Theatre

I am a playwright. I show
What I have seen.
In the man markets
I have seen how men are traded. That
I show, I, the playwright.

Bertolt Brecht

Monday, 26 February 2018 16:04

Wonderland

Written by Ross Bradshaw

in Theatre

Ross Bradshaw reviews a recent play at the Nottingham Playhouse about the 1984 Miners' Strike. Wonderland, written by Beth Steel, was the first play of the new artistic director at Nottingham Playhouse, Adam Penford. It ended with a full house and an almost completely standing ovation. It was, I gather, not the first…

Miners' Strike 1984 Beth Steel

Friday, 26 January 2018 15:41

The cult of Shakespeare: a provocation

Written by Chris Jury

in Theatre

Chris Jury tells us why he can't stand Shakespeare. I don’t like Shakespeare. There, I’ve said it. Said the unsayable. A man who claims to be literate, educated and intelligent says he doesn’t like Shakespeare. It’s an outrage! And I know ‘outrage’ will be a response to this statement because…

RSC National Theatre West End

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 04 January 2018 10:45

Spotlights and Searchlights: Theatre and the Russian Revolution

in Theatre

Written by Amy Skinner

In a tribute to Russia’s theatrical experimenters, for whom the Revolution promised a new world of artistic possibilities, Amy Skinner presents a brief history of an art that 'without doubt, changed the world'. On 25th February 1917, Revolution hung in the air of Russia’s capital city. The protests at the…

Meyerhold Proletkult

Delacroix, Hamlet and Horatio before the Gravediggers, 1843

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 29 November 2017 11:04

Shakespeare’s Gravediggers – the first appearance of working people on the world stage

in Theatre

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell discusses the prophetic politics of the Gravedigger scene in Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which class-based justice and fundamental human equality are discussed by those whose task it will be to 'set right the time' by revolutionary upheaval. The scene is the first appearance of working people on the world stage.…

Shakespeare Hamlet

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 03 October 2017 19:30

Workers' Play Time: progressive political drama

in Theatre

Written by Doug Nicholls

Doug Nicholls introduces a great new collection of political plays. Trade union struggles over the years have inspired some of our greatest playwrights. They have also inspired many works of drama that packed a punch in their time but have since been largely – and unjustly – forgotten. This is…

Shakespeare Keir Hardie Dagenham machinists Kathleen McCreery GFTU

Pablo Picasso (in the beret) and scene painters working on set design for Leonid Massine’s Parade, staged by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris, 1917.

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 19 March 2017 22:07

Dancing Up a Storm: the 1917 Revolution and Russian ballet

in Theatre

Written by Carolyn Pouncy

Carolyn Pouncy tells the story of how Russian ballet was modernised, democratised and eventually revitalised by the 1917 Russian Revolution.Ask people unfamiliar with dance history where ballet originated, and many will say, “Russia.” Although the wrong answer—ballet originated at the court of Louis XIV, based on formal dance traditions already…

Carolyn Pouncy Russian Revolution Bolshoi Ballet

Saturday, 28 January 2017 17:26

The Theatre of the Oppressed

Written by Sophie Coudray

in Theatre

Sophie Coudray introduces Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. This paper aims to clarify the original project of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, which is a set of dramatic techniques whose purpose is to bring to light systemic exploitation and oppression within common situations, and to allow spectators to…

Augusto Boal Theatre of the Oppressed

Sunday, 19 June 2016 15:48

Cubanacan: The Dream of Cuban Revolution

Written by Andrew Warburton

in Theatre

Andrew Warburton reviews Cubanacan, the first new Cuban opera in almost 50 years. When Cubanacan: A Revolution of Forms received its world premiere at the Havana Biennale in May 2015, it received global attention and write-ups in The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. Since then, the opera’s…

Cubanacan castro guevara

Tuesday, 07 June 2016 21:23

Is Shakespeare Universal?

Written by Gabriel Egan

in Theatre

Professor Gabriel Egan concludes his series on Shakespeare. Shakespeare's fellow playwright Ben Jonson paid him a compliment that has come to haunt the study of plays from this period. "He was not of an age", wrote Jonson in a poem about Shakespeare, "but for all time". The poem was one…

Shakespeare Ben Jonson Merchanet of Venice King Lear Romeo and Juliet

Mark Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral

Tuesday, 07 June 2016 21:02

Theatre and Politics: Book Review

Written by Gordon Parsons

in Theatre

Gordon Parsons reviews Joe Kelleher's book on theatre and politics. W. H. Auden’s insisted that all his poetry put together had not saved a single Jew, and claimed that poetry makes nothing happen. This was certainly not a view shared by Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War who seized…