A Small Mind At The Theatre

I am personally all about making Shakespeare accessible, I take the Emma Rice line, that many were not keen on, that after a few hundred years, it's perhaps worthy of mixing it up a bit to make it more meaningful to a modern audience. I have a feeling the man himself would have no qualms about seeing his classic Hamlet transposed into a garish multi-coloured world, set in a much more hip place. The Denmark that we see here and that is still referenced, is now very much an African country, and not just because of the heavy black actor casting, this is all about a style and a carnival feeling to many of the scenes. Music is provided by tribal-like drums, and characters stalk the scenes carrying handguns and rifles, bringing a modern feeling to the conflict as well. This is certainly not the "rotten state of Denmark" that most Shakespeare aficionados are familiar with. Characters are changed drastically as we have more cocksure, swaggering, modern feeling to the ...

It is possibly a rule in life for a few in the audience for the opening night of Sam Holcroft's domestic comedy Rules For Living not to mention Christmas until December. Therefore anyone of such a persuasion might have been a little perturbed to be presented on the 13th September with, an undeniably brilliantly dressed, homely Christmas scene. Opening up in glorious dollhouse style and on a gorgeous little hinge, this little home of living room and kitchen sets the scene for a typical family Christmas. Mother Edith (Jane Booker) welcomes her sons, Matthew (Jolyon Coy) and Adam (Ed Hughes) and their respective partners, Carrie (Carlyss Peer) and Nicole (Laura Rogers) And with a final dramatic arrival of father Francis (Paul Shelley), the scene is very much set for comic antics of the highest calibre. The first thing you get from Rules For Living in the first few minutes is the arrival of one of the most brilliant, yet simple concepts I have seen for a while in the play. Thes...

Regeneration,  adapted for the stage by Nicholas Wright, forms the final and centrepiece of the Royal & Derngate's programme to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. Based on Pat Barker's 1991 novel, it tells the story of several characters experiences in Craiglockhart Hospital following being immobilised for various reasons from the trenches.  Among  these are notable real-life characters such as the highly decorated war poet Siegfried Sassoon, his doctor Captain Rivers and Sassoon's fellow poet Wilfred Owen. Of these three characters, Stephen Boxer as Rivers is by far the stronger performance, giving a sentimental and caring portrayal with more than a hint of humour in his delivery. As Sassoon and Owen, Tim Delap and Garmon Rhys respectively, they have less to do in their somewhat and surprising one dimensional characters on stage. They only really feel solid characters when they are together on stage,...