Tag: theatre

"I didn’t sit back and enjoy the show. And I ended up with a lot more opinions than I had ever expected four pieces of 21st-century choreography to evoke." Patrick Gwillim Thomas discusses the Royal Opera House's newest choreography project.

"The Arnolfini Portrait was an intricate, sophisticated project with a controlled yet bold execution. Every element of sound was carefully considered, and I took great satisfaction in being guided along Jean’s journey through the various mediums of sound." Beth Ranasinghe reviews the audio production of "The Arnolfini Portrait" by The Industry Magazine Podcast.

"The lack of interaction prescribed by the online format forbids conversation between Lana and her audience, a blockage that’s mirrored by the cited words’ failure to offer clarity on Lana’s lost life events". Eleanor Zhang reviews the online production of These Quicker Elements.

"The intense and nuanced performances, the queasy mix of fear and fury palpable with a small glimmer of hope, made Oxford’s Orestes a very capturing play." Marietta Kosma reviews The Oxford Greek Play's production of Euripides' tragedy "Orestes".

"These Quicker Elements is a remarkably polished piece of student drama. The acting is captivating throughout, managing to make a very simple set-up consistently captivating, and the script strategically reveals little gems of narrative information throughout its twists and turns while also speaking to bigger questions of memory, self-perception, and relationship dynamics." Ahead of its performance on Friday, 7th May, Katie Kirkpatrick previews "These Quicker Elements" by George Rushton.

"Adapting to online technology was a necessity but I also felt that recent events provided a long-due kick in the backside to get narratives about Black experiences into the Oxford drama scene. Sure, we have ‘inclusive casting’, but this inclusivity isn’t currently extending into the voices being produced as far as it should." James Newbery interviews Sam Spencer about his upcoming project.

"Musicals centred around teenagers are destined to become ‘cult’ shows: their audience is intrinsically niche, and, due to their youth, unlikely to be able to sustain commercially and critically successful runs, leading these shows to fan-centric cult status." Katie Kirkpatrick analyses how teen films are journeying from Hollywood to Broadway and the West End.

"To adapt such a complex series into a musical would be to severely undermine the weight of each of these topics and in turn, the production would do no justice to the character of Beth Harmon and the communities she represents." Beth Ranasinghe considers the obstacles in the path of adapting the hit Netflix show for the musical stage.

While actors profit from an ability to be malleable, it is often the case that they are stuck playing the roles they are ‘right...

"Why stage Romeo and Juliet a year into a global pandemic? Godwin’s primary response to the pandemic appears to be the focus on touch in the production: it reminds us of the power of human contact, and the depth of feeling that can only be experienced in person." Katie Kirkpatrick reviews the new National Theatre production of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.

"In Being Mr Wickham, Lukis and Curzon have had relatively free reign to develop the titular character, given that Austen doesn’t reveal much about Wickham’s past other than his involvement with Darcy." Beth Proctor discusses the latest left-field adaptation of Jane Austen's classic.

"In a year with little to no available theatrical resources, the production team of Spoon River managed to create a magical experience of many intersecting forms of artistic talent telling important stories. From the editing of the audio file to the curation of the journal, the performance flowed seamlessly from sense to sense."

This is a strength of the performance: with a range of experiences of grief explored by a variety of composers and librettists, no one singular experience is presented, but instead the performance looks at the nuances of the emotions of grieving.

Magic lends itself well to the online format. It is a play of voices, of witty exchanges and mystifying, unseen events. The audience is called on to construct the setting from their imagination, inspired by the actors and the sound effects, resulting in a final product which is a collaboration between players and listeners.