Experience: 7/10
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Gregory Doran
Venue: RST
Date: Wednesday 28th May 2014
This is a rather clunky production at the moment, but there’s potential for improvement. We have some other visits planned for later in the year, so hopefully we’ll enjoy seeing the performances come on.
Experience: 7/10
By Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton
Directed by Jo Davies
Venue: Swan Theatre
Date: Tuesday 27th May 2014
It’s over thirty years since we saw the previous RSC production of this play, and for all that it starred Helen Mirren in the title role, I can’t remember a thing about it. Those were early days in my Jacobethan immersion, so the unfamiliar language, odd characters and many and varied plot twists would have been harder to follow. Now that I’m much more conversant with the genre, I hoped I would find the plot easier to grasp, and it was indeed a much more rewarding experience. The language still caught me out a bit, mind you, so I’ll be keen to read the text before we see it again, but the production itself was very good fun, and it was lovely to see a number of the usual suspects back again for another season.
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