REVIEW: Imperium Parts 1 and 2, Gielgud Theatre ✭✭✭✭
Mark Ludmon reviews Imperium, the RSC adaptation by Mike Poulton of Robert Harris’s Cicero novels now playing at the Gielgud Theatre.
Mark Henderson
REVIEW: Fanny and Alexander, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭
Despite its length, Fanny and Alexander never drags under director Max Webster, carrying us along with its alluring combination of drama, comedy and a touch of magic.
Penelope Wilton to lead cast of Old Vic’s Fanny and Alexander
Casting has been announced for the stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s classic film Fanny and Alexander at the Old Vic, led by Penelope Wilton. Book Now!
REVIEW: Young Marx, Bridge Theatre ✭✭✭✭
Bean and Coleman don’t put a foot wrong. Briskly plotted, dizzily paced with doors flying shut and open with split-second timing, revealing and concealing the players with all the aplomb of a delicious Deuxieme Empire farce, Young Marx is a racy, gallivanting romp, making the earnest lead a figure of fun.
REVIEW: Girl From The North Country, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭
Not for nothing does the audience rise to its feet at the end of the performance. Because, it knows, it has not met any strangers during the performance. It has met itself.
REVIEW: The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭
Hare’s adaptation, the best of the three in the Season, is crisp, charming and comical, thereby magnifying the effect of the more tragic aspects. It’s a markedly short version of the play, and Kent assists the understanding of its contours and colours by interposing interval between Acts 3 and 4. This allows the four central characters of the play to stake out their positions, develop their tensions and alliances, their hopes, fears and dreams; by the time the third Act is over, the various dice have been rolled and Act Four, set two years on, is about consequences; chickens – or seagulls – coming home to roost.
REVIEW: Ivanov, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭
Honesty, as David Hare points out, is the dominating theme of Ivanov. It is also the dominating principle adopted by Jonathan Kent as the guiding light for his revival of Ivanov, now playing at the Chichester Festival Theatre as part of their Young Chekhov season. The performances he elicits from the specially formed repertory company are intensely honest, truly felt, and they create a theatrical tapestry which is rich in detail and unsparing in terms of vitality and verity.
