COVID-19 has had a lasting impact on everyone’s lives, but the arts industry (in particular, theatre staff and performers) have had their livelihoods completely decimated. The National Theatre has announced that they have had to let over 400 of their casual employees go from August 2020. In an industry that is already competitive, this news […]Read More
Like many others looking to escape the formulaic doom and gloom of lockdown, Thursday night found me tuning in to YouTube watch the latest play from National Theatre At Home: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Gwendoline Christie (best known as Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones), The Bridge Theatre […]Read More
A must-see production from the National Theatre At Home series, Rufus Norris interweaves humour and heartbreak into an incredibly poignant staging of Andrea Levy’s novel. Spanning World War 2 and its aftermath, Small Island tells an incredible tale based on the plight of the Windrush generation. The show follows three Jamaicans and one English woman, whose […]Read More
I am embarrassed to admit that prior to watching this play, the extent of my knowledge of George III came from CBBC’s Horrible Histories and the musical Hamilton. In the former, George’s mental illness is just a massive joke; in the latter he is pre-madness George, a camp and capricious king playing at colonialism as […]Read More
At a time when our world appears unrecognisable, where the very crux of democracy is being questioned as we are denied our liberties for the sake of public health in this pandemic, and as many people all over the world fight for basic human rights, Coriolanus has rarely seemed so relevant. Caius Martius, later renamed […]Read More
Written by the mind behind ITV’s Quiz and directed by People, Places and Things’ Jeremy Herrin, This House is a witty, heartfelt insight into the struggles of the Labour Government in the late 1970s. I was worried that my lack of knowledge of 1970s politics would hinder my enjoyment of This House, but that couldn’t […]Read More
We’ve all started to accept that trips to the theatre might not go back to the way they were for quite some time. However, the range of theatre that has been made available to livestream during lockdown is somewhat softening the blow. Whether you’re musical mad or have a passion for puppetry, it seems that […]Read More
Hundreds of UK creatives have been making urgent appeals to the government, warning that our country’s rich cultural landscape could become a “cultural wasteland” by the end of the pandemic. The arts industries as a whole are struggling to keep afloat amid the crisis, but one of the worst affected will inevitably be theatres. Even […]Read More
Benedict Andrews’s A Streetcar Named Desire, the latest instalment of the National Theatre At Home series, is nothing short of a spectacle. Starring Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster and Vanessa Kirby, this modern take on the timeless classic by Tennessee Williams is a masterclass of everything that contemporary theatre stands for. The play follows Blanche Dubois […]Read More
Hearing of its sell-out runs, and reading plenty of outstanding reviews, I was intrigued to see what left Inua Ellams’s Barber Shop Chronicles head and shoulders above other touring plays from the last few years. Bursting with colour, pride and joy, this electric production- streamed as part of the National Theatre At Home service- is […]Read More
NT Live’s Twelfth Night provides the perfect entertainment for Shakespeare’s 456th birthday in lockdown. Most notable for having the first female Malvolio in theatre history, Simon Godwin’s production is a farcical treat with a bittersweet ending. Music really is the food of love in this contemporary adaptation. Godwin’s choice of onstage musicians really draws attention […]Read More
J.B. Priestley’s anti-Capitalist masterpiece: An Inspector Calls. It is the most popular dramatic text currently studied at GCSE in England, and thus a play well-known if not always fully understood. The National Theatre production directed by Stephen Daldry was first performed in 1992 and is currently undergoing a popular revival tour around Britain. I saw […]Read More
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