Monthly Archives: December 2010

Christmas seems an odd time to be staging the most tragic, the most painful, the most awesome and the most pagan of Shakespeare’s plays. The cruelty is graphic, both in action and language. Is there anything more horrific on the … Continue reading →

Prokofiev wrote his score for Cinderella during World War 2, hence Matthew Bourne’s decision to set his version at the height of the London Blitz. As the audience waits for the performance to begin sirens sound and low-flying bombers roar … Continue reading →

Leontes (Greg Hicks), whose paranoia is second only to Othello’s and more irrational, suspects his pregnant wife has committed adultery with his best friend and refuses to accept the oracle’s judgment that she is totally innocent. The enormity of his … Continue reading →

Georges Feydeau (1862-1921) is synonymous with Paris and La Belle Epoque and, by common consent, the greatest writer of bedroom farces. The Comedie Francaise reveres him second only to Moliere. He was the author of some 39 plays, which he … Continue reading →

More marriages break up at Christmas than at any other time of the year.  Here there are three unhappy marriages. When I last saw Alan Ayckbourn’s play in a touring production in 2006 I thought it was one of his … Continue reading →

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Eric Segal wrote Love Story as a screenplay and then recast it into a best selling novel. The 1970 film, which starred Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw, got terrible reviews; but proved … Continue reading →

George du Maurier (1834-1896) was first and foremost an illustrator and his cartoons, lampooning upper-class English society, appeared regularly in Punch. He originated the phrase, the Curate’s Egg. Trilby, his novel, published in 1894 was a huge success on both … Continue reading →