Category: theatre

In the two companies’ co-production of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, six RSC actors are rehearsing the Greek characters and scenes under the direction of Mark Ravenhill, while Liz LeCompte’s high-tech, experimental New York group prepares the Trojan parts.

Gregory Doran, director of the RSC’s new Julius Caesar: “Then you look at African history over the past 50 years … The sequence frequently is of leaders coming to power on a wave of popularity, pulling power to themselves in a one-party state, feeling that they have to seize control. Then, that being followed by a military coup which is followed itself by a much worse dictator and then, possibly, civil war. That’s Julius Caesar:you’re describing.”

At the Habima Theatre’s London performances of The Merchant of Venice, “spectators were met with airport-style security, advance notices of ‘conditions of entry’ and a note by the box office informing patrons that missiles, among other items, would not be allowed into one of London’s most beloved theatrical addresses.” (Protesters managed to interrupt the show briefly nevertheless.)

“Broadway musicals and plays had another record-setting season at the box office, grossing a total of $1.139 billion … Revenues increased at a faster rate than theater-going because several Broadway producers have raised the prices of so-called premium tickets.”

“Security around the Globe to Globe Festival escalated last night, to put it mildly, when Habima, the National Theatre of Israel, presented The Merchant of Venice. These precautions are hardly surprising, given the controversy aroused by the decision to invite Habima to participate in the international Bard-binge. Nor were the peaceful, heavily policed protests outside.”

“Equity has agreed to engage with its critics after warnings that the union is seen as ‘stuffy, ineffective, disconnected, impotent’ by some parts of the industry. The West End Deputies’ Committee… said that the hostility derived partly from ‘perceived weaknesses’ of the union’s dealings with the Society of London Theatre.”

“During that time, more than four million patient theatergoers have waited in line to see a potent mix of raw talent, seasoned stage veterans and Hollywood imports do battle against the Central Park fauna, the occasional helicopter and the more than occasional thunderstorm to perform the classics free.” Delacorte vets – from Jerry Stiller to Meryl Streep to Liev Schreiber to longtime stage manager Buzz Cohen – look back.

During the Delacorte’s 50-year history, millions of people – and more than a few wild animals – have watched Shakespeare and other classics in Central Park. Liev Schreiber: “I used to think we were competing with the sunset and the rain and the animals and the helicopters and the wind and the muggings. But … the setting is really the star of the show.”

Ashleigh Wilson, on Douglas Day Stewart’s attack on The Australian‘s critic for panning his musical An Officer and a Gentleman: “And some say theatre critics no longer have the power to provoke.”

James Millar: “Suck it up, buddy. She just didn’t like it.”