Tag Archives: Michael Billington

Jumping through the hoop: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet

By the time this post goes live, the latest production of Hamlet to be staged in London will have received its first two performances. I’m writing of course about Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre. It was to be … Continue reading

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Much Ado About Shakespeare at Easter

For Easter, a round-up of some of the many current Shakespeare-related events. First of all, on Easter Sunday BBC Radio 3 is celebrating Shakespeare’s imminent 450th birthday with two programmes. At 6.45pm, in Shakespeare: For and Against, playwright Mark Ravenhill … Continue reading

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Brian Cox’s Titus Andronicus: “the greatest stage performance I’ve ever given”

Earlier in the week  an interview with Brian Cox (the actor not the scientist) was published in which he commented that the production of Titus Andronicus in the Swan Theatre in 1987 was “the most interesting thing I’ve ever done … Continue reading

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Round the globe with Much Ado About Nothing

What are we learning from the World Shakespeare Festival? A few weeks ago Sonia Massai headed a panel entitled Global Shakespeares. In her subsequent post on the RSC’s MyShakespeare site she says “‘Global Shakespeares’ can only be understood in relation … Continue reading

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Taming Petruchio

In his latest blog post, Stanley Wells has picked up on Michael Billington’s tweet about The Taming of the Shrew. Was he right, the critic asked, to suggest some thirty years ago that this play should be banned? How time … Continue reading

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Performance history and the critic: Michael Billington’s point of view

A week or so ago Michael Billington of the Guardian, the UK’s most respected theatre critic, and now on twitter @billicritic, wrote a piece about his job. He talked about the challenges of writing a piece that takes into account … Continue reading

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