Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Archives

All’s Well That Ends Well – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

22Nov

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

All’s Well That Ends Well – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

All's Well is a tricky play for both performers and audience as the plot is rather implausible, and the characters can be interpreted in numerous different ways. It has never been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and is performed relatively infrequently. Director Chelsea Walker and the cast are to be congratulated on a lively and comprehensible new production in the Sam Wanamaker's beautiful candle lit theatre. The director chose to present the play on entirely bare stage with no stage furniture or scenery and minimal props. The costumes were modern and simple but appropriate with colour coordination to indicate the location of the scenes. It was accompanied by beautiful musical interludes under the direction of Louise Duggan, with Angela Hicks as the soprano whose voice provided...

24Feb

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Othello – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Director Ola Ince rendition of Shakespeare’s dark tragedy The authentic Shakespearean Othello ‘Moorish’ features as a top ranking detective police officer in the London metropolitan force, which offers up the notion that this is not your ordinary version of Othello. The opening scene introduces the characters Othello Ken Nwosu’s and Poppy Gilbert as his wife, Desdemona entwined in love a marriage vows. Shakespearean enthusiasts will recognise the familiar characters of the devious hateful Iago portrayed by Ralph Davis and Cassio played by Oli Higginson. References to police dialogue and officers switching from uniformed police, in body armour merges at times quite clumsily with the Shakespearean text, which at times feels wrong but as the sequence of events un...

Titus Andronicus – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

2Feb

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Titus Andronicus – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The Globe’s winter fest comes to its closing but not before tackling Shakespeare’s most gruesome tragedy directed by Jude Christian, with an all-female cast bringing us the horror tale without an ounce of blood spilling. Knowing it to be the bloodiest tale, I sat down with sight swell of excitement to how they might butcher each other on stage but what I received was quite the opposite and I don’t think I was too mad about it. Our two opposing leaders, Titus and Saturninus played by Katy Stephens and Lucy McCormick bring a delightful contrast between power and how to use it. McCormick utterly rocks the stage, stealing more than a glance at every moment they perform with force, making a parody of every male leader as we know them in classics creating a clown of who we should respect the mos...

The Merchant of Venice – Shakespeare’s Globe

3Mar

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

The Merchant of Venice – Shakespeare’s Globe

The current rise of antisemitism around the world gives extra resonance and relevance to Shakespeare's 16th Century play on usury, religious conflict, revenge and the manipulation of justice. Abigail Graham's direction packs a serious punch, with a stellar cast who draw out every nuance of the text. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is brilliantly heightened in this beautiful candlelit production set in the present day, but which could relate to any era. Young Bassanio is a spendthrift and hedonist, partying with his buddies and going through money as though there's no tomorrow. Needing cash to pursue his wooing of the rich heiress, Portia, he turns to his friend, the merchant, Antonio, who has bailed him out previously. Antonio agrees and asks Shylock, ...

4Feb

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Hamlet – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The first production of Hamlet in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in the Shakespeare's Globe was an event to look forward to. The intimate candle lit wooden interior of the playhouse provided the opportunity for a very different feel to what is probably the best play the Bard ever wrote. What a disappointment it turned out to be. It started well enough, the initial scene on the battlements with the ghost was in complete darkness and when the candles were lit for the subsequent scene the characters were dressed in more or less traditional Elizabethan costumes; the stage was bare apart from one or two chairs and a large circular well in the middle. There were a few inconsistencies: Horatio, sported a modern university type scarf and a single musician sat on stage...

Maxine Peake, The Guilty Feminist and Johnny Flynn at Shakespeare’s Globe

3Nov

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

NEWS

Maxine Peake, The Guilty Feminist and Johnny Flynn at Shakespeare’s Globe

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced a series of new events running alongside the season of Shakespeare plays in the indoor candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. These include: a panel discussion with Maxine Peake, Artistic Director Michelle Terry and Co-Director of Education Professor Farah Karim-Cooper, dubbed ‘Hamlet and She’ as part of a ‘Women and Power’ festival; the hit feminist comedy podcast, The Guilty Feminist, returns for another live recording in the Playhouse hosted by Deborah Frances-White; Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane present a live performance of their stunning new album; and a whole host of education events including February half-term activities for families. Despite the difficulties faced since the Globe closed its doors in March 2020, from May 2021, the theatre has ...