The Tempest

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican Theatre on 19 July 2017

Gregory Doran directs Simon Russell Beale as Prospero, Jenny Rainsford as Miranda, Mark Quartley as Ariel and Joe Dixon as Caliban in this RSC production designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis and created with the collaboration of Intel and the Imaginarium Studios.

Two talking points were at the heart of this production: the return of Simon Russell Beale to the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Prospero after a long period of distinguished engagements elsewhere, and the use of cutting edge performance capture technology and other digital effects to enhance the presentation of Ariel and to replicate in the modern age the impact of the resplendent masques that were all the rage in the Jacobean court of the early seventeenth century. 

Love in Idleness

by Terence Rattigan

seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory on 22 April 2017

Trevor Nunn directs Eve Best as Olivia Brown, Anthony Head as Sir John Fletcher, Edward Bluemel as Olivia's son Michael and Helen George as Sir John's estranged wife Diana in a wonderful revival of Terrance Rattigan's wartime comedy, with sets designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis.

The play opens in a swank apartment with Olivia on the telephone gushingly trying to arrange a dinner party, persuading a series of guests to attend on each other's accounts. Eve Best excels at this fast-paced society manner, the words pouring out persuasively with hardly a breath taken. Yet we are soon aware that the situation is not exactly straightforward. She answers telephone calls a little warily, pretending anonymity until she knows who is calling; and she seems inept at taking in an important message for Sir John Fletcher, a minister in Churchill's War Cabinet. It transpires that Sir John has installed Olivia in the flat; their romantic involvement is clearly passionate but social respectability is denied them as Sir John cannot afford the scandal of divorce while in the Cabinet.

No Man's Land

by Harold Pinter

seen at Wyndhams Theatre on 16 November 2016

Sean Matthias directs this revival of Pinter's 1975 play with Ian McKellan as Spooner, Patrick Stewart as Hirst, Owen Teale as Briggs and Damien Molony as Foster; the set is designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis.

Hirst has invited Spooner - a shambling down-at-heels writer - back to his house in Hampstead, an eerily grand affair featuring a room with a curved wall of rather cold blue panels, with a well-stocked bar. Hirst, also apparently a writer, seems bemused by Spooner's meandering speeches, though some of his responses are extremely sharp, even if only by way of a look of mock alarm or distaste. Each drinks heavily as Spooner attempts to discover the nature of the household and Hirst gives little away; suddenly two retainers appear, the brutish Briggs and the cocky and almost camp Foster. They might be dangerous for Spooner - they might even have some hold over Hirst: they are blankly watchful when Hirst collapses and crawls out of the room.

Henry V

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican on 14 January 2016 (evening) as part four of 'King & Country'

This new production from the RSC is directed by Gregory Doran and designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis, with music by Paul Englishby. It features Alex Hassell as King Henry and Oliver Ford Davies as the Chorus, with Sarah Parks as Mistress Quickly, Joshua Richards as Bardolph and Fluellen, and Martin Bassindale as the Boy. As part of the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, it is being presented with Richard II and the two parts of Henry IV as a sequence entitled 'King & Country'.

The programme note helpfully suggests that this is not really a 'pro-war' play, nor an 'anti-war' play (it has been seen as both in response to contemporary crises) but rather a 'going-to-war' play. This production was neither gung-ho nor overtly critical of war, and the king was neither thoughtlessly militaristic nor unwilling to fight.

Henry IV Part Two

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican on 14 January 2016 (afternoon) as part three of 'King & Country'

This revival of the RSC's 2014 production is directed by Gregory Doran and designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis with music by Paul Englishby. It features Jasper Britton as King Henry IV, Alex Hassell as Prince Hal, Anthony Sher as Falstaff, Sam Marks as Ned Poins, and Oliver Ford Davies as Justice Shallow. As part of the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, it is being presented with Richard II, Henry IV Part One and Henry V as a sequence entitled 'King & Country'.

Considering that the play has a very similar structural pattern to that of Henry IV Part One it is striking how different the tone is. The prolonged 'Eastsheap' scene with Doll Tearsheet (Emma King) and Mistress Quickly (Sarah Parks, played with a distractingly broad accent) seems more hectic, and Falstaff here even more selfish, while the king is far weaker physically, and the scenes between Falstaff and Justice Shallow, the erstwhile companion of his youth, are tinged with a melancholy regret for the passage of time (these have no direct parallel in the earlier play). In the meantime Prince Hal is brought to realise that slumming it with the likes of Ned Poins is by no means a meeting of equals, while his relationship with his father barely survives a deathbed misunderstanding. 

Henry IV Part One

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican on 13 January 2016 as part two of 'King & Country'

This revival of the RSC's 2014 production is directed by Gregory Doran and designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis with music by Paul Englishby. It features Jasper Britton as King Henry IV, Alex Hassell as Prince Hal, Anthony Sher as Falstaff, Sam Marks as Ned Poins, Sean Chapman as the Duke of Northumberland and Matthew Needham as Hotspur. As part of the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, it is being presented with Richard II, Henry IV Part Two and Henry V as a sequence entitled 'King & Country'.

In this production, the play begins as if exactly where Richard II left off - Henry's protestation of innocence and vow to go to the Holy Land at the end of the former play leading quite naturally into the opening speech of this play. Here, the continuity is further emphasised by the ghostly figure of the murdered king who turns away and vanishes as the play begins.

Richard II

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican on 12 January 2016 as part one of 'King & Country'

This revival of the RSC's 2013 production is directed by Gregory Doran and designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis with music by Paul Englishby. It features David Tennant as King Richard, Jasper Britton as Bolingbroke, Oliver Ford Davies as the Duke of York and Julian Glover as John of Gaunt. As part of the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, it is being presented with the two Henry IV plays and Henry V as a sequence entitled 'King & Country'.

The play opens with a scene in which the king attempts to arbitrate in the quarrel between his cousin Bolingbroke and another courtier Thomas Mowbray. But his authority does not extend so far as to compel these adversaries to a reconciliation and soon the king concedes that a trial by combat must take place. In just a few altercations the fatal gap between assumed authority and personal weakness is laid bare and the train of events leading to Richard's deposition and murder is begun. 

Death of a Salesman

by Arthur Miller

seen at the Duke of Yorks Theatre on 4 July 2015

The play, directed by Gregory Doran, and designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis, stars Anthony Sher as Willy Loman, Harriet Walter as Linda, Alex Hassell as Biff, Sam Marks as Happy and Guy Paul as Ben. It is an RSC transfer from Stratford.

The set mainly shows the Loman household, with bedroom and dining room adjoining (the kitchen and bathroom notionally behind), and the boys' bedroom in an attic space above. All around, the apartment blocks are represented as flat walls encroaching on the garden (as Willy several times complains); but at moments of stress they become mere frames of netting when lit from behind. Other scenes such as Willy's hotel room when travelling, the office and a restaurant, are played in front of the house space. This is an extremely effective way of visualising the claustrophobic nature of Willy's world.