Category: History
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The Tragedy of King Richard the Second at the Almeida Theatre review ****
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second Almeida Theatre, 9th January 2019 Vain, frivolous, self pitying, introverted. Richard II doesn’t come across too well at the beginning of this play, Shakespeare’s first instalment of his histories that chart the origins of the “War of the Roses” and end with the…
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The Double Dealer at the Orange Tree review ****
The Double Dealer Orange Tree Theatre, 7th January 2019 Now everyone know’s that Restoration comedy is a tricky customer. What with the humour built on misogyny, that’s if it is funny at all. The satire of a social class few of us recognise. Texts are so thick, built on repartee,…
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Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms at the British Library review *****
Anglo-Saxon Kingsdoms: Art, Word, War British Library, 30th December 2018 I mean it isn’t all books. There are charters and letters as well. And pottery, coins, art and jewels. But there are a lot of books. Oh my word though, what beautiful books. If you are at all interested in…
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Borders (*****) and Games (****) at the Arcola Theatre review
Borders and Games Arcola Theatre, 22nd December 2018 I had only seen one of Henry Naylor’s acclaimed plays prior to this double header and that was Angel at this very venue. That was enough to know that I like the cut of his jib. Mr Naylor, prior to writing plays,…
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Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre review ****
Antony and Cleopatra National Theatre Olivier, 11th December 2018 Simon Godwin is a director who has shown he has a bit of a way with the sprawling masterpieces in the dramatic canon in recent years. Especially from the Bard. His recently opened Timon of Athens at the RSC, albeit with…
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Tamburlaine at the RSC Swan Theatre review ****
Tamburlaine Swan Theatre, RSC Stratford, 17th November 2018 If you scroll down you will see a so-called review of the play Switzerland. Though focussed on the author Patricia Highsmith it referenced her most famous character Tom Ripley. One of the most beguiling bad boys in fictional history. However he was…
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The Madness of George III at the Nottingham Playhouse review *****
The Madness of George III Nottingham Playhouse, 13th November 2018 Flushed with success from his visit to Manchester the Tourist hopped on a train across the Peak District to the proud city of Sheffield, (where I see the Theatres will be staging a Rutherford and Sons next year ahead of…
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Forgotten at the Arcola Theatre review ****
Forgotten Arcola Theatre, 10th November 2018 I was much taken, if not entirely convinced, by the British East Asian Yellow Earth Theatre company’s version of Tamburlaine at the Arcola 18 months ago. And this co-production, with Moongate, of a new play, Forgotten, by Daniel York Loh, which kicked off at…
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Don Carlos at the Rose Kingston review ****
Don Carlos Rose Theatre Kingston, 9th November 2018 No one could accuse Friedrich Schiller of holding back in Don Carlos. Goethe inspired Sturm und Drang Romanticism, a Kantian paean to the centrality of personal freedom and democracy, the clash of liberty and tyranny, a stab at the sublime, a (loose)…
At Home He Feels Like A Tourist 