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 | Feb 1, 2024 | Theatre History
Whereas even those with a casual interest in British theatre would recognise the name David Garrick, Charles Macklin’s contributions to the development of acting in the 18th century have been all-but forgotten. Macklin was an early mentor of Garrick’s and worked...
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 1, 2023 | Theatre History
I am still reeling from the news that Robert D. Hume, the American theatre historian, died last week. I debated whether to write anything about him here because I was not a colleague or friend and did not know him very well – beyond the exchange of a few emails....
by Annette Rubery | Nov 29, 2023 | Opera, Theatre History
Bedford Row, London, November 2023. I wrote the other day (in Operatic foundations: A relic of the Haymarket theatre) about the curious stones in the front garden of a law office in Bedford Row and how I think they once formed the foundation of John Vanbrugh’s...
