Archive Review • SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER • Richmond Theatre [tour] • 2008
If ever a production showed just how important it is to get the set and costumes right, this touring version of She Stoops to Conquer from Birmingham Rep and The Touring Consortium, … Continue reading
Archive Interview • MARK BABYCH • Blonde Bombshells of 1943 • 2007
Alan Plater’s drama about an all-women swing band in the Second World War began life as an award-winning TV film starring Judi Dench and Ian Holm. West Yorkshire Playhouse swiftly … Continue reading
Actor Tim Pigott-Smith dies aged 70 – BBC News
British actor Tim Pigott-Smith, who was best known for his Bafta-winning role in 1984 TV series The Jewel in the Crown, has died aged 70. His agent described him as … Continue reading
Archive Review • TESTING THE ECHO • OjO @ Tricycle Theatre [tour] • 2008
David Edgar’s docudrama about immigration in the UK has been compared to Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Discounting the fact that both plays employ a kind of ‘collage’ effect, and … Continue reading
Archive Interview • EDWARD HALL • A Midsummer Night’s Dream • 2003
Ed Hall (he’s happy to be called Ed or Edward, ‘most people call me Ed’), props himself into one of those infamously uncomfortable folding director’s chairs at a minuscule kitchen … Continue reading
Stephanie Beacham: ‘We need more difficult women like Princess Margaret’
Made famous by her stint as Sable Colby in 80s US soap, Dynasty, British actress STEPHANIE BEACHAM is returning to the stage to play… Source: Stephanie Beacham: ‘We need more … Continue reading
Archive Review • THE NIGHT SHIFT • BAC, London [tour] • 2005
Theatre and dreams make frequent bed fellows and their love-act is often fecund and beautiful. Strindberg’s Dream Play, revived this year in Katie Mitchell’s stunning and unsettling production at the National, … Continue reading
Archive Review • TALKING TO TERRORISTS • OJO • @ Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs • 2005
At one period in my life my phone would sometimes ring around 4 or 5pm and the editor of the TV programme I worked for would ask me to be … Continue reading
![Allen in July 2015 [Wikipedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/alfie_allen_by_gage_skidmore.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Archive Review • EQUUS • Richmond Theatre [end of tour] • 2008
On the border between commercial and artistic theatre, there is a small number of established playwrights whose work migrates with surprising ease from one side to the other: Stoppard, Hare, … Continue reading
Archive Review • OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH • Northern Stage @ Oxford Playhouse [tour] • 2008
Our Friends In The North [DVD] [1996] When the lights go up on Our Friends in the North they illuminate an assorted cast – young men and old, the wealthy … Continue reading
Shakespeare 400: Archive Review • TROILUS and CRESSIDA • Cheek by Jowl @ Barbican [tour] • 2008
The actors have been robbed of their faces. Cheek by Jowl company’s director, Declan Donnellan, and designer, Nick Ormerod, have lit their production in such a way that you rarely … Continue reading
![Chandelier in the auditorium at the Royal Lyceum, Grindlay Street, Edinburgh [Wikimedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/royal_lyceum_edinburgh_chandelier.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Archive Review • MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION • Edinburgh Royal Lyceum [tour] • 2007
The power to shock still resides in the text of Mrs Warren’s Profession, which tells in four acts the story of a prim and proper young woman who discovers the … Continue reading
![Dame Harriet Walter discusses the role of women in Shakespeare plays as part of the RSC's "Stand up for Shakespeare" programme in January 2009 [Wikipedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/440px-harriet_walter_-_actress.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Archive Review • THE DEEP BLUE SEA • Richmond Theatre [tour] • 2003
Richmond Theatre remains one of the most charming theatres within reach of central London, and continues to host richly varied and occasionally great touring productions. The majority this season happen … Continue reading
It’s A Wonderful Life: The Radio Play, Seabright, CliMar and Bridge House Productions, Grand Opera House York, November 9 *****
FOR some, it’s officially Christmas when they first see the John Lewis or Coca Cola advert. For me, it’s when I watch It’s a Wonderful… Source: It’s A Wonderful Life: … Continue reading
Archive Review • THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES • Richmond Theatre (tour) • 2008
As a child, I remember spending Sunday afternoons curled up in a zebra-print blanket watching Basil Rathbone in black and white solving crimes of the most devious nature. As a … Continue reading
![Caricature of Henrik Ibsen for Vanity Fair in 1901 [Wikipedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/henrik_ibsen_vanity_fair_1901-12-12.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Archive Review • JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN • Richmond Theatre • 2003
English Touring Theatre have a distinctive reputation when it comes to staging Ibsen. Their production of John Gabriel Borkman has not pleased everyone but never having seen the play before, Stephen Unwin’s … Continue reading
Archive Review • JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN • Greenwich Theatre • 2003
Cold and ice have non-speaking parts in the English Touring Theatre’s production of Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman at Greenwich Theatre. Against a backdrop of falling snow and a leafless birch tree, in … Continue reading
Mark Bruce’s Dracula at Bristol Old Vic – Madame Guillotine
Being a bit of a goth, you can imagine how delighted I was to be asked along to the press night for Mark Bruce’s superlative and erotic reimagining of Dracula … Continue reading
Archive Theatre Review • BLACKBIRD • Oxford Playhouse • 2008
In 1998, almost ten years ago exactly, Gitta Sereny published a book titled Cries Unheard: the Story of Mary Bell. Sereny’s recurrent theme is the nature of evil, most often examined through the … Continue reading
Archive Interview • ROBERT DAWS • 2008
Robert Daws has not appeared on stage for seven years and David Harrower’s award-winning Blackbird is only the second play he’s done in eighteen years. Not only that but Ray, his character, … Continue reading
Theatre Review • ROAD • Swan Theatre, Worcester • tour • 2002
Welcome to the launch of Rogues & Vagabonds on WordPress. I am gradually transferring the articles published on my theatre site, regularly updated between 2002 and 2008, for anyone with … Continue reading
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