London Archives - Page 115 of 115

Based on a 1789 French ballet originally created by Jean Dauberval, Frederick Ashton’s final full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet premiered in 1960, with this joyous and colourful affair a fiftieth revival from 2010. Inspired by his love for the Suffolk countryside, the piece is set on a farm and tells the story of the burgeoning love between Lise (Marianela Nuñez), the daughter of Widow Simon (William Tuckett), and Colas (Carlos Acosta), a local farmer. But Widow Simone has far more ambitious plans for her only daughter and is determined that she marry Alain (Jonathan Howell), the half-witted son of a wealthy landowner (Christopher Saunders). The only question is, will love win the day? The ballet displays some of Ashton’s most virtuoso choreography in a ballet laced with exuberance...

Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III, directed by Adam Penford, tells the story of one of the first periods of George III’s illness which plagued the later years of his life and eventually led to the Regency of his son George IV. Wryly amusing and horrifying for its exposition of tortuous Georgian treatments of mental illness, this is a wonderful play which juxtaposes the appearances of royalty and the regular lives hidden beneath. The play has a very grand opening which emphasises the importance of show for the Royal Family from the start. An assassination attempt is made on George III’s (Mark Gatiss) life and the Court points out how lucky the failed murderer is as England has asylums for her to go to whereas in France she would be executed, the veiled point being that for man...

London

La Fille mal gardée – The Royal Ballet at Royal Opera House

The Madness of George III – National Theatre