Category: theatre

Using a revival of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem as a hook, Michael Billington offers his choice of the best stage dramas written and produced in the UK since that play’s 2009 premiere. (He includes a couple that didn’t go down nearly as well when they made it to the States.) Let the arguing begin!

“On Tuesday, Theatre Philadelphia, which administers the Barrymores, announced it was switching to gender-neutral awards. Instead of a best actor and best actress, there will now be awards for best performance in categories that used to be gender specific, and two awards will be given.”

Leigh Goldenberg: “Theatre Philadelphia now recognizes a change like this one is more than just about nomenclature, and is certainly more than a question about language or even about a shiny statue handed to a select few. It’s about who we lift up and who we leave out in the process.”

Sarah Berger, who directed the first-ever Kyrgyz translation of “the Scottish play” at Kyrgyzstan’s national theatre: “I worked with 30 Kyrgyz actors who spoke no English. I don’t speak Russian or Kyrgyz. To add to the mix, I took two British actors with me, Claire Cartwright and Steve Hay, who performed in English with the rest of the cast speaking Kyrgyz. … There was also a fully Kyrgyz performance that was filmed and screened on state TV. So I had to deliver three different versions of the production in just over three weeks, as we performed four premieres with the cast variations.”

It is far too soon to say the curtain is coming down on regional theatre, which over the last 35 years has proved resilient despite commentators continuing to write its obituary. But as Jonathan Church observed in The Stage last week, there are warning signs ahead, including the report of a drop in regional theatre attendance.

If empirical data can prove the arts positively impact biomechanical function, perhaps connections can be drawn to the indispensability of theatre as an art form. But is there another level of inquiry that can be engaged simultaneously, and in complement, with this scientific, top-down approach? If one has a tree whose branches are in ill health and whose leaves are withering, one’s first impulse might be to treat the leaves and branches. Another might be to look at its roots.

“[The original] production — which starred the unlikely combo of Jean Arthur as Peter and Boris Karloff as Captain Hook — closed in 1951 after a respectable 321 performances, but then essentially disappeared. … According to most sources, Bernstein was originally commissioned to compose only instrumentals, but became so enamored with the play he volunteered songs, for which he also penned the lyrics. Unfortunately, there was a hitch: Jean Arthur wasn’t much of a singer. This is likely the reason only Wendy and Hook have solos.”

Jamie Beddard, who’s playing Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man at Bristol Old Vic: “‘Blacking up’ has been consigned to history, while ‘cripping up’ remains de rigueur, and is often a shortcut to industry [awards]. The list of excuses for such lazy and offensive casting is pitiful. … I have expended far too much time and energy debating the problem with ‘cripping up’. But it is particularly pertinent to The Elephant Man, with its themes of the fear of difference, the gaze of others, medical and spiritual intervention, the interplay of pity and empathy, and how we reflect ourselves in others.”

Shakespeare’s Rose, which opens on Monday and has cost £3m, is Europe’s first “pop-up” Shakespearean theatre. The Bard “would totally recognise it”, according to producer James Cundall. The temporary theatre has been built in a car park in 28 days to a circular design, similar to those erected on Bankside in Shakespeare’s day.

Andrzej Lukowski: “The last 25 years of American theater looks close to a lost quarter century.”