Monthly Archives: March 2012

It is easy to see how an audience in the 1590’s, who took bear-baiting in their stride, might find the breaking of a woman’s spirit hilarious. But today, with political correctness a major issue, it really is amazing how popular … Continue reading →

Lewis Carroll’s novel was first adapted for the stage in 1886. There have been endless adaptations ever since: plays, musicals, operas, films, cartoons, ballets and even, ice spectaculars. The most recent is Tim Burton’s 3-D extravaganza. The best is, probably, … Continue reading →

The glorious ones are actors in a famous commedia dell’arte troupe in Italy in the late 17th century who had always relied on improvisation and were disconcerted to find the public now wanted scripted plays. It is the sort of … Continue reading →

Star quality is difficult to define, but is always instantly recognizable. Noel Coward had it; but his 1967 play, an adaptation of one of his short stories and never produced in his lifetime, doesn’t. His satire on the theatrical profession … Continue reading →

It might have been interesting to stage Harley Granville Barker’s Farewell to the Theatre in tandem with Robert Nelson’s new play, which, confusingly, has the same name and is about Barker (1877-1946), who was an actor, playwright, director, critic, visionary … Continue reading →

Adam Guettel’s sophisticated and adult musical, which opened off-Broadway in 1996 and deserves to be much better known in the UK, is based on a real incident in 1925 when a young backwoods cave explorer was trapped in a Kentucky … Continue reading →

The innovative Sound&Fury Company is developing the physical and sonic elements of theatre by heightening the aural senses. The theatre is so dark ushers with torches have to guide each member of the audience to a seat. The tiny Clare … Continue reading →

Noel Coward’s comedy, dashed off in three days, and premiered in 1925 when he was 25, is set in the country home of a family of four Bohemians – actress mother, novelist father, their daughter and son – who have, … Continue reading →