Romeo and Juliet, National Theatre/Sky Arts, 4 April
The National Theatre’s projected staging of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy—with shooting stars Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley—was filmed over three weeks in the Lyttelton auditorium for Sky Arts and PBS in America (where it will air on Shakespeare’s birthday, 23 April.) Simon Godwin’s production has been reconceived for the screen with learning facilities and digital content available for young audiences online. The cast includes Tamsin Greig as Lady Capulet, Deborah Findlay as the Nurse, Lucian Msamati as Friar Lawrence, Fisayo Akinade as Mercutio and Adrian Lester as the Prince.
Barnes’ People, www.originaltheatre.com, 18 February to 31 July
Described by RSC director Terry Hands as “the boldest playwright of the late 20th century,” Peter Barnes, who died in 2004, remains largely unheralded. Barnes’ People are four 20-minute radio monologues dating from around the same time as Alan Bennett wrote his Talking Heads for television. Unlike Bennett, Barnes creates a theatrical context for each of his characters: an overweening Buckingham Palace footman giving an interview; a shattered care home supervisor drafting her resignation; a ventriloquist in crisis as the curtain is about to rise and a disillusioned doctor addressing an old ex-pal in a graveyard about to be bulldozed. The writing is dark, funny, acidulous, and the performances of Adrian Scarborough, Jemma Redgrave, Jon Culshaw and Matthew Kelly are brilliant.
A Splinter of Ice, www.originaltheatre.com, 15 April to 31 July
Ben Brown’s new play, directed by Alan Strachan, will go on a UK tour later this year. Meanwhile, the production is filmed in the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, with Oliver Ford Davies as British intelligence officer—and double agent—Kim Philby and Stephen Boxer as novelist Graham Greene. The two former M16 colleagues meet in Moscow, 1987. Meanwhile, Kim’s Russian wife, played by Sara Crowe, keeps a watchful eye on the reunion.
The National Theatre’s projected staging of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy—with shooting stars Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley—was filmed over three weeks in the Lyttelton auditorium for Sky Arts and PBS in America (where it will air on Shakespeare’s birthday, 23 April.) Simon Godwin’s production has been reconceived for the screen with learning facilities and digital content available for young audiences online. The cast includes Tamsin Greig as Lady Capulet, Deborah Findlay as the Nurse, Lucian Msamati as Friar Lawrence, Fisayo Akinade as Mercutio and Adrian Lester as the Prince.
Barnes’ People, www.originaltheatre.com, 18 February to 31 July
Described by RSC director Terry Hands as “the boldest playwright of the late 20th century,” Peter Barnes, who died in 2004, remains largely unheralded. Barnes’ People are four 20-minute radio monologues dating from around the same time as Alan Bennett wrote his Talking Heads for television. Unlike Bennett, Barnes creates a theatrical context for each of his characters: an overweening Buckingham Palace footman giving an interview; a shattered care home supervisor drafting her resignation; a ventriloquist in crisis as the curtain is about to rise and a disillusioned doctor addressing an old ex-pal in a graveyard about to be bulldozed. The writing is dark, funny, acidulous, and the performances of Adrian Scarborough, Jemma Redgrave, Jon Culshaw and Matthew Kelly are brilliant.
A Splinter of Ice, www.originaltheatre.com, 15 April to 31 July
Ben Brown’s new play, directed by Alan Strachan, will go on a UK tour later this year. Meanwhile, the production is filmed in the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, with Oliver Ford Davies as British intelligence officer—and double agent—Kim Philby and Stephen Boxer as novelist Graham Greene. The two former M16 colleagues meet in Moscow, 1987. Meanwhile, Kim’s Russian wife, played by Sara Crowe, keeps a watchful eye on the reunion.
