In a word this play is sublime. It’s so much about what great theatre is all about and goes down like a crowd-pleasing plate of soul food. It is distinctly black and rich enough for all to enjoy.
In a word this play is sublime. It’s so much about what great theatre is all about and goes down like a crowd-pleasing plate of soul food. It is distinctly black and rich enough for all to enjoy.
After the first Theatre & Technology Awards took place last October at the Bush Theatre, preparations are now underway for this year’s awards. This year’s event will take place on Sunday 21st October 2018, the venue will be confirmed later on this year.
Matthias Lilienthal had a difficult start as Artistic Director of the Kammerspiele. His appointment was met with open hostility and several actors soon left his ensemble because they supposedly did not like Lilienthal’s kind of theatre. I was following the controversy in the press whilst I was still living in London. Last year, however, two Kammerspiele productions received invitations to the Berliner Theatertreffen. This year, Susanne Kennedy’s The Virgin Suicides and Christoph Marthaler’s Tiefer Schweb were invited to the Wiener Festwochen. Only recently, actor Wiebke Puls was awarded the 3sat gong (3sat is a German TV station) for her performance in the Kammerspiele production Trommeln in der Nacht. By inviting directors Philippe Quesne, Toshiki Okada, and Amir Reza Koohestani to the Kammerspiele, Matthias Lilienthal has made the theatre truly international. But obviously that still was not good enough for the conservative party CSU who voted against extending Lilienthal’s contract (a decision that has to be made by the city council). Therefore, Matthias Lilienthal will leave Munich in summer 2020.
Accessories are worn to either compliment or accentuate a simple outfit, they can either be decorative or have significant meaning. The headwrap is a significant piece of clothing, it is more than an accessory, a staple within many cultures, particularly within African culture. The beauty of the headwrap lies within its simplicity in that it starts life as a beautiful piece of material, however it embodies a complexity with its elaborate patterns and the multiple manners in which it can be folded and crafted to create stand out looks.
A sudden symphonic blast quenches the bright chandeliers and the muffled murmuring of the excited audience in the stalls. Then a dismayed silence, soon followed by another thunderous roar of strings responding to the passionate baton of conductor Christoph Altstaedt. It is astonishing how a hurriedly scribbled sheet of notes – inked rapidly on a stave by a gifted Salzburgian lad on the same day of the premiere of his opera – can bewitch a whole theatre, promising to take you on a journey of both laughter and horror. A grumbling faithful servant, a mysterious seductive nobleman, a not so sincere fiancée and an impulsive murder are the starting ingredients to bake the most delicious and libidinous cake you’ll ever taste – anyone fancy a bit of Don Giovanni?
Discontent with the prospect of being incredibly respected and knowledable, due mainly to his studious nature, Faustus seeks more, he seeks a fountain of knowledge all of those around him would envy. Fuelled by greed, Faustus practises the dark arts; signaling the beginning of the end as he sells his soul to the devil.
‘That’s life, that’s politics’. Where is your red line set when it comes to Labour versus Conservative, are you in or are you out? 1974, the ruling party holds on by a thread, infighting and backbiting as Britain’s political parties battle to change the future of the nation. A commentary on politics of the past, but presented with a modern relevance and current political persuasion.
Music is an alternate language, a language that all of us interpret within our own individual ways. Whether it’s that ear worm of a song that you can’t seem to escape from, no matter what you do, that movie soundtrack that captures the mood of the world established or that soundtrack of songs that have gone on to define certain moments within your living memory, there’s no doubt the power music holds within society and with this, WoLab’s latest project, PlayList draws inspiration.
Rufus Norris‘ Macbeth, his first Shakespeare in 25 years, brings together National Theatre stalwarts Ann Marie Duff and Rory Kinnear as the doomed central couple. Unfortunatly Norris’ audacious interpretation is hobbled by confounding direction and a strangely vague sense of the world it inhabits.
Carey Mulligan performs a Dennis Kelly script, under Lyndsey Turner’s direction. I’ll just let that sentence sink in for a moment. It sounds brilliant, right? Well it is, and this dream offering from the Royal Court does not disappoint.