Category: theatre

“La Vie d’artiste, originally published in a small Algerian journal in February, 1953, was recently collected in the fourth and final volume of the Pléiade edition of Albert Camus’s complete works. The play … stands out as the only of Camus’s works in which the written words were not intended to be seen or heard by an audience.”

“Now that legal obstacles concerning ousted director Julie Taymor are officially settled, producers of Spider-Man are launching new versions of the musical, including a Las Vegas arena production, a touring arena show and a production in Germany.”

“For nearly two centuries, scholars have debated whether some 325 lines in the 1602 quarto edition of Thomas Kyd’s play The Spanish Tragedy were, in fact, written by Shakespeare. … But now, a professor at the University of Texas says he has found something closer to definitive proof using a more old-fashioned method: analyzing Shakespeare’s messy handwriting.”

“One of the downsides of our ascendant era of writerly TV drama — wherein networks are constantly luring away playwrights with big checks — is that new plays by young authors now often feel more like spec treatments or screenplays than juicy dramas for the stage.”

“Rejecting the free-for-all spirit of many fringe festivals, it fields about 850 applications a year and has always winnowed them by jury.”

The line was about racial profiling…

“In responding to Hedy’s review I am contesting neither her assessment of the play nor our production of it. I am contesting her support for racial profiling.”

“This is The Tragedy of Coriolanus by Lin Zhaohua, routinely described as China’s most controversial theatre director. First performed in 2007, it is big in every sense: there’s a cast of more than 100, and the action takes place on a near-empty stage against a vast, blood-red brick wall.”

“Despite indigenous Australians and those from a culturally diverse background numbering 7.3 million and making up 34 per cent of the population, last year only 13 per cent of plays produced were by writers reflecting that.”

Playwrights Kieran Hurley and A.J. Taudevin talk about Chalk Farm, which got raves during a brief run in Glasgow last year and is just opening in Edinburgh.