by Annette Rubery | Mar 24, 2024 | Shakespeare
Macbeth, Dir. Simon Godwin, London 2024. Just back from London and the blasted heath of Canada Water to see Simon Godwin’s production of Macbeth. It took place in a gigantic warehouse, where audiences filed past a burnt-out car in an imaginary war-torn city, and the...
by Annette Rubery | Dec 28, 2023 | Literature, Shakespeare
Two Dromios from the frontispiece to "Tales from Shakespeare", McLoughlin Brothers, 1890. Wikimedia Commons. I must confess that I chose The Comedy of Errors as my Christmas read because I am pushed for time and it’s short (Shakespeare’s shortest play, in fact). Yet...
by Annette Rubery | Dec 20, 2023 | Shakespeare
A Festive Shakespeare at The Garrick Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon. A big thank you for reading my blog this year. I have been trying to hook it up to a subscription email service which I am finding impossible to make work properly, so a double thank-you for finding it in...
by Annette Rubery | Nov 25, 2023 | Shakespeare
King Lear, Wyndham's Theatre, London, 2023. I was excited to finally see Kenneth Branagh in King Lear at Wyndham’s Theatre last night, having booked months ago. I last saw him live in a Shakespeare play (Hamlet) in 1992, so was nostalgic about his return to the...
by Annette Rubery | Nov 8, 2023 | Shakespeare
An edition of the First Folio (London, 1623) seen at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, April 23rd 2023. Today marks the culmination of the 400th birthday celebrations of the First Folio: one of the most influential books ever to have been published. We travelled to...
by Annette Rubery | Oct 27, 2023 | Literature, Shakespeare, Theatre History
Shylock and Portia by Thomas Sully (1835), from Act IV, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice. Wikimedia Commons. Following some interesting conversations on Twitter, I thought I should try to put some thoughts down about The Merchant of Venice. I studied the play as a...