Category: theatre

“Equity is calling for the right to launch employment tribunal cases on behalf of members who have been underpaid, claiming individuals are too ‘afraid of damaging their employment prospects’ by taking action themselves.”

“There they go again, stealing the spotlight from their cowed and embittered progeny, the unforgivable but unforgettable monsters Mom and Dad. These Freudian demons have been showing up all over the place for ages, in recurring nightmares, best-selling memoirs and novels and, perhaps most deliciously, on the stage.”

“At a pivotal moment in Lysistrata Jones, a musical comedy about basketball and sex that is coming to Broadway next month, the title character has to make a layup on the stage-turned-court.”

Alexandra Coghlan: “We are, as we’re forever being reminded, the iPod generation – restless and easily bored, seeking our fulfilment in snack-size portions. By rights this should be the era of the short play, our theatres filled not with three-hour Shakespeare but with more immediate, quick-fix theatrical highs, and there are signs that things are changing.”

“Government planning proposals would put theatres at risk of being redeveloped into commercial properties if the scheme is implemented, Arts Council England has warned.”

“The play on which the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech was based will receive its world premiere in the UK next year. David Seidler originally wrote [the script] as a play before he adapted it into a film starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter in 2010.”

“This attitude … seems to rest on the assumption that the customer is always right. But audience members aren’t customers in the ordinary sense. … More broadly, there’s an assumption that any response to the theatre is a valid response. This is fine until you put any pressure on the word ‘valid’.”

Michael Billington: “In so doing, one denies oneself the possibility of a change of heart.” (He says he should know.)

“Described as a ‘live installation with edible interludes’, writer/director Ali Zaidi’s show” – Journeys of Love and More Love – “unfolds before audiences seated at tables as he transforms his personal story into a universal one through video, live performance and food.”

“Commercial producers and Arts Council England are lobbying the government to introduce US-style tax relief that would allow theatre investors to write off losses against income tax.”