Category: theatre

“With naked torsos shining, artists Daniel Kok and Luke George slowly, carefully, bind each other in rope. They string themselves – and later audience members – from the ceiling, like colourful trussed chickens. … [Their piece] Bunny explores the ancient Japanese knot-tying technique of shibari, but also taps into bondage and rock climbing.”

“What distinguishes [its] intricate, erudite brand of improvisation is not that every show is new (which it is), but how the plots, themes and language are deeply rooted in a specific aesthetic. It makes the shows meatier than most improvisation, if less wildly unpredictable.”

Lyn Gardner: “The uncomfortable fact [is] that while there is a significant amount of colour-blind casting in Shakespeare, black and Asian actors seldom get a chance to take the significant roles. … In the case of more substantial roles, some particularly appear to be earmarked for minority casting: the nurse in Romeo and Juliet being an obvious one.”

When he arrived back in his home town in 1999 to take up the artistic directorship at the Citadel, it wasn’t failing but its lustre had dimmed and audience enthusiasm had dwindled. “Forging an idea out of Phoenix, resuscitating CanStage, then reinventing the Citadel, twice.”

Producer Scott Rudin “There has not been a new production in 50 years. Partly it was the difficulty of who could play Dolly. It had to be someone who could take it to a different level. Bette is the only one who can. Never has there been something more inevitable than her in this role.”

“The juggernaut that is ‘Hamilton,’ the acclaimed hip-hop musical, has created a demand for tickets so high that busy counterfeiters seem to have found a fresh opportunity to trick not only unsuspecting tourists but even New Yorkers like the ones above. Fake tickets show up at the door almost daily.”

Ismaël Saïdi’s “story of three hapless young men who find themselves launched from a park bench in Brussels to the killing fields of Syria has become a sensation, going from an initially scheduled five performances to more than 100 now, with dozens more planned.”

“Here, the trio” – Brian d’Arcy James, Jonathan Groff, and Andrew Rannells – “explain what it’s like to play George, how they developed their own interpretations, and how heavy the head wearing the crown actually is.”

The British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database details the casts of 1,189 Shakespearean productions dating back to 1930. “Anecdotally, we’ve talked about it, but seeing it in that official way is a reassurance that we’re not imagining our ghettoisation into the more minor roles.”