Monthly Archives: March 2012

Edward Bond’s 1974 play about Shakespeare in old age in Stratford-upon-Avon, is flawed but it still feels like a modern classic. The Bard (a convincing Patrick Stewart), disillusioned, burnt out and dying, broods on the emptiness of his life and … Continue reading →

Hans Klok, the Dutch illusionist, billed as the fastest magician world, and a worthy successor to the great Harry Houdini, makes an impressive London debut. He is constantly being tied up and locked in cabinets, water tanks and boxes and … Continue reading →

Jackie Mason is one of the great Jewish stand-up comedians and, if you enjoy dry and ironic humour at the expense of Jews, he is well worth seeing. You will have to act quickly; now 75, he is making his … Continue reading →

Josie Rourke opens her first season as artistic director of the Donmar with a rare revival of George Farquhar’s comedy, which premiered in 1706 and was based on his experiences in Lichfield and Shrewsbury when he was recruiting for Marlborough’s … Continue reading →

The much-loved Hollywood musical by Betty Comden and Adolph Green is set in the late 1920s when the movie industry was making its transition to sound and famous silent stars were suddenly no longer employable because their voices were terrible. … Continue reading →

Lord, what fools these mortals be! The reproduction of one of Cecil Mary Baker’s 1920’s flower fairies on the poster and programme cover is thoroughly misleading in that it has nothing to do with Sean Holmes and Filter’s modern and … Continue reading →

Declan Donnellan has two Cheek by Jowl companies, one English, the other Russian. Last year he was at the Barbican with a marvellous production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Russian. He’s back with a production of John Ford’s Italianate tale … Continue reading →

The famous friendship of Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley began in 1816 and ended in Shelley’s death in 1822. If it had been up to Byron, it could have been one of the great love affairs; but Shelley was … Continue reading →