To see A Midsummer Night’s Dream on a perfect July evening at the Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park is to ask oneself as Demetrious does “Am I awake, or do I but dream?” A perfect comedy in the most perfect setting is a gift that prompted me to reflect on the riches that London has…
Matilda, watch out for there is a new kid on the musical block: Adrian Mole. The rivalry between these two shows which puts a girl and a boy respectively centre stage is set to become a must-see compare and contrast experience. Intriguingly, a male writer (Roald Dahl 1916-1990) has written a wonderful part for a…
Any chance to see a play by Alan Bennett is always a shot in the arm and so the opportunity to see a double bill is doubly welcome. The determined and dedicated Teddington Theatre Club based in Hampton have put together an intriguing couple of one-act plays. A Visit from Miss Prothero and An Englishman…
To mark the centenary of the Amritsar massacre (1919) director Phil Willmott has set Othello (1601) somewhere in India. For a British audience familiar with A Passage to India (1924) or The Raj Quartet (1975) or indeed the film Gandhi (1982) this works. We can more readily get to grips with racial, social and gender…
As we approach the centenary of The Armistice of 11th November 1918, the Jermyn Street Theatre is doing its bit by putting on a series of plays that explore different aspects of this world defining historical moment. The contribution of troops from across the British Empire has been insufficiently celebrated so it is most welcome…
The Taming of the Shrew is usually called a comedy but it seems to me more like a problem play. This is confirmed in the current production at the Tristan Bates Theatre, part of the Actors Centre in Covent Garden. Performed using the cue script technique used in Elizabethan theatres this version of The Taming…
