Category: Features

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Monday, March 25, 2013 - 01:24 AM

London.

A THOUSAND MILES OF HISTORY
by Harold Finlay.

Bussey Building 133 Rye Lane SE15 4ST To 30 March 2013.
by Timothy Ramsden

Showing the show no longer has to go on.

Posted by : RodDungate on Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - 03:07 PM

This year, as co-editor of ReviewsGate.com, I asked our team of reviewers to come up with one or two shows from 2012 that, for whatever reason, they thought was outstanding.

Below are the ReviewsGate Critics’ Choices for 2012.

Rod Dungate

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Friday, September 14, 2012 - 10:36 AM

Edinburgh.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: DRAMA PROGRAMME.

With its most extensive and exciting theatre programme for a number of years, the Edinburgh International Festival has contributed to 2012’s Shakespeare focus, brought several well-received shows on different scales – and one smash-hit from a company too rarely (indeed, hardly ever) seen in Britain.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Thursday, April 05, 2012 - 10:35 AM

Timothy Ramsden looks at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre, which like the city itself has survived tough times - and meets its Artistic Director who is determined tokeep on doing so.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 04:27 PM

Of course, there’s a lot of 2012 to go still. Almost all of it; and a lot can happen before nominations are made for the year’s theatre awards in Britain (or England, or, mostly, London).

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Saturday, February 04, 2012 - 10:26 AM

In a season that might be dedicated to Nordic, and northern, gloom Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre is reviving Strindberg’s The Father and Stars in the Morning Sky, Alexander Galin’s drama of Moscow prostitutes being cleaned off the streets for the 1980 Olympics.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Monday, May 30, 2011 - 01:57 PM

It’s taken a decade to bring it together, but this year Nottingham sees an international theatre programme such as London, Edinburgh or Dublin may feel itself familiar with, but which, outside capital cities, is a great rarity. They’re calling it NEAT 11 – Nottingham European Arts and Theatre Festival 2011 – and it’s happening around the city, though focused on, and coordinated by Nottingham Playhouse, whose Artistic Director Giles Croft is the creative origin of the huge, untidy and exciting cultural present to the city and its visitors.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 - 11:01 PM

Flickering black-and-white images on a small TV screen go back to the dawn of Angel time. The days of schoolboys in caps filing into the converted Islington Temperance Hall building, in early 1961 – before the decade truly became ‘the Sixties’. In they troop politely to watch through a postbox-like slit a bright stage where puppets play-out stories, with a skill and depth that became trademarks of Little Angel Puppet Theatre. (Coyly, the theatre downgrades the word ‘puppet’ in their publicity – the web address is www.littleangeltheatre.com - presumably it’s thought offputting for anyone who hasn’t seen the work itself.)

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 02:59 AM

Adam Spreadbury-Maher is not one to avoid a challenge. Deciding between the cultural opportunities Australia offered in Melbourne or Sydney, the Canberra-born, opera-trained performer decided on London for a career as theatre director. Because it is, he says, home to the English-language theatre tradition, has more theatres than any other city, and plenty of pubs.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 09:54 AM

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.

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.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Monday, October 05, 2009 - 01:05 AM

London.

AN INSPECTOR CALLS
by J B Priestley.

Transfer to
Wyndhams Theatre.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed, Thu 2.30pm Sat 3pm.
Runs 1hr 50min No interval.

TICKETS: 0844 482 5120.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 September at Novello Theatre.

Seemingly imperishable play and production.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 - 05:20 AM

Hazel Kyte shows all aboard needn't be bored.

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 . . .

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.

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 . . .

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 12:51 AM

Hazel Kyte in the USA and Canada.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Monday, May 25, 2009 - 11:32 AM

The Cut Halesworth Suffolk 27 April-10 May 2009.

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.

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.

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.

Posted by : RodDungate on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 08:53 AM

Music and Lyrics balance in the theatre.

Posted by : TimothyRamsden on Wednesday, July 09, 2008 - 11:23 AM

Hazel Kyte on and beyond the Great White Way.

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.

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.

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

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 . . .

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 . . .

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.