Joëlle Brabban Archives - North West End UK

Tom Littler’s staging of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ is a true masterclass in how Shakespeare should be performed, adapted and directed: intelligent without becoming academic, emotionally rich without descending into sentimentality, and uproariously funny without ever compromising the text. Presented by the Orange Tree Theatre and Guildford Shakespeare Company in the grounds of Thomas’s College, Richmond, alongside ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’, it is an extraordinary theatrical achievement that is brilliant on every level. The production continues the stories of the same characters from ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’, but six eventful years later. The original carefree summer of 1939 has been replaced by the summer of 1945, with the surviving men returning from war and the women revisiting the village i...

It’s not often that you feel transported to Italy in a park in Chester, but this year’s repertory theatre company has done just that with its new production of Romeo and Juliet. This is arguably Shakespeare’s most famous play: the story of two young lovers from different families, who meet by chance and are torn apart by family history and circumstance. The play asks us to consider whether love can overcome division, or whether forbidden love in a divided society is simply doomed. This new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is set – the programme tells us – in the 1950s, albeit with the original text, and I was very interested to see how that would be incorporated into the production. However, I suspect because of the minimal set and the nature of the outdoor space, there was little other t...

Tag: Joëlle Brabban

Much Ado About Nothing – Thomas’s College

Romeo and Juliet – Chester Grosvenor Park Outdoor Theatre