Having Recently won the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, Natasha Gordon has enjoyed critical acclaim with her thought provoking debut show, Nine Night.
Having Recently won the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, Natasha Gordon has enjoyed critical acclaim with her thought provoking debut show, Nine Night.
Project Manager Alex Turner has overseen the preparations for this year’s TheatreCraft. An event aimed at those aged 16 to 30 looking to learn more about theatre disciplines off stage, the initiative will see industry professionals give talks and workshops, as well as a careers fair at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel offering attendees the chance to meet some of the UK’s leading theatres, companies and education providers. Read on to find out more about this year’s event.
In a lonely desert, away from everyone and everything else, a person waits. A punishment for killing his father, Mavuso has been awarded a unique deal – to sit outside a prison, and stare at it until he decides that his reconciliation is over. There is nothing keeping him there, yet he remains. Trapped by his own sense of moral compass, he has become a prisoner to life.
Eugene Ionesco, arguably one of Theatre of the Absurd’s greats, is receiving his first National Theatre staging in Exit the King, adapted and directed by Patrick Marber.
In three hours three extraordinary actors perform three acts. Ben Power’s magnificent adaptation of Stefano Massini’s epic novel follows the story of a family that made the one of the biggest impacts in America’s history. That same nation is still feeling the consequences of the brother’s actions today.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ satire of Dion Boucicault’s 19th Century play An Octoroon brings the audience to confront questions of race, labels about race and how we represent them in theatre both in the past and today.
Brian Friel‘s classic 1980 play, set in a Irish hedge school in 1830’s rural Donegal subtlely intertwines themes of language, culture and memory with well drawn characters and some deft dramatic devices. Ian Rickson’s simple yet expansive production for The National’s Olivier theatre skillfully illuminates this well trodden masterpiece of British playwriting, offering an engaging, resonant and well rounded theatrical experience.
There’s a definite magic beaming from the Dorfman Theatre. The space has played host to a variety of wonderful productions in recent months, which have put many underexplored stories onto the big stage, and Natasha Gordon’s debut play continues this trend. Following the death of Gloria, the family prepare for the usual nine-night wake. Consecutive evenings of food, family visits, music and mourning take place, and as each day passes, the family’s personal endurance is tested to the limit.
Following a succesful run at The National in 2016, Michael Longhurst‘s production of Peter Schaffer‘s Amadeus returns with a high level of fanfare. Having missed it first time around, I arrive with few expectations, my only familiarity with this play being Milos Foreman‘s 1985 film adaptation.
A lifeless block of wood turns into a living being – A talking cricket acts as a conscious – A wishing star doubles as a beautiful fairy – And a monstrous whale swallows half of the company. This could only be a Disney story. But it’s not your traditional fairy tale that often occupies the family-centred company’s creations. There’s no princess that needs saving from a fire breathing monster; no, this story is instead based on a puppet who longs to be a real boy – whose nose grows longer each time a new lie is told.