Antony and Cleopatra

by William Shakespeare

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 2nd January 2019

Simon Godwin directs Ralph Fiennes as Antony, Sophie Okonedo as Cleopatra, Tunji Kasim as Octavius Caesar and Tim McMullan as Enobarbus in a production sumptuously designed by Hildegard Bechtler making inspired use of the famed Olivier drum revolve to resolve the difficult task of transferring quickly the scene of action across various sites in the Mediterranean world (though the programme informs us that the play is set in 'an imagined present').

Boldly, the play here opens with the final tableau of the text, Caesar pronouncing (most of) the final eulogy, and then Agrippa taking parts of Philo's opening speech as if commenting on the denouement rather than setting the scene. At this point the revolve reveals the Egyptian scene and the body of Cleopatra becomes the Queen lazily awaiting the arrival of her lover. 

Hamlet

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Trafalgar Studios on 29 December 2016

This stripped down version of Hamlet, adapted and directed by Kelly Hunter, emphasises the Ibsen-like domestic turmoil of the play in an intense 90-minute focus on the disasters falling on the Danish Royal house and the family of Polonius. It features Mark Arends as Hamlet, Finlay Cormack as Laertes, Francesca Zoutewelle as Ophelia, Tom Mannion as Claudius, Katy Stephens as Gertrude and David Fielder as Polonius and the Gravedigger.

All sorts of drastic decisions have to be made to create such a short version of what can be an extremely long play while ensuring that it will still make sense and not appear as an evisceration. In this, Kelly Hunter is almost entirely successful, dispensing with all the minor characters but retaining, with sometimes breathtaking aplomb, the major strands of the story so far as they relate to the two families under observation. 

Thomas Tallis

by Jessica Swale

seen at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 7 November 2015

The play, directed by Adele Thomas and designed by Hannah Clark with Harry Christophers providing musical expertise, features Brendan O'Hea as Thomas Tallis, with Simon Harrison and Katy Stephens taking various parts and Guy Amos as King Edward VI, and with six singers from The Sixteen.

In the gorgeous atmosphere of the candle-lit playhouse the music of the great Tudor composer Thomas Tallis could hardly fail to charm, and indeed as the play opens with Tallis himself speaking to us about the roughness of human speech being transformed into song we await the first sounds of polyphony with eager expectation. We are not disappointed, as the sounds emerge from behind the doors, and then the six singers appear - immaculately attired in modern evening dress. 

The Oresteia

by Aeschylus adapted by Rory Mullarkey

seen at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on 1 October 2015

The second major production of the Oresteia in London this year is directed by Adele Thomas and designed by Hannah Clark, with George Irving as Agamemnon, Katy Stephens as Clytemnestra, Joel MacCormack as Orestes and Rosie Hilal as Electra, and also Naana Agyei-Ampadu as Cassandra, Dennis Herdman as the Herald, Branka Katic as Athena, Trevor Fox as Aegisthus and Petra Massey as Cilissa (Orestes' nurse).

Merely providing a more extensive cast list shows that the style of this version is quite different from that produced at the Almeida Theatre. It is more clearly 'faithful' to the original trilogy by Aeschylus, in that the three parts presented to us are clearly 'Agamemnon',  'Choephori' and 'Eumenides', and the secondary group of characters therefore has more immediate impact. The story of Iphigenia is related by the chorus near the beginning of 'Agamemnon' but not explicitly dramatised, and this certainly redresses the balance of the opening play.