STR 2020 Theatre Book Prize Winner announced – Society for Theatre Research
[18th June 2020] Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh by Alan Strachan has been awarded the Society for Theatre Research Theatre Book Prize (for books published in 2019). The announcement was made … Continue reading
How Do You Solve a Problem Like ‘Emma’?
There’s a moment toward the end of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” when the heroine goes to a picnic and is horrified to discover that she is not as wonderful as she … Continue reading
‘F**k the critics’ – remembering the pithy advice of agent Peggy Ramsay
For hot young playwrights in the 1960s and 1970s, the most sought-after agent was Peggy Ramsay. In her prime, her client list included Joe Orton, Alan Ayckbourn, David Hare, Christopher … Continue reading
Book Review: Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell. | Adventures In Historyland
When a writer chooses as their lead protagonist an actor and his main theme the theatre, possibilities abound. At first looking at Bernard Cornwell’s new novel “Fools and Mortals”… Source: … Continue reading
Piaf and Cocteau: Les Enfants Terribles | A R T L▼R K
When I write I disturb. When I make a film I disturb. When I paint I disturb. When I exhibit my paintings I disturb, and I disturb if I don’t. … Continue reading
The Strange, Sad Story of Joe Orton, His Lover, and 72 Stolen Library Books – Atlas Obscura
Police came to the door of Joe Orton, the man who would one day be one of the most famous playwrights in the United Kingdom, and his partner Kenneth Halliwell’s one-bedroom … Continue reading
Archive Interview • BARRY NORMAN • Have a Nice Day • 2004
Reblogged from the original R&V site in tribute to the film critic who died last night at the age of 83. Have a Nice Day by the writer, film critic and … Continue reading
Quote • MICHAEL CAINE • Not Such a Class Act
‘I am being tough on him, but only because the world has been far too kind. [Michael] Caine can do good work, in a limited range: he is very interesting … Continue reading
Scandalous Women: Spirit of a Dove – Guest Post by Stephen Bourne
Evelyn Dove was one of the true pioneers of the booming cabaret age of the 1920s. She thrilled audiences around the world and her exquisite stage costumes helped to make … Continue reading
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) | CineMuseFilms
A dystopian masterpiece where alternative facts and fake news are weapons to crush truth Source: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) | CineMuseFilms
David Storey obituary | Stage | The Guardian
David Storey, who has died aged 83, was an unusual literary figure in being as well known for writing novels as he was for writing plays, never claiming that one … Continue reading
What’s So Complex about Shakespeare’s Immortal Rosalind?
Rosalind and Hamlet are surely the most complex in the vast parade of Shakespeare’s characters. In another dimension they could have been brother and sister. Both premiered during the same … Continue reading
Archive Book Review • SHAKESPEARE’S WIFE by Germaine Greer • pub. Bloomsbury Publishing • 2007
You know you are in for a good read when an intellectual and academic, who also happens to be the adopted mother of Austral-British feminism, gets to grips with the … Continue reading
On 75th of ‘Casablanca,’ the ‘Delightful’ New History ‘We’ll Always Have Casablanca’ Tells All – Tablet Magazine
One day on the set of Casablanca, Peter Lorre persuaded a few soundmen to rig up a wire in the room where director Michael Curtiz, much like Claude Rains’ Capt. … Continue reading
Samuel French bookshop to close after 187 years | Carousel, News | The Stage
Publisher and theatrical licensing company Samuel French is to close its London bookshop after 187 years in the capital, with management blaming an “unsust… Source: Samuel French bookshop to close … Continue reading
Two Thumbs Up for Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage | GALLIVANCE
We, and much of the rest of the world, were introduced to Bill Bryson’s work in his hilarious Notes From a Small Island. We were living in London at the time, … Continue reading
Review: Shakespeare in London by Hannah Crawforth, Sarah Dustagheer and Jennifer Young – Mathew Lyons
This review first appeared in the August 2015 issue of History Today. The world might be forgiven for rolling its eyes at the prospect of another book on Shakespeare. Does … Continue reading
Archive Book Review • ONE NIGHT STANDS pub. Nick Hern Books • Michael Billington • 2008
There are two great pleasures to be had from reading Michael Billington’s first collection of theatre criticism, One Night Stands 1971-1991. The first, assuming you are old enough to have … Continue reading
A Very Short Biography of George Bernard Shaw | Interesting Literature
The interesting life of the great playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was a prolific writer of plays but also of essays justifying his plays: the two (double-columned) volumes of his … Continue reading
Archive Book Review • DIFFERENT EVERY NIGHT • Mike Alfreds • 2007
Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor by Mike Alfreds With over fifty years of directing experience, Mike Alfreds has developed a specific way of working in the rehearsal room. In … Continue reading
Hear a 64-Hour Playlist of Sherlock Holmes Stories, With Performances by Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson & Many More | Open Culture
Enjoy a 64-hour, 163-track playlist of Sherlock Holmes stories performed aloud. Source: Hear a 64-Hour Playlist of Sherlock Holmes Stories, With Performances by Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson & … Continue reading
Arise, Sir Stanley! | The Shakespeare blog
Shakespeareans will be delighted to hear that Professor Stanley Wells has received a (long-overdue) knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.His books alone would take up several shelves, covering a … Continue reading
Archive Review • THE DEAD FIDDLER • Sacred and Profane @ New End Theatre • 2006
Collected Stories (Penguin Modern Classics) This is a play about dybbuks, in Jewish folklore the spirits of dead sinners unable to pass on to their next life who inhabit the … Continue reading
The Curious Origin of the Word ‘Trilby’ | Interesting Literature
How did the famous trilby hat get its name? Here’s a question for you: what was the biggest-selling novel of the Victorian era? And who wrote it – Dickens perhaps? … Continue reading
Quote • ALEXAI SAYLE
Thatcher Stole My Trousers by Alexei Sayle ‘My inclination was to make important life decisions based not on what was sensible or right or appropriate but rather on what I thought … Continue reading
Archive Book Review • SHAKESPEARE AND CO. by Stanley Wells • 2007
Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story In the 1616 Folio of Ben Jonson’s Workes, published seven … Continue reading
“I know for some women, men are a household necessity; myself, I’d rather have a canary.” Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton, at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Ennis House during the shooting of “Female.” When she retired from the screen she started writing. I found this copy of her … Continue reading
On a boat with Natalie Wood and Laurence Olivier
You may not know this, but Laurence Olivier adored Natalie Wood. They worked together in 1976 on a TV version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which she starred … Continue reading
“A gift of laughter…” Rafael Sabatini #WQWWC | Daily Echo
Rafael Sabatini is not the best known of writers these days, though he left his mark on both literature and cinema. He was born in 1875 in Jesi, Italy to … Continue reading
The History Girls: The Tempest, Twelfth Night and me by Gillian Polack
Right now, my writing self and my research self are sharing the seventeenth century. I tend to think of Shakespeare as a sixteenth century writer, because a lot of his … Continue reading
Rogues & Vagabonds 