By Cal
Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare
Available until: Unknown
Before lockdown, all I knew about Coriolanus is that yes, the last two syllables usually are pronounced in the rude way. Now, I’m a bit more educated about Shakespeare (and maybe even a bit more mature) and other parts of this play are far more interesting to me – including how surprisingly enjoyable Coriolanus is.
Link:
The Merchant of Venice is definitely a problem play for me. There’s a lot here to make a modern audience very uncomfortable.
Another problem is whose side you’re on. Nobody behaves all that well – and while this is a charge that could be levelled at a number of Shakespeare’s characters, the characters in The Merchant of Venice aren’t as easy to invest in as such incredible creations as Iago and the Macbeths.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHM--zjDQ14
Available until: Unknown
Charles Dickens is known for his larger-than-life characters with impossible names, but I first encountered him as the writer of a ghost story – A Christmas Carol. Although I had a feeling he’d written other stories with a spooky theme, I hadn’t read or heard any of them till listening to this reading of The Signalman.
By Cal
Link: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/thornhill-theatre/audio-fringe-ttsfringe2-one-6bwmjB7kr-H
Available until: Unknown
Sometimes there’s one person you can’t quite let go of. No matter how hard you might try to move on with your life, there’s one person you can’t forget. One person you want to see just one more time – if one more night can really be enough.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uH1rOkpROA
Available until: Unknown
Rosegold, presented as part of #TTSFringe2, is an exceptionally powerful piece of writing which is wonderfully performed by the writer. There is no age rating, but it’s definitely a production where listener discretion is advised. There are descriptions of violence and injury as well as references to alcoholism. If you’re young or you’re feeling sensitive, this might not be a good time for you to listen to it, but maybe consider it again when you’re older or you feel stronger because it really is brilliant.
By Cal
Link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/caledonian-sleeper
Available until: Unknown
The Edinburgh Festival is an important event in the calendar for many theatre fans, but it’s not something I’d experienced until lockdown. A number of different shows are available online. Some have to be watched live, but Caledonian Sleeper is one of many that can be watched on demand.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8fJX4VI7U0
Available until: Unknown
Thornhill Theatre Space’s second virtual fringe festival, #TTSFringe2, opened on 2nd August with three brilliant and thought-provoking monologues. The festival will run throughout August with new work uploaded most days and we have very kindly been asked to be a Digital Sponsor, supporting the festival with reviews of and tweets about as much of their work as possible.
To find out what will happen as part of the Festival in the future (though some videos are probably already available), check out the Kick-Off Event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIoaVrxuKlc
Monologue Monday Part 1 gives the Festival a very strong start. After eighteen months of monologues, there are still so many new stories to be told about new characters and the three monologues featured here are great and varied examples of the way a monologue can be used and the diverse range of subjects.
By Cal
Link to Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWyfBfRxhmk
Episode 1 with subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rey2Zp7KAwk
Other episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRc2lmDAjXa1_wLCuL-PKFw/videos
Available until: Unknown
There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare plays which have been made digitally available in lockdown, but all of them can teach you something new about the plays that inspired them and Lear Alone is definitely not the exception. On the contrary.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aTlHSECRcE&t=2s
With subtitles: https://www.scenesaver.co.uk/production/masks-and-faces-subtitled
Available until: Wednesday 25th August 2021
Masks are so much a part of our lives now, I mistakenly expected this to be a new play about current times. I was only about 170 years out of date. Masks and Faces is a Victorian farcical comedy, first performed in 1852.
By Cal
Link: https://lyric.co.uk/shows/out-west-online
Available until: Livestreams available until 17th July 2021. 24 hour access.
I read an article a short while ago that suggested monologues had run their course and could not be taken any further; that they were useful when it came to keeping actors away from other actors, but they had no long-term future.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nH4CpSLsDc&t=1s
Available until: Saturday 18th July 2021
Glyndebourne have been very generous with their free offerings during lockdown and their latest is their 2017 production of La clemenza di Tito.
La clemenza di Tito is generally not considered to be ‘up there’ with some of Mozart’s better-known operas, but I think it has an absolutely beautiful score and perhaps even my favourite Mozart finale. It doesn’t have the sense of fun of Le nozze di Figaro, the raw sex of parts of Don Giovanni or the magic of Die Zauberflöte, but perhaps this is the one with the potential to play the biggest amount of havoc with your emotions. It shows what love can drive you to, whether that’s love for a person, power or a friend.
By Cal
Link: https://space.org.uk/event/lydia
Available until: One more performance on 23rd May at 7.30pm
Growing up is an interesting process. We all have to do it at some stage. We’re usually a bit too anxious to get there and when we finally do, we often change our minds and want to be a kid again. We tend to assume grown-ups know everything and then we’re either disappointed with them when we find out they don’t, or we’re thrown into chaos when we hit eighteen and realise we still don’t know everything. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, and yet we get very little choice in the matter.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IEU6B_50fw
Available until: Unknown
Ribbons was performed as part of the Saplings series in early March 2020. It was filmed in a crowded auditorium with lots of close contact between the two actors.
By Cal
Link: https://www.theplacebedford.org.uk/shows/sophia-2018-online-film
Available until: 23rd May 2021
Most films are there to tell a story and to entertain the audience. If there’s any education or awareness-raising aspect, that’s a bonus, but the primary purpose of a film is usually to entertain in some way (and to make money, though that’s more a necessity than a creative element).
By Cal
Link: https://brightonfestival.org/whats-on/house-mother-normal-online-3112
Available until: 31st May. You’ll be sent a link shortly before 8pm on the day of the booked performance. You’ll have access for 48 hours. Captioned version is available.
It is incredibly brave to produce a play such as this in current times, but it is a decision I completely support and, if anything, the production might be a little overdue.
Link: https://www.stream.theatre/season/102
Available until: 16th May
There are some things in life which don’t really belong in the medium of comedy. These include, but are not restricted to, bombs, guns and childbirth. Bombs and guns can intentionally cause death; in childbirth, death is unintentional but no less tragic. In order to make these things funny, you would need an extraordinarily gifted writer and performer who can find the humour in these situations but deliver it with compassion and respect.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9qZXxsGi3M
Available until: Unknown
Night Work is another incredibly creepy original story from Moth Sanctuary Productions in their Penny Dreadfuls series. As always, the standard is very high and each story introduces us to a completely different world with new characters, situations and horrors.
By Cal
Link: https://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/events/coram-boy
Available until: 9th May 2021
Coram Boy appears to be incomplete, with only Part 1 featuring as part of this performance. But it’s a great opera and it’s free to watch so if you listen to it now, you’ll know if you like it and if you ever do get the opportunity to watch the full opera, you’ll know it’s worth paying for.
By Cal
Link: https://lyceum.org.uk/whats-on/production/tennis-elbow
Available until: Livestream on Saturday 8th May at 7pm.
Tennis Elbow was written by the acclaimed Scottish playwright John Byrne, some thirteen years after what many probably believed to be his last play. It is a sort of sequel or companion piece to another play what he wrote (bad grammar intentional), Writer’s Cramp.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddOcAMgO8TY
Available until: Unknown
Oh By the Way, I Hate Myself is a really brave monologue. Brave for the writer and the actor. It goes against social conventions and I can imagine that some people might be upset by it. But I’m not. Although I’ll never be in this situation myself, I think it’s very real and honest – more real and honest than many people are in this character’s situation – and I think quite a lot of people would identify with it, even if they don’t feel able to admit to it.
