REVIEW: The Beaux’ Stratagem, Olivier Theatre ✭✭✭

The Beaux Stratagem at the National Theatre

Of all the cast, it is the gifted Susannah Fielding who comes closest to the right style of acting. She really is a tremendous performer, winning in her winsome style, with a voice as agile as her facial features and just as expressive. She keeps her Mrs Sullen to the naturalistic style Godwin has chosen, but you can feel, just below her gorgeous exterior, that within lies the right style, the right character, the right attitude, desperately wanting to break out of the confines of naturalism and take shape in proper Restoration Comedy mode.

Ian McDiarmid To Play Shylock At Almeida

Ian McDiarmid to play Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice

Full casting is today announced for Rupert Goold’s The Merchant of Venice at the Almeida Theatre. Former Almeida Artistic Director Ian McDiarmid will play Shylock alongside Susannah Fielding and Scott Handy, who reprise their roles as Portia and Antonio. The company includes Vinta Morgan, Vincenzo Nicoli, Finlay Robertson, Raphael Sowole, Tim Steed, Jonathan Tafler, Anthony Welsh, Tom Weston-Jones and original RSC cast members Jamie Beamish, Rebecca Brewer, Caroline Martin and Emily Plumtree. Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold relocates one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays to the bright lights of Las Vegas in a whirlwind of glitter, gambling and greenbacks. The Merchant of Venice, originally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, is designed by Tom Scutt, with lighting by Rick Fisher, music by Adam Cork, sound by Gregory Clarke, choreography by Scott Ambler and orchestrations by Alex Baranowski They are joined at the Almeida by Casting Director Ginny Schiller, Associate Director … Read more