Simon Ward reviews A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Southwark Playhouse Borough Since the turn of the millennium, Southwark Playhouse has been re-imagining the great works of the Shakespearean canon to create versions which can engage younger audiences, with the aim of bewitching them with the power of […]
Simon Ward reviews Romeo and Juliet – The Hate Story at the Hen and Chickens Theatre Directed by Annie Araba, this is the debut play of Brazilian writer-performer-producer Lucas Luan Lima. He and co-star George Bird play Romeo and Juliet, plus a number of the other characters familiar […]
Simon Ward reviews LIV:Sapphic Shakespeare at the Old Red Lion Theatre Showing as part of the Camden Fringe, which is running at various venues around London until 24th August, this is clearly a labour of love for writer/producer/actor Tanieth Kerr. Directed by Katy Livsey, it is a re-imagining […]
Simon Ward reviews Julius Caesar at the Hen and Chickens Theatre In this urgent and compelling interpretation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Anna Blackburn has created a nerve-shredding production of great power. A well-drilled cast of four brilliantly rises to the challenge of inhabiting all the roles this play […]
Simon Ward reviews English Kings Killing Foreigners at Camden People’s Theatre What is it with theatre makers and audience participation these days? Here it’s of the gentlest, even ironic, kind. I have a vivid memory of the late Anthony Sher bringing the house down as he descended into […]
Shakespeare ReFASHIONed is a series of events at Selfridges which mark the 400th anniversary of The Bard’s death, with the focal point being a performance of Much Ado. The collaboration is an intriguing idea, in many ways Selfridges – frequent winner of the accolade ‘The Best Department Store […]
Hamlet Part II is one of a trilogy of parodies by Perry Pontac called ‘Codpieces’. On the evidence of this evening’s offering, I will be eagerly seeking out the other two parts. The opening funereal music is abruptly interrupted, as in a ‘problem’ play, by the arrival of […]
I have never been to a production of Shakespeare where the wonderful words of the great Bard himself are so entirely irrelevant as in Shit-Faced Shakespeare. Lights go down, plastic wine caps are unscrewed (classy theatre goers that we are) and we eagerly await a play which has […]
Titus isn’t renowned as Shakespeare’s greatest play, although it is his goriest. With fourteen deaths, a live burial and some rape and cannibalism thrown in for good measure it’s more than likely to unsettle the audience. The gory story follows the Roman general, Titus Andronicus, who has returned […]
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