stage
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Battersea Arts Centre commissioned Tom de Freston to create a bedroom for its resident artists – he responded by covering himself in paint to evoke a blend of King Lear and wild storms
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Dorfman theatre, London
Astonishing New York hit goes behind the scenes at a cinema to expose the desperate longings of its three young protagonists -
Cultural events to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death will be in full swing across the country this weekend
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In Bromance, they sketched out their blossoming friendship in dance and circus tricks. Now the Barely Methodical Troupe are riffing on Lord of the Flies with their new show Kin. They explain why it’s ‘a new tree in our garden’
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Upswing’s charming show celebrates the place that bedtime stories have in happy family life and why parents also benefit from the power of dreaming
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David Threlfall speaks Prospero’s speech in which the sorcerer contemplates the end of life – and the playwright, perhaps, considers the end of his career
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Joanna Lumley speaks Viola’s soliloquy from Twelfth Night in which, disguised as a page boy, she wonders whether Olivia has fallen in love with her
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Roger Allam performs a speech from the tragedy in which the ageing king curses the weather and his daughters
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Ayesha Dharker plays Titania, the queen of the fairies, in a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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Daniel Mays speaks Macbeth’s lines from Act II, Scene 1, in which he sees a murder weapon in a hallucination
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Camille O’Sullivan plays Constance in King John, who laments the loss of her son, Arthur, but disputes the suggestion that she has gone mad
talking points
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Whether his plays were performed on a whaling ship, up a redwood tree or by a burlesque dancer, the pioneers had a particular fondness for the Bard
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The entrance hall to Brunel’s 19th-century tunnel under the Thames has been turned into a unique auditorium, complete with the rumble of Tube trains
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Our play about the radicalisation of young Muslims was pulled. But the National Theatre’s is going ahead – with no censorship or police intervention. Why can’t Muslims tell their own stories?
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From Alan Cumming performing a solo Macbeth, to shows in pubs, airports and cars, the National Theatre of Scotland has produced some of the UK’s most daring work
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A programme of three ballets by three women choreographers is a campaigning first. The results are far from traditional – and far from consistent
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From the sound of his own crying to superlative superhero spoofs
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The British ventriloquist and America’s Got Talent winner is a virtuosic voice-thrower but his material isn’t up to the same standard
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The British double act pay tribute to their heroes – including Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, and the late Ronnies Corbett and Barker
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Budget cuts, rising travel costs – it’s tough for critics to get to plays in remote areas but let’s not bolster the idea that regional theatre cannot compete
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Leo Butler’s play follows a teenager adrift in cold, modern London, but its compassion is sometimes overwhelmed by a restless production
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This compelling portrait of how the Maoist revolution gripped one particular village is a big, ambitious and thought-provoking play
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The actor says The Revisionist, his play about a self-involved novelist, is an exercise in introspection and he doesn’t care for critics of Batman v Superman
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With his troubled air and tousled hair, the actor has made his name with anguished characters. Now on Broadway in The Crucible, he talks about coming out and why actors need to keep their private lives mysterious
polls & quizzes
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Here are 10 striking stage directions – can you identify the plays they're taken from?
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Sometimes the description of a character in the stage directions says as much as lines of dialogue. Do you recognise these eight figures as described by the playwrights who created them?
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Many of Shakespeare's lines are used in daily life – but do you know which plays feature these popular expressions?
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Are you a titan of the theatre or have the fates abandoned you? As the Almeida puts on a festival inspired by Dionysus, test your knowledge of Greek drama
from the archive
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Three women, two dresses, one lesson about the politics of fashion. Vanessa Kirby, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Lucy Ellinson star in a microplay made after a conversation with Hadley Freeman
pictures & video
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Mark Rylance offers a tip of the hat, Judi Dench beams, and Denise Gough is euphoric … Guardian photographer David Levene used his all-access pass at the 2016 Olivier awards to capture stars at their most candid
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Judi Dench! Eddie Izzard! Cyndi Lauper! The toast of theatreland arrive at the Royal Opera House in London – and everyone just wants to have fun
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In a dystopian near-future, Brutus (Mark Stanley, Game of Thrones) and his conspirators plot Caesar’s demise
you may have missed
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In 1985, 1,300 police clashed with 600 hippy travellers near Stonehenge – and closed a chapter of British counterculture. Theatre director Billy Barrett describes how he staged a zero-budget version of the encounter
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popular
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A film for each play to mark 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death
This article is 5 months old
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