I do not have any such talent, and I have to make do with going to…
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Sobbing psychopath
I like going to the theatre to see a play I know nothing about. It is a very special kind of experience, sitting in the audience without any expectation of what might happen next. Which is why I was thrilled with the opening scene of Little Foxes – I had to quickly assess the various…
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Trigger warning: this is a really bad play
It is not that scenography is no good, it’s perfectly fine. It is not that the acting is mediocre, it’s nothing special but absolutely fit for purpose. It is just that the play itself is very, very bad. The QR code at the bar should have been a warning sign: scan at your peril as…
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Bertram, bed-switch and bi
When I watch one of Shakespeare’s plays, I always assess it by reference to the original script, asking myself whether any adaptations were a positive addition or an unnecessary distraction. I assume this is because I have not only read but seen them performed so many times and find them not only brilliant and timeless…
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Wishing for a twist
A colleague I bumped into told me he had just seen Oedipus – It was amazing, and you will never see the twist coming, but I won’t spoil it for you. This worried me greatly, knowing this was a ‘new political take’ and generally not having had the best experiences with re-writes of the classics.…
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Why is it not absurd anymore?
Theatre of the absurd is supposed to reflect the reality we live in, amplifying and warping it for greater impact. ‘Waiting for Godot’ is, if I am not mistaken, the defining piece of the genre, and it truly has earned that accolade. It absorbs your thoughts within its narrative and spits them right out at…
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Not adding enough
Last week I went to the National to see a play apparently based on Antigone; this week the roots are meant to be in King Lear. Neither one, in my opinion, really deserves linkage to such heritage – two sisters or three children does not make it thus. But of the two, this one is…
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When is it ok to laugh during a play about paedophilic incest?
I remember reading Antigone so well; it was the first play that was on the curriculum when I started high school; it was the first time that I really explored the meaning of the word ‘dilemma.’ It was powerful, heart wrenching, I kept replaying the themes over and over in my head. The basic premise…
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What a headache
Of the three plays in the trilogy, this one is by far the weakest; and on all counts actually: plot, staging and acting. There is good physicality to both actresses. Especially Carly does the dialogues with herself exceptionally well. The speed with which she talks, however, coupled with poor annunciations, meant that I struggled to…
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Thank you for sticking to the script
I have not read ‘Grapes of Wrath.’ It is not on the list of school-mandated literature where I am from and reading ‘From Mice and Men’ put me off Steinbeck for life. I cried too hard, and the feeling of sadness haunted me for too long. I did not want to voluntarily subject myself to…
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