Monthly Archives: June 2012

F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is set on Long Island’s North Shore and New York City in 1922, during the Jazz Age, a time of prosperity – for the glamorous rich at least. There have already been five Hollywood … Continue reading →

Shakespeare’s knockabout farce about two sets of twins has been every director’s plaything since Komisarjevsky’s famous 1938 production at Stratford. Amir Nizar Zuabi sets his all-screeching, all-shouting production in an unexpectedly brutal police state where illegal immigrants (arriving by the … Continue reading →

Audiences who have neither read nor seen Shakespeare’s best comedy may have difficulty knowing what is going on in David Farr’s production. The major problem is the expressionistic set, a seedy hotel, which would be much more suitable for a … Continue reading →

Shakespeare’s most over-rated play gets off to a bad start in David Farr’s production with a most unexciting storm which takes place in a small enclosed glass booth. The island, a dark, barren, rocky place, has no enchantment whatsoever and … Continue reading →

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1900), the German Swiss playwright, was a key figure in post-war theatre and is probably best known in England for his masterpiece, The Visit (1956). The Physicists, which premiered in Zurich in 1962 and was staged by the … Continue reading →

John McGrath, an enthusiastic socialist, who died in 2002 at the age of 67, was a prolific writer, director and producer in theatre, television and film. He founded the 7.84 company. (7% of the nation owned 84% of the country’s … Continue reading →

If you are looking for something to take young children to this summer then War Horse, Matilda, The Lion King and Wicked are the priority. Rupert Goold’s disappointing adaptation of C S Lewis’s children’s classic concentrates on spectacle rather than … Continue reading →

Wah! Wah! (pronounced Vah! Vah!) is the sound of appreciation that Indian audiences make instead of applauding. Apart from the classical choreography there is little to wah! wah! in this musical by Tanika Gupta and Niraj Chag. The show, which … Continue reading →