Month: October 2008

  To quote from the publicity postcard: “Bell Shakespeare’s JUST MACBETH! By Andy Griffiths is a really silly version of Shakespeare’s great big gory tragedy starring Andy, Lisa, Danny, and (yuck!) Jen from the JUST TRICKING!, JUST STUPID!, JUST SHOCKING! books. It’s got six funny but tragic actors, a garden gnome, and a severed head that talks Shakespearean. Plus, there are witches, WIZZ FIZZ, ghosts, girl germs, and weird Elizabethan things like soliloquies and sharp swords and other things beginning with S. An hilarious and irreverent take on one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, JUST MACBETH! will have you and…

Makropulos. Greek. Secrets. Crete. “Vanitas… ashes and dust.” Lawyers. Intestate will. Prima Donna. Opera. Magic. Madness. Suicide. Sex. Beauty. Potion. Hieronymous!!! (What an excitingly thrilling name.) Eternal life. Mystery. Words that to me conjure melodrama. These were the promise of an exciting and intriguing night in the theatre and they all appear in THE MAKRPULOS SECRET by Janacek. I had never seen this Opera before. I went to a Dress rehearsal on Saturday and was so moved, excited that I went again on Opening night. This is a revival of Neil Armfield’s 1996 production. The Design is by Carl Friedrich…

On entering the theatre, one encounters the seats swathed in white dust covers. (You are also provided with a history of the Trojan war and the events leading up to the play, neatly printed out for your perusal on your seat.) The stage is lit with fluorescents. Stark, cool unattractive reality. (Lighting by Damian Cooper.) Along the entire back wall of the raised theatre stage there is a huge jigsaw of wooden and metal lockers which you might find in a very old gymnasium dressing room. They are either stacked horizontally or vertically, some with doors but most not. It…