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With classic literature like Shakespeare, it can be difficult to provide a new outlook that gives age-old plays new meaning. As seen in the 2010 film adaption of Macbeth, which is set in the Soviet Union, it is not uncommon for directors to take creative liberties in order to retell stories in unique and original […]
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A climactic scene in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra ends with the lovers draped atop an Egyptian monument: one royal dead, one soon to be. Iqbal Khan’s Royal Shakespeare Company staging took this monumental image, and superimposed it on the entire production. It was a show of epic proportions, from its set of stately grandeur to […]
Continue ReadingWhat was the first show you directed, and why did you decide to pursue directing as a career? The first show I directed was Frank McGuiness’ ‘Someone who’ll watch over me’; and before that I both directed and starred in Hedda Gabler for the Oxford Theatre Group. Being both the lead and directing turned […]
Continue ReadingRichard II is shadowed by a crushing and overwhelming feeling of loss. Ethereal sopranos sing a chilling lament, the widowed Duchess of Gloucester howls from behind tear-stained cheeks, and the members of the court march in funereally. It is this sense of grief and decline that hangs like a spectre over the rest of the […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ The stage for Tarell Alvin McCraney’s production of Antony and Cleopatra looks like a typical antiquated space: creamy-toned Corinthian columns, white marble on the floor, a blue sea suggested at the back of the stage … However, McCraney instead set the play in 1790s Haiti during the Revolutionary period. Cleopatra and her Egyptian subjects […]
Continue ReadingYou may be surprised to learn that the future of theatre is unknown: “I don’t know what the future of theatre will be; you can leave now.” This suggestion of Sir Michael Boyd’s fell upon deaf ears, and we remained, attentive. Despite Sir Michael admitting to his failing as a mystic, as the new Cameron […]
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