Daunting death masks, ever-present uncanny and distorted monstrosities, overshadow the stage at the Royal Opera House. In ancient Peking princess Turandot has her suitors executed if they’re not able to answer her three riddles. It might not be a radical new version of Puccini’s piece but the handling of the melodramatic twists and some of […]
Author archives: annegret
Everybody’s problem: As Is at the Finborough Theatre
The great American play about the AIDS epidemic might be the 1990s Angels in America, but William M. Hoffman’s *As Is*, having premiered six years before Angels, is more raw and shows the initial anger connected with the outbreak of the disease. It highlights the immediacy of a time in which a whole city seemed […]
We’re all mad here: Alice in Wonderland at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
The Actor’s Church in Covent Garden is a true gem. Amidst the bustle of tourists, vendors and street performers it is an island of tranquility. Iris Theatre regularly turn the garden and the church itself into the stage for their summer outdoor performances. Their new production of Alice is cute and funny, but the story […]
Bawdy stories with angelic sounds: Gabriel at Shakespeare’s Globe
Exciting things continue to happen at the Globe all the time. With this piece of new writing, playwright Samuel Adamson celebrates the music of Henry Purcell and give us a dramatic insight into England in the 1690s. In Gabriel, dramatic vignettes are interwoven with the music of Purcell: a piece about trumpet music has never […]