Friday, November 22

Tag: Ciaran Bagnall

Lie Low – Traverse Theatre
Scotland

Lie Low – Traverse Theatre

‘Lie Low’ is a theatrical jewel. This is theatre at its best, a production which deals with serious issues but still manages to be hugely entertaining and genuinely funny. If you possibly can, go and see this amazing show. You won’t be disappointed. ‘Lie Low’ is brilliantly written by Irish playwright, Ciara Elizabeth Smyth. The script won the Best Theatre Script award in 2023 from the Writers Guild of Ireland. It’s energetic, funny, profound, imaginative, inventive and deeply moving. Smyth’s script is superbly directed by Oisín Kearney. The production is perfectly paced and keeps the audience on the edge of its seats throughout the 70 minutes of the show. Charlotte McCurry plays Faye, a woman in her thirties who has been suffering from nightmares and insomnia following a violent ...
Romeo & Juliet – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
London

Romeo & Juliet – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

On a wonderfully sunny evening, the weather gods behaved themselves, and we were treated to one of Shakespeare’s best loved plays.  Postponed from last year’s season, director Kimberley Sykes’ version has been eagerly anticipated, with its new viewpoint on this popular play, we ask – did this re-assessment pay off? The set designed by Naomi Dawson, with its backdrop of trees, helps to soften the harsh set of scaffolding, rocks, and earth.  Earth is one of Sykes’ themes and can be seen as a symbol of nurturing growth, but earth also throws its arms around death which is a major part of the plotline.  When Sykes re-read the play, she was struck by a reference to an earthquake that had happened in Verona eleven years earlier.  At the time of the earthquake, the Nurse (E...