NoSweatShakespeare co-founder Ralph Goldswain has been enjoying and reviewing the latest Shakespeare productions in London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Read his latest Shakespeare play reviews below:
A Great New Book About Shakespeare’s Tragedies
Review: Shakespeare’s Tragic Art by Rhodri Lewis Lewis writes: ‘What do you do after writing something like Hamlet?’ And indeed, he suggests an answer to his own question: ‘You might … Read more
Titus Andronicus Review, The Globe Theatre 2023
Violence? What violence? Titus Andronicus was hugely popular when it came out in 1594. Since then, until the twenty-first century, it was largely ignored, probably because its violence was too … Read more
Henry V Review, The Globe Theatre 2022
The Globe’s breathtaking Henry V. This is a very intelligent working of Shakespeare’s text. That’s the first thing to say, and the second is that Oliver Johnstone’s performance as Henry … Read more
Midsummer Mechanicals Review, The Sam Wanamaker Theatre At The Globe, 2022
If kids love a show written and staged for kids then it doesn’t matter what the grown-ups think, and while Splendid Productions’ Midsummer Mechanicals confused at least one grown up … Read more
The Tempest Review, The Globe Theatre 2022
Bravo, bravo and double bravo! This is not only one of Shakespeare’s greatest entertainments with its almost continuous music, including several songs, its magic, lots of belly-laughing comedy, including slapstick, … Read more
King Lear Review, The Globe Theatre 2022
King Lear has been called Shakespeare’s greatest play. It has also been said that it’s impossible to make it work on the stage. Those contradictory statements may both be true. … Read more
Henry VIII Review, The Globe Theatre, June 2022
It’s easy to say, as the Globe’s publicity for this production does, that the play was written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher “in collaboration with Hannah Khalil.” But four … Read more
Julius Caesar Review, The Globe Theatre, May 2022
With a cast of only eight actors, bringing this great play, which has some of Shakespeare’s major roles and scores of minor characters, with battle-ground and civil crowd scenes, to … Read more
Much Ado About Nothing Review, The Globe Theatre, May 2022
The Globe has opened its summer season with an energetic, very funny and all-round entertaining Much Ado About Nothing. It’s a conservative treatment that pays close attention to Shakespeare’s intentions … Read more
Hamlet Review, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, February 2022
The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse’s Hamlet could be termed “a play by Sean Holmes, based on an idea by William Shakespeare” for all the connection Holmes’s production has to Shakespeare’s text … Read more
The Tragedy of Macbeth, Joel Cohen: Review
Joel Coen’s 2021 film “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is a tale of two stories – Shakespeare’s and Coen’s – and the result is a remarkable film. If the point of … Read more
Measure For Measure, Sam Wannamaker Playhouse: Review
Measure for Measure, running until 15th January 2022 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, has been termed a “problem play” because, while it has a comic structure … Read more
Review: ‘Doing Shakespeare’ at the Bridewell Theatre
A group of six amateur thespians in the village of Felching are putting on a Shakespeare play. In spite of having a very limited knowledge or understanding of the Bard … Read more
Chiswick Playhouse’s All Women Macbeth: Review
A group of players with nothing more than a small acting space, a few crates to be used as tables, a throne, a scaffold, and some black drapes with multiple … Read more
‘Telling Tales’: Half Term Fun at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Shakespeare still offers the greatest fun, of any writer, for children. The Globe Theatre confirms that with its half-term attraction, Telling Tales. On a day out to the iconic theatre … Read more
Metamorphoses at The Globe Theatre: Review
Strong on theatre, flimsy on drama, great on storytelling This is the first test of the Globe’s new writers-in-residence, Sami Ibrahim, Laura Lomas, and Sabrina Mahfouz, three experienced young playwrights, … Read more
Twelfth Night Review, The Globe Theatre, August 2021
Sean Holmes’s production of Twelfth Night at The Globe Theatre is characterised by inventions and innovations within a faithful performance of the text, with a modern audience roaring at four … Read more
The Comedy of Errors, RSC Stratford, July 2021 Review
The Comedy of Errors is on at the RSC’s Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre until 26th September 2021. Phillip Breen’s outdoor production is a laugh-a-minute two-hour traffic in which … Read more
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, June 2021 Review
Ola Ince’s production of Romeo and Juliet is very contemporary. Shakespeare’s friend, Ben Jonson, wrote, in the Preface to The First Folio, that Shakespeare was not of an age, but … Read more
Shit Faced Shakespeare: Macbeth, Leicester Square Theatre, June 2021
What could be better than a walk about London’s West End on a warm July evening, seeing people who have spent the past year locked down at home joyfully filling … Read more
Review of Romeo and Juliet, Regent’s Park Open Air Theater, June 2021
To be at the theatre at last, with a large audience humming with anticipation as the curtain-up time approaches, is one of the best moments among those things that are … Read more
BBC and The Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Winter’s Tale, 2021 – A Screen Adaptation
Erica Whyman’s RSC production has had a difficult birth. With its upcoming performances eagerly anticipated and tickets nigh sold out, it fell victim to the Covid pandemic just before the … Read more
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