Rev Stan's Theatre Blog
London theatre reviews and interviews
Category: Barbican
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[Fiona] Laird brilliantly brings to life the Elizabethan bawdy humour, mixed with 70's 'ooh er missus' and a good sprinkling of contemporary references for good measure. © RSC's Merry Wives of Windsor: David Troughton and Beth Cordingly. Photo Manuel Harlan Being my first time seeing Merry Wives of Windsor, I did a tiny bit of…
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Starting off 2019 with plenty of theatre in the diary, these are the nine plays I'm particularly looking forward to seeing (in date order): Kompromat, Vault Festival (23-27 Jan) What the website says: Inspired by the still-unsolved 2010 murder of GCHQ agent Gareth Williams, Kompromat is a tense drama of double agents and our capacity…
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1. Exciting casting announcement at the Donmar One of my favourite films growing up in the 80s was The Goonies so imagine my excitement when learning that Martha 'Stef' Plimpton is going to be starring in the Donmar Warehouse's production of Sweat (previews from Dec 7). The Pulitzer Prize-winning play was written after playwright Lynn…
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1. The Twilight Zone to get a West End run I described the Almeida's Twilight Zone as 'sinister and silly fun' when I saw it in December last year and now it's getting a stint in the West End. It will run from 4 March to 1 June at the Ambassadors Theatre and even if…
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RSC's Julius Caesar 2017: Photo by Helen Maybanks (c) RSC Bloody Julius Caesar. Not only does he gets ideas above his station and meet with a messy end but his murderers decide to wear his blood like a face mask, as if they weren't smeared and splattered enough. However, it wasn't the sight of the…
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Not everything is brilliant or lives up to expectations. These are the plays that disappointed me the most in 2017. Obsession, Barbican Theatre Ivo Van Hove had two plays in my best of list last year but Obsession, starring Jude Law, felt at times pedestrian and aloof where it should have been passionate and tense.…
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Step aside best actor/actress/play etc this is what was noteworthy for me in theatre land, in 2017. Menagerie award The Ferryman was an award winning play in many way but for me it deserve an extra gong for fur and feathers – a cute little rabbit and a goose both made scene stealing appearances. Babies?…
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RSC's Coriolanus 2017. Photo by Helen Maybanks (c) RSC Two military leaders clash on stage. There is nothing delicate or seemingly choreographed, rather sparks fly from the machete-style swords as they make contact with flinch-inducing force. It is powerful, ferocious fight with a genuine sense of danger – certainly from the front row anyway. This…
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The Tempest, Barbican Theatre. Photo by Topher McGrillis (c) RSC The opening storm in the RSC's The Tempest at the Barbican is probably the most spectacular I've seen. The stage is set like the inside carcass of a ship, there is lightning and thunder effects as you'd expect but there are also projections which make…
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Obsession is the latest production from Ivo Van Hove and the second in a trio of plays he has at the Barbican Theatre this year. Based on the 1943 Italian film which in turn based on James Cain's controversial crime novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, it is set in a nondescript café run by…