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Topic: Features
The new items published under this topic are as follows.Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 09:54 AM
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - 01:50 AM
It wasn’t hard to estimate the Saturday night stalls crowd at Northampton’s Royal Theatre for the final performance there of Arthur Schnitzler’s Liebelei in a production by Luc Bondy of David Harrower’s English version, called Sweet Nothings.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 02:01 AM
Northampton expands the repertory with O’Neill’s long journey and Tennessee Williams on the unkindness of families.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 - 05:20 AM
Hazel Kyte shows all aboard needn't be bored.
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Posted by : RodDungate on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 02:23 PM
Playwrights - and what they get up to in private.
I have just finished reviewing David Edgar’s excellent book on How Plays Work. Reviewing this book has focused my thinking on a word - the noun that describes the activity of writing plays.
Rod Dungate explores a linguistic anomaly in the world of writing plays . . .
I have just finished reviewing David Edgar’s excellent book on How Plays Work. Reviewing this book has focused my thinking on a word - the noun that describes the activity of writing plays.
Rod Dungate explores a linguistic anomaly in the world of writing plays . . .
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Monday, August 31, 2009 - 10:40 PM
Rupert Bridgewater takes on the challenge of unnatural selection for the short-term Fringe visitor.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 03:59 PM
“Just Between Ourselves,,,”, “Man of the Moment…” and “Private Fears in Public Places” – the titles of the Alan Ayckbourn plays being performed this summer in Northampton somehow express the playwright’s diverse worlds: intimate conversation, headline declaration and a sociological thesis-heading. All come, of course, with laughs but they have their darker sides too. As the season reaches its climax Timothy Ramsden meets Laurie Sansom, Artistic Director at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate Theatre and former Ayckbourn associate, who put the season together.
Read on . . .
Read on . . .
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 12:51 AM
Hazel Kyte in the USA and Canada.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Monday, May 25, 2009 - 11:32 AM
The Cut Halesworth Suffolk 27 April-10 May 2009.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Sunday, April 12, 2009 - 07:54 PM
NEW YORK ROUND UP; Spring 2009
Hazel Kyte’s further bites into Big Apple theatre.
Hazel Kyte’s further bites into Big Apple theatre.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Sunday, November 16, 2008 - 08:45 PM
Hazel Kyte rounds up old and new.
Cabaret world.
My principle reason for visiting a Big Apple filled with pre-election buzz and Hallowe’en was the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s l9th annual Cabaret Convention. Taking place over four nights at the Rose Theatre, home of Jazz at Lincoln Centre, this is a superb venue with prices from $25 to $100 per evening, fantastic value for two and a half hours of the best cabaret stars strutting their stuff.
Cabaret world.
My principle reason for visiting a Big Apple filled with pre-election buzz and Hallowe’en was the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s l9th annual Cabaret Convention. Taking place over four nights at the Rose Theatre, home of Jazz at Lincoln Centre, this is a superb venue with prices from $25 to $100 per evening, fantastic value for two and a half hours of the best cabaret stars strutting their stuff.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 01:57 AM
Between 3-6 April fourteen companies came together in the small Northumberland town of Alnwick to present and debate examples of the work they tour, mostly to rural settings. Timothy Ramsden reports.
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Posted by : RodDungate on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 08:53 AM
Music and Lyrics balance in the theatre.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, July 09, 2008 - 11:23 AM
Hazel Kyte on and beyond the Great White Way.
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Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 11:22 AM
When a theatre does like the Royal in Northampton, and revives a forgotten play, it becomes clear how stiflingly limited is so much of what’s seen on stage these days.
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Posted by : Geoff on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 09:48 PM
About to open at The Kings Head, Islington, Geoff Ambler spends a day watching this new production in rehearsals.
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Posted by : RodDungate on Friday, November 17, 2006 - 10:14 AM
RSC actor Harriet Walter puts together an intriguing photographic exhibition in the RSC Theatre, Stratford.
Harriet Walter is starring in Antony and Cleopatra with Patrick Stewart - sold out in Stratford and moving to the Novello Theatre, Aldwych in January. Here's information about a photographic exhibition she has put together - celebrating the beauty of the ageing face. It will run from 2 December till February 2007.
‘Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety’ Antony and Cleopatra
Harriet Walter is starring in Antony and Cleopatra with Patrick Stewart - sold out in Stratford and moving to the Novello Theatre, Aldwych in January. Here's information about a photographic exhibition she has put together - celebrating the beauty of the ageing face. It will run from 2 December till February 2007.
‘Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety’ Antony and Cleopatra
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Posted by : RodDungate on Friday, November 03, 2006 - 10:35 AM
Geoff Ambler completes his account of rehearsals for Follies at the Royal Theatre, Northampton.
He starts with the 'tech stuff' and completes his account with a note about the Press Night. Which is where Timothy Ramsden takes over - as ReviewsGate co-editor, he attended the press night to review the show.
Read on . . .
He starts with the 'tech stuff' and completes his account with a note about the Press Night. Which is where Timothy Ramsden takes over - as ReviewsGate co-editor, he attended the press night to review the show.
Read on . . .
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Posted by : RodDungate on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - 07:17 PM
Geoff continues with his account of Follies Rehearsals at the Royal Theatre, Northampton.
Here he is from days 19 - 22. Run throughs and first visits to the stage . . .
Here he is from days 19 - 22. Run throughs and first visits to the stage . . .
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Posted by : RodDungate on Monday, October 16, 2006 - 10:48 AM
Geoff Ambler continues his Fly-on-the-wall's eye view of the Follies Rehearsals at the Royal Theatre, Northampton . . . he has two more weeks to go.
His observations are in three parts. They are all held in the Features area of Reviewsgate.com; a unique record of a rehearsal process.
His observations are in three parts. They are all held in the Features area of Reviewsgate.com; a unique record of a rehearsal process.
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Posted by : RodDungate on Monday, October 09, 2006 - 10:20 AM
Les Misérables – Twenty-one years on and you can still hear the people sing.
ReviewsGate team member, Geoff Ambler, reports back on a very special theatre event. Read on . . .
ReviewsGate team member, Geoff Ambler, reports back on a very special theatre event. Read on . . .
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Posted by : RodDungate on Friday, October 06, 2006 - 10:55 AM
Geoff Ambler continues his observations of Follies rehearsals at the Royal Theatre, Northampton
Geoff, our Musical theatre man, is sitting in on rehearsals. He's giving us a unique step-by-step account.
Geoff, our Musical theatre man, is sitting in on rehearsals. He's giving us a unique step-by-step account.
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Posted by : RodDungate on Friday, October 06, 2006 - 10:05 AM
A new gem in the West Midlands theatre landscape
Rod Dungate attends the opening of a new Birmingham theatre space.
Rod Dungate attends the opening of a new Birmingham theatre space.
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Posted by : RodDungate on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 07:15 PM
Geoff Ambler FOLLIES Days 1 - 3
Geoff has been invited to attend all rehearsals in Northampton for the show. His fly-on-the-wall account gives an intriguing insight into preparations. Here's the start: days 1 - 3
Geoff has been invited to attend all rehearsals in Northampton for the show. His fly-on-the-wall account gives an intriguing insight into preparations. Here's the start: days 1 - 3
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Posted by : RodDungate on Thursday, March 02, 2006 - 10:30 AM
Stewart McGill looks back over the achievements of the Watermill's Jill Fraser and contemplates her lasting legacy.
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Posted by : Rod Dungate on Monday, September 12, 2005 - 11:32 AM
Rod Dungate speaks with Joe Harmston Chief Executive of an innovative new-writing company THE IDEAS FOUNDRY. What's innovative about it? 'It's a business' says Harmston.
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Posted by : Rod Dungate on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 10:20 AM
RSC HOSTS THE FIRST EVER FESTIVAL OF SHAKESPEARE'S COMPLETE WORKS IN
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
For more details of this enormous undertaking, read on . . .
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
For more details of this enormous undertaking, read on . . .
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Posted by : Rod Dungate on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 09:52 AM
Birmingham Rep inform us that they're going to produce a new musical featuring the songs of Birmingham based UB40. It's called PROMISES AND LIES and till be performed in 2006. The musical is the result of a collaboration with young writer, Jess Walters.
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Posted by : Rod Dungate on Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 12:01 PM
Maureen Lipman is going to Birmingham Rep in September to play the worst singer in the world! Peter Quilter's play about Florence Foster Jenkins premiers at the Rep 2nd September.
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Posted by : Timothy Ramsden on Sunday, January 23, 2005 - 11:14 PM
On 10 January, the Royal Court became one of the first London theatres to open its 2005 season, in the Theatre Upstairs, with a piece called Tim Fountain: Sex Addict. While this was undoubtedly spot-on in terms of the Trade Descriptions Act, it does seem to have limited qualities in some other departments. Mr Fountain, who has written several scripts and advised on many others, nightly recounts his, of necessity, one-night sexual encounter following the previous show.
He then proceeds to set up the next evening's (theatrical) performance by asking the audience to consider the offers made in real-time hits to his website and choose one for his next show's fodder. Alternatively, a member of the audience can propose themselves for this role.
Whether this is all as genuine as it seems has made at least one critic doubtful (though as Mr Fountain set up his own site after complaints from the established gay-site he'd previously used, some reality at least is suggested).
Leaving aside the potential argument between moralists who could surely be found to spout anything from homophobia to fears over AIDS etc. and folks who say a few dozen fun-lovers nightly should be allowed to have as much fun as they can, with or without their clothes on (not that the theatre itself becomes the scene of an orgy it's not that kind of royal court), there is the question of whether this is the best a new-writing theatre has to offer.
At one of the few times of year when reviewers have a bit of breathing space, and in one of the theatres that always attracts a clutch of copy, is there no playwright who deserves their own, dramatic, exposure? More than one review has called the show a waste of a space. But reviews there undoubtedly were.
Move now to Friday, 21 January and some 175 miles north, where the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme opened its spring season with a brand-new play Kitty and Kate by Claire Luckham. This 3-hour drama is based on the early life of prolific novelist Cathleen Cookson, who becomes Luckham's Kitty.
I have never read a word of the many millions Miss Cookson wrote, assuming they belong to what, late in her long (1906-1998) life, became known as airport fiction. But her early life, the basis for Luckham's play, is far from romantic. An illegitimate Geordie who fled her mother and managed a workhouse laundry in Hastings, Cookson in this play is a strong, determined, independent spirit
Wagner's operas have been said to have magnificent moments and tedious quarters-of-an-hour. It's the opposite here. Luckham provides some excellent sustained scenes with a trio of memorable performances from Becky Hindley as Kitty's close friend, Michelle Newell as the dogged, drunken mother and, notably, Johanne Murdock as Kitty. But there are far too many brief in-fill scenes, not helped by Sue Wilson's old-fashioned production.
Yet it is a proper' play written by a dramatist with a good track-record. Luckham's work includes the once ubiquitous marriage-as-wrestling-match Trafford Tanzi and a fine play The Dramatic Attitudes of Miss Fanny Kemble whose Southampton premiere helped launch the careers of Joe Dixon (later in the RSC Jacobethan' season) and Josette Bushell-Mingo (The Lion King and about to be Shakespeare's Cleopatra at Manchester's Royal Exchange).
According to the listings in Theatre Record' there was no other show, in London or the regions, opening the same night. Yet only one national newspaper (The Times') seems to have made it to the New Vic.
Perhaps others will manage it later in the run. And north Staffordshire is a long, expensive way from where most national critics live. In a crowded theatre schedule it might be even a new play has to give way if it dares show its face so far from the capital.
But we are still, just, in the calmer New Year period where there is no obvious reason for the lack of coverage. Most papers have more than one theatre reviewer each. When Mr Fountain's metropolitan sex addiction is splattered across the review columns while Kitty and Kate can hardly find a nook from the Midlands, what when it comes to theatre - exactly does it means to be a national newspaper?
Timothy Ramsden
He then proceeds to set up the next evening's (theatrical) performance by asking the audience to consider the offers made in real-time hits to his website and choose one for his next show's fodder. Alternatively, a member of the audience can propose themselves for this role.
Whether this is all as genuine as it seems has made at least one critic doubtful (though as Mr Fountain set up his own site after complaints from the established gay-site he'd previously used, some reality at least is suggested).
Leaving aside the potential argument between moralists who could surely be found to spout anything from homophobia to fears over AIDS etc. and folks who say a few dozen fun-lovers nightly should be allowed to have as much fun as they can, with or without their clothes on (not that the theatre itself becomes the scene of an orgy it's not that kind of royal court), there is the question of whether this is the best a new-writing theatre has to offer.
At one of the few times of year when reviewers have a bit of breathing space, and in one of the theatres that always attracts a clutch of copy, is there no playwright who deserves their own, dramatic, exposure? More than one review has called the show a waste of a space. But reviews there undoubtedly were.
Move now to Friday, 21 January and some 175 miles north, where the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme opened its spring season with a brand-new play Kitty and Kate by Claire Luckham. This 3-hour drama is based on the early life of prolific novelist Cathleen Cookson, who becomes Luckham's Kitty.
I have never read a word of the many millions Miss Cookson wrote, assuming they belong to what, late in her long (1906-1998) life, became known as airport fiction. But her early life, the basis for Luckham's play, is far from romantic. An illegitimate Geordie who fled her mother and managed a workhouse laundry in Hastings, Cookson in this play is a strong, determined, independent spirit
Wagner's operas have been said to have magnificent moments and tedious quarters-of-an-hour. It's the opposite here. Luckham provides some excellent sustained scenes with a trio of memorable performances from Becky Hindley as Kitty's close friend, Michelle Newell as the dogged, drunken mother and, notably, Johanne Murdock as Kitty. But there are far too many brief in-fill scenes, not helped by Sue Wilson's old-fashioned production.
Yet it is a proper' play written by a dramatist with a good track-record. Luckham's work includes the once ubiquitous marriage-as-wrestling-match Trafford Tanzi and a fine play The Dramatic Attitudes of Miss Fanny Kemble whose Southampton premiere helped launch the careers of Joe Dixon (later in the RSC Jacobethan' season) and Josette Bushell-Mingo (The Lion King and about to be Shakespeare's Cleopatra at Manchester's Royal Exchange).
According to the listings in Theatre Record' there was no other show, in London or the regions, opening the same night. Yet only one national newspaper (The Times') seems to have made it to the New Vic.
Perhaps others will manage it later in the run. And north Staffordshire is a long, expensive way from where most national critics live. In a crowded theatre schedule it might be even a new play has to give way if it dares show its face so far from the capital.
But we are still, just, in the calmer New Year period where there is no obvious reason for the lack of coverage. Most papers have more than one theatre reviewer each. When Mr Fountain's metropolitan sex addiction is splattered across the review columns while Kitty and Kate can hardly find a nook from the Midlands, what when it comes to theatre - exactly does it means to be a national newspaper?
Timothy Ramsden
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