Rev Stan's Theatre Blog
London theatre reviews and interviews
Category: Outside London
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Video transcript: The RSC has a new production of Henry V starring Alfred Enoch, who some of you may know from his days in Harry Potter But, he’s done a lot of stage and screen work since then, so it feels slightly mean bringing up his child role. It’s an interesting production. It blends nicely…
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Video transcript: Krapp’s Last Tape, starring Gary Oldman, at the York Theatre Royal, is a tiny, 50-minute play. Was it worth spending two hours on the train to get up there? Well, it’s the story of a man looking back over his life, and he’s doing this by listening to recordings that he made of…
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Luke Thallon in Hamlet for the RSC I've seen a lot of Hamlet's, and watching director Rupert Goold and Luke Thallon's take on 'the Dane', it struck me that we haven't really had a mad Hamlet for a long time. The prince might say that he is putting on an antic disposition and, as Polonius…
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The Fifth Step promotional poster, Dundee Rep David Ireland’s new play The Fifth Step had its first performance with a packed house at the Dundee Rep before transferring for a short run in Edinburgh and Glasgow. It's a different play tonally to Ulster American (which I was ‘meh about) and Cyprus Avenue, which was grim,…
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Hamlet, starring Billy Howle, a live recording from Bristol Old Vic The fat has been cut from this Bristol Old Vic production of Hamlet, leaving the meat of the play. There is no Fortinbras subplot, the ghost and player scenes are stripped to the bare essentials. It's a minimalist, stark modern set, just doors and…
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Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction and that's how I preambled my review of The Great Wave at the National Theatre back in 2018. It was based on real events in the 1970s and 1980s when North Korean agents abducted ordinary people from Japanese beaches in order to steal their identities or learn the…
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Theatre-land is a mixture of new plays and revivals, but there are certain classics which regularly get staged – which have you seen the most? Is there a particular reason why you've seen one play more than any others? The hands-down winner for me is Hamlet. I think I've seen 17 or more different productions,…
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There is always a danger when you transport classic plays to a contemporary setting that the difference in society's attitude destroys the tension of the original. Ibsen's original Hedda Gabler is a young woman, newly married who sees no future, trapped into a life in which she sees little purpose. Cordelia Lynn's modern take –…
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My first trip to New York, prompted by Ben Whishaw making his Broadway debut was pre-Rev Stan's Theatre blog (yes there was a time). He was in The Pride at Lucille Lortel Theatre with Andrea Riseborough and Hugh Dancy and there was an encounter with Ben Whishaw afterwards which I wrote about on my old…
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August was dominated by Edinburgh for me but the London theatre wheels were still turning; here's my round up of my favourite bits of news, my theatre hits and misses and few celeb spots…(let me know if I missed anything while I was north of the border). Sally Field and Bill Pullman in All My…