What: All’s Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
Where: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), Stratford-upon-Avon
When: August 22-28 2022 (runs until late October 2022)
Who: The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
William Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well” is, they say, a problem play. Having read all the main literature on that subject, I’m still not convinced on that subject, but this I do know – the RSC’s current production of it makes it more of a problem than it needs to be.
What: Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Who: The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Where: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon
When: October 2017
Coriolanus is, in its full form, the second longest play in Shakespeare’s canon. Performed in its entirety it would take up four hours or more of your life. Here at the RSC, it takes 2 hours and forty minutes – three hours if you include the break in the middle for ice cream.
What: Julius Caesar
Where: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon
Who: Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
When: 4th May 2017.
This reviewer is confused
The RSC decided in their wisdom to have “press day” for both Antony & Cleopatra and Julius Caesar on the same day. Figuring that seeing two plays on one day would rather ruin the palate for the second, I decided to opt out of one. On the flip of a coin and because I prefer the “Cleopatra” play normally, I decided to come back and see Julius Caesar another day even though my review would appear later than everyone else’s and although it would mean seeing the plays out of sequence. Also, sequentially, it makes much more sense for Julius Caesar to be seen first.
Now I have to say that “Antony and Cleopatra” was horrible and the worst production i have seen from the RSC for a number of years.
Now since there is a director overseeing the four productions in the RSC’s Rome series, I estimated that this production would go in roughly the same direction as Iqbal Khan’s “Anthony and Cleopatra” and would need some fine performances to save it.
I needn’t have worried because Angus Jackson’s “Julius Caesar” is confusingly, truly excellent. Not flawless but truly, truly excellent and you would do well to see it.
Who: Royal Shakespeare Company
What: Antony and Cleopatra
Where: Royal Shakespeare Theatre
When: 23rd March 2017
This is the first of four reviews that I will deliver over the coming months on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) Rome season. We begin with Antony and Cleopatra and then head through Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus. The comfort of this is that it gives the RSC three attempts to improve upon this woeful Antony and Cleopatra.
twilightdawning 