CHRISTMAS AT THE (SNOW) GLOBE (Globe Theatre)*****

 

By Megan

Link: Christmas at the (Snow) Globe | Shakespeare’s Globe (Audio described version available) £15 + £2.50 booking fee

Available until: Tuesday 5^th January 11.59pm GMT

Christmas at the (Snow) Globe is a really wonderful play set at the Globe Theatre. It is all about kindness but I don’t think it’s soppy at all. It has humour too and some really good music and the characters in it feel like real people. It was staged at the Globe last year but this is a new version without an audience which is based on the way the world is now.

EMILIA (Globe Theatre/Vaudeville Theatre)***

 

By Sophie

Link: https://www.emilialive.com

Available until: 2^nd December 2020

Emilia has been widely revered as one of the great plays of the modern age and there are certainly many good things in it. It’s the story of a fascinating woman, brought to the stage by a very interesting and multi-talented playwright and performed by a very strong team of actors and creatives who all happen to be female.

But my feelings are very mixed.

MACBETH: A CONJURING (Globe Theatre)*****

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/macbeth-a-conjuring-2020/ Standard £15, members £12, Concessions £5

Available until: 11^th November 2020, 12.59pm

In case you’re wondering about the title, this is still Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It’s filmed in a smallish, rectangular room, which is lit with candles. You could actually describe this performance as a sort of séance, with (most of) the cast of the Globe’s 2018 production of Macbeth resurrected for this reading.

DEEP NIGHT, DARK NIGHT (Globe Theatre)*****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/deep-night-dark-night-2020/ Standard £15, Members £12, Concessions £5

Available until: 7^th November 22.59pm.

Warning: The stories include descriptions of violence and there is occasional use of swear words.

This is a selection of three ghost stories, each told by a single actor. They’re very different in style and content, but all interesting and creepy.

Paul Ready performs The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. At first, his matter-of-fact tone doesn’t seem quite right for a ghost story and doesn’t immediately draw you in, but as you listen more to his words, the way he’s chatting almost casually makes the story even more chilling. Especially as his words sound like natural speech, which makes the story feel real. He does show more emotion later in the story, but that too is very clever because as his tension increases, so does ours. As he talks about the heartbeat, our own respond by quickening. If the emotion had come earlier, I don’t think it would have been so effective. As it is, the story creeps up on you and isn’t that exactly what you want?

Andrius Gaucas performs 50 Berkeley Square by writer-in-residence Sami Ibrahim. This story examines the different perspectives and truths to every real story. It’s a fascinating, many-layered story and I love the way Andrius tells it. He’s delightfully eccentric and full of personality. There’s such a great contrast between the lightness of his narration and the darkness of the subject matter.

Jessie Bedrossian performs I am Karyan Ophidian by Abi Zakarian. It’s a compelling and genuinely creepy story that definitely made me feel a bit uncomfortable! Perhaps it’s especially creepy because it’s obviously set in our world. A world of the internet. A world of lockdown. A world where we can’t be completely sure how safe we really are…

HENRY VIII (Globe Theatre)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://globeplayer.tv/videos/henry-viii £11.99 to buy or send as a gift, £5.99 to rent

Available until: It’s only available through the site for a limited time. If you buy it, you need to download it. Then it’s yours forever. If you buy it and don’t download it, you’ll lose access.

Henry VIII isn’t one of the most popular Shakespeare plays. It wasn’t entirely written by Shakespeare, which puts a lot of people off. Shakespeare also doesn’t give us the full story - it ends with Henry being happy with one of his wives and we all know exactly how long that lasts. Henry also doesn’t have the fun of attempting to get rid of other people or the agony of other people attempting to get rid of him.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (Globe Theatre)****

 

By Dave

Link: https://globeplayer.tv/videos/all-s-well-that-ends-well £5.99 to rent, £11.99 to buy or send as a gift

Available until: Forever, or until the Globe take it off their site. But even if you buy it or receive it as a gift, you can only access it through the site for a limited time. So you need to download it. Once it’s downloaded I think it’s yours forever.

All’s Well That Ends Well is one of the great problem plays. And the usual problems people have with this play are either a complete lack of understanding of why an intelligent woman like Helena would want an idiot like Bertram – and whether the trick Helena and Diana play on Bertram is entirely right.

AS YOU LIKE IT (Globe Theatre)*****

 

By Louise

Link: https://globeplayer.tv/videos/as-you-like-it £5.99 to rent, £11.99 to own or send as a gift. It is very complicated sending it as a gift but the Globe people are very helpful

Available until: I think you can keep it for a limited time if you rent it and it’s yours forever if you buy it.

I think the Globe is a really beautiful theatre. Every time I see a production, I’m surprised by how beautiful it is. This production has lots of shots of the entire stage (Kriss Russman directed the filming, though he didn’t direct the actual production) so you get the full effect of what a special theatre it is and how much work must have gone into it. It is sad to think the Globe (and almost every other theatre) has no audience at the moment.

ROMEO & JULIET (Globe Theatre)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFBWXRqa7Gs

Link to audio-described version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=806Br_XIqAo

Available until: February half-term 2021

This production is an introduction to the play for young people. I might not be the best person to review it because I already know the play, but I am probably the right sort of age.

The play has been cut down to one hour, thirty-seven minutes. I think it works really well. It tells every part of the story which it needs to tell and I didn’t notice anything which was missed out that I thought should have been left in. Director Michael Oakley has set this production in the present day. The language and a lot of the laws and conventions in the play (for example, Juliet is legally allowed to marry at fourteen) stay the same, but the characters wear really nice modern clothes designed by Alex Lowde and look like modern people. It might help people to identify with the characters if they look like us. The production has done really well with emphasising the ways Romeo, Juliet and the other characters aren’t very different from us and feel things like we do.