Category: theatre

“Rising above the jumble of Georgian and medieval roofs of central Canterbury, a new structure is reaching completion. The Marlowe theatre, opening in October, is second only to the cathedral in height and rises almost in defiance of public sector cuts.

“I’ve had occasion to witness two fine actors giving highly theatrical performances – the kind in which you’re conscious of their working the stops and pedals of the instruments that are their bodies. And I was reminded that for certain roles, a touch of the phony is just what’s needed to create an illusion of authenticity.”

“A $16 million musical production of Rebecca, based on the classic 1938 novel by Daphne du Maurier, has been scaled down to a budget of about $12 million – largely thanks to the loss of a collapsing staircase special effect – and is now on track for Broadway.”

“The Dinner Exchange is an ethical supper club that aims to raise awareness about food waste in the UK. Their latest project saw them taking over the studio space at the Arcola theatre, and on Sunday night a group of diners were invited to a banquet on the set of Alex Crampton’s production of A Doll’s House, the venue’s current production.”

“As his … Anne Boleyn, a drama of Henry VIII’s reign, returns to [Shakespeare’s] Globe, Howard Brenton recalls how it all started with his father’s argument with a butcher.”

“Something extraordinary is happening on the London stage this summer. A few of the most resonant new plays to come around in quite a while also happen to be antiques.”

Constance, about a loyal wife not unlike the author’s own spouse (whose name was Constance), was the only play Wilde completed after his release from prison and subsequent exile. The English original evidently did not survive World War II; the current version is retranslated from a French version published in 1954.

“What kind of deranged people watch The Silence Of The Lambs and think: That would make a killer musical? These people: Jon and Al Kaplan, a pair of brothers from New York with a droll sense of humor who work perfectly together, like fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

The sentos of Tokyo – where people go “to observe the time-honoured ritual of soaking in frighteningly hot water” – are beginning to fade away: the city has fewer than half the bathhouses it had 40 years ago. And fading along with them is the traditional art of painting murals in the soaking rooms depicting Mount Fuji.

Ben Brantley: “For centuries, [an] overwrought approach was widely considered great acting and frequently rewarded with prizes. (Just check the list of Oscar winners over the years.) Such performances, after all, are as dramatic as all get-out … What they don’t do, as a general rule, is lure you into the mind of the afflicted character.”