William Shakespeare Archives - Page 2 of 2

26Apr

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

REVIEWS

The Winter’s Tale – RSC Online

According to the Washington Post President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his four years in office. At the time of writing this review the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of acting dishonestly in a number of different scandals. Shakespeare knew that those in charge are not always honest and truthful. In this play he examines the consequences when an all-powerful man fails to act with honour. The shadow of Henry VIII and his treatment of Elizabeth I’s mother Anne Boleyn hangs over the drama. The play is all about honesty, integrity, honour and trust. It is at base a moral fable where purity is rewarded and sin is punished. King Leontes, a jealous tyrant believes his pregnant wife Hermione is having an affair with his boyhood friend, the king...

Macbeth – The Shows Must Go On

Macbeth is a TV film version of the 2007 Chichester Festival Theatre production of William Shakespeare's tragedy directed by Rupert Goold and starring Sir Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood as Lord and Lady Macbeth. The film was shot entirely at Welbeck Abbey and makes full use of its larger halls and dingier corridors, and a much more limited use of its exteriors. These often almost empty but gigantic rooms (and peeling paint in the war scenes) and the almost total lack of exterior scenes in the first half evoke an almost apocalyptic underground world in which sunshine and fresh air may be (but seldom is) reached via the lift some characters disappear into. The costumes, props and stock footage evoke the Soviet Block in the Cold War, specifically Romania in the 1960s, thus establishing...

The Merchant of Venice – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

It is not often recognised that this is one of Shakespeare’s comedies and watching this RSC production from 2015 under the direction of Polly Findlay as part of the BBC Culture in Quarantine programme, one would be tempted to say it was a tragedy. I often say that less is more but Johannes Schütz’s set design is so bare that even with its pendulum constantly swinging, it is impossible to decipher a proper sense of time or place which is at the heart of this play about money and how it affects all involved. We begin with Antonio (Jamie Ballard), a prince among Venetian merchants who is unaccountably depressed despite his obvious success as a dealer in luxury goods. His friend Bassanio (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) in contrast is broke but remains reasonably cheerful as he has a plan to marry Por...