Category: theatre

“At Stratford, not only are there more female directors (five out of 12) than at any other time in recent memory, but performances like those of Lucy Peacock and Seana McKenna in last year’s Mary Stuart prove that this is a company where strong women take pride of place.”

“Members of the 18-strong cast, creative team and crew of The Ultimate Show are claiming they are collectively owed about £80,000 in unpaid wages and expenses.” The tour had been expected to last up to two years – until three performances this winter sold a total of 16 seats.

“Philadelphia philanthropists Ralph and Suzanne Roberts may provide a gift that could resolve the Philadelphia Theatre Company’s financial struggle, but first, they have asked for help in determining whether the company is viable.”

And the Engineer will be played by an Asian actor this time around.

A clutch of successful productions are – in outlook, approaches to staging, and sometimes even choice of directors – finally bringing serious theatre in the British capital toward dialogue with its counterparts on the Continent. Yet, argues Andrew Haydon, there’s still some distance to go, especially in presenting new European plays in translation.

“Having paid for your seat, having promised yourself a special evening, and finding yourself sitting in the middle of a long row beside others who have also paid and promised themselves a special evening, others whom you imagine have similar interests to your own, people willing to spend time and money supporting avant-garde culture, a community almost—in these circumstances you are probably always going to hang on at least thirty minutes, however bewildered and sceptical you may be.”

“Cinema has no trouble evoking a world that exists beyond the borders of the film frame. Tom Sutcliffe, in his book Watching, describes the moment when the vast spacecraft whooshes into view during the opening shot of Star Wars as the revelation of the “unseen off-screen”. Most theatre struggles in my experience to conjure an equivalent sense of expanse.”

In an essay, the playwright revisits the outcry in the U.S. over the “yellowface” casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian character in the hit musical, explains how his thoughts about cross-racial casting have evolved, and confesses to the lie he told Cameron Mackintosh.

The bright red 220-seat pop-up space outside the dull grey Southbank Centre was planned as a one-year project, but it’s been so popular that they’re keeping it until 2017. But the National only licensed the name “The Shed” (which belongs to a small venue in Yorkshire) through last month. What’ll they call it now?

“With its copyright on the diaries of Anne Frank approaching expiration in many countries by 2016, the [Anne Frank Foundation] commissioned what it hopes will be a permanent production that can travel to other countries.” Controversy has ensued, of course – including rivalry between the Swiss-based Foundation and the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, where the play has premiered.