To ring in the new year I thought I’d draw from my archive for something big and different.
And so to director Phelim McDermott and designer Julian Crouch — founders of Improbable Theatre — for their ENO / Metropolitan Opera production of Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha, which looks at the early life of Mahatma Gandhi.
These pictures are from the 2013 revival.
Theatre company Antic Disposition continue their habit of adopting venerable monuments as (extremely) lavish stage sets. This time, they’ve invaded the Middle Temple Hall for their take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Starring the inimitable David Burt as Scrooge, the last performance is on 30 December and — since it’s deservedly selling fast — you’ll need to book a ticket swiftly.
It’s not often that a 130-year-old show feels brand new and utterly original, but director Thom Southerland and team have achieved just that in the marvellously colourful interpretation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Mikado, currently playing at the Charing Cross Theatre.
A smattering of the production shots below.
It’s back from Iceland to the somewhat warmer climes of the Finborough for some production shots from Obamaology.
The play chronicles the mix of fluffy idealism and brutally efficient activism that got Barrack Obama elected. It’s clever, it’s funny, it’s poignant, and you need to book your tickets quickly because the last performance is on Tuesday.
Some production shots from the extraordinarily literate Silent Planet at the Finborough Theatre. The show, set in a Soviet mental prison, runs until 20 December.
Back in July, I looked at how we approached the publicity shots for Martin Sherman’s play, Passing By, to make sure we did justice to the fact this play isn’t gay, it just happens to be about two gay people, and how we jiggled the look when, after the initial Finborough Theatre run, a new cast took over for the transfer to the Tristan Bates Theatre.
This time round, I thought it would be interesting to show you the production shots from the two shows. The old space and the new were recognisably the same but different. Likewise, Alex Felton and Steven Webb in the original run and James Cartwright and Rik Makarem in the transfer brought their own souls to eke recognisable but totally different lives from the script.
Jacques Brel smoked a lot, sang a lot and left behind some memorably not anodyne songs.
They’re revisited in wonderfully Technicolor style by Gina Beck, Daniel Boys, David Burt and Eve Polycarpou in the new production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, now playing at the Charing Cross Theatre.
Shots from the English National Opera’s Xerxes.
A revival of director Nicholas Hytner’s production of Handel’s opera, the show runs until 3 October.
Over to the King’s Head Theatre in Islington for Autobahn, American playwright Neil LaBute’s uncomfortably funny play cycle about Americans having awkward conversations in cars.
Former half-of-the-Gold-Blend-couple, Sharon Maughan, leads a cast who act their chops off.
The show runs to 20 September.
Production shots from Antic Disposition’s production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in the quite extraordinary venue of Temple Church.
If you want to see this production you need to be quick as the run is only a week long.
