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Tag Archives: National Theatre
Live streaming Shakespeare during lockdown
It’s spring 2020 and many of us are confined to home in social isolation during the Coronavirus pandemic. With theatres, museums, galleries and cinemas closed, cultural organisations have been quick to announce initiatives to keep people entertained and educated. I’m … Continue reading
Sir Simon Russell Beale
I was delighted to hear, a few weeks ago, that actor Simon Russell Beale has been awarded a knighthood. I’ve always enjoyed seeing him on stage and television, in particular watching him taking on many of Shakespeare’s most challenging roles. … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Simon Russell Beale, Swan Theatre
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The Old Vic at 200
11 May 2018 is the 200th anniversary of the opening of one of the most important theatres in the UK, known as the Old Vic. It was originally named the Royal Coburg Theatre, after Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and his … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged Lilian Baylis, London, Matthew Warchus, National Theatre, Old Vic, theatre
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2018: The Year of Macbeth
Macbeth is known as Shakespeare’s unluckiest play. For generations it has been referred to by the superstitious as “The Scottish Play” because even speaking its name inside the theatre could bring down disaster. There are many stories of accidents and … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged Anne-Marie Duff, Astor Place riots, Christopher Eccleston, film, Jonathan McGuinness, Katy Stephens, Kit Monkman, Macbeth, National Production Company, National Theatre, Niamh Cusack, opera, Out of Chaos, Phyllida Lloyd, Polly Findlay, Rory Kinnear, RSC, Rufus Norris, Tobacco Factory, Verdi
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New Year’s Honours for Shakespeare
At the beginning of 2017 the New Year’s Honours List was published in which the great and the good were recognised for their services. Following the successful 2016 Rio Olympics it was inevitable that many of those honoured would be … Continue reading
Black Shakespeare: Paapa Essiedu from Hamlet to Edmund
On 13 August it was the last performance of the latest production of Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford. Every production of this play is notable, but particularly this time because Hamlet was played by a man of … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare on Stage, Stratford-upon-Avon
Tagged Black Theatre Live, British Black and Asian Performance Daatabase, British Black and Asian Shakespeare, Gregory Doran, Hamlet, Jami Rogers, Janet Suzman, Jeffery Kissoon, King Lear, National Theatre, Paapa Essiedu, Royal Shakespeare Company, Sam Troughton, Simon Russell Beale, Sir Antony Sher, Vaneshran Arumugam
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Harley Granville Barker, Shakespeare and the theatre
25 November is the birthday of the great man of the theatre, Harley Granville Barker. Barker was born in 1877 and in 2009 Richard Eyre proclaimed him his hero and “the father of modern British theatre”. Barker’s talents were many. … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged Harley Granville Barker, National Theatre, Richard Eyre, Royal Court Theatre, Savoy Theatre, William Poel
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Shakespearean dark ladies, George Bernard Shaw and the National Theatre
Everybody loves a mystery, and one of the most persistent is the identity of Shakespeare’s so-called Dark Lady. (It’s by no means certain that there ever was such a person).I wrote a couple of years ago about this story, particularly as … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy
Tagged Dark Lady, Emilia Lanier, George Bernard Shaw, John Hudson, Mary Fitton, National Theatre
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Remembering the days of Empire: The Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre Ball, 1911
The years leading up to the First World War saw interest in Shakespeare reaching a high. In Stratford there were events relating to the rise in folk traditions of singing and dancing, but in London the movement to found a … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy
Tagged Earl's Court, Edwin Lutyens, Marie Corelli, Michael Dobson, National Theatre, pageant, Royal Albert Hall, Shakespeare Exhibition, Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre Ball
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Remembering Sir Laurence Olivier
Friday 11 July 2014 is the 25th anniversary of Laurence Olivier’s death in 1989. By chance I was in the RST that evening and before the performance artistic director Terry Hands delivered an onstage tribute to Olivier. At the end … Continue reading