PARADISE LOST PART 2: EVE AND ADAM (Red Bull Theater)****

  

By Cal

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/paradise-lost

Available until: Saturday 1^st May at 12.30am (UK); Friday 30^th April at 7pm (EST).

It seems more than two weeks since Part 1 aired, but seeing the characters onscreen again helped to jog my memory almost straight away.

Adam and Eve are living happily in the Garden of Eden, but someone has a plan to ruin it. Adam senses that all is not completely right with Eve, and the Father (God), fearing their disobedience, sends Raphael, one of His best angels, to have a word.

PARADISE LOST PART 1: THE FALL OF LUCIFER (Red Bull Theater Company)****

  

By Cal

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/paradise-lost

Available until: 12.30am GMT on Saturday 17^th April/7.30 EST on Friday 16^th April. Part 2 is on Monday 26^th/Tuesday 27^th April and will also be available for 4 days.

Paradise Lost is known as an epic poem in blank verse by John Milton about the story of Adam and Eve, also featuring various other characters which most people will recognise. The Red Bull Theater present an adaptation by Michael Barakiva, who also directs this production.

GALATEA (Red Bull Theater/WP Theater)****

 

By Dave 

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/galatea-mj-kaufman 

Available until: Friday March 26^th

Last week Red Bull Theater presented John Lyly’s Gallathea, first performed in 1588.

This week, Red Bull Theater and WP Theater present a more modern version of the show, Galatea, written by MJ Kaufman and first performed in 2018.

Galatea is said to be loosely based on Gallathea but it seems to me like it actually follows the story quite closely. The characters have the same names and Neptune is still causing trouble, demanding virgin sacrifices. The difference is more in the style – Galatea is written in modern language, it refers directly to modern terms like transgenderism and it’s very witty.

GALLATHEA (Red Bull Theater)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/gallathea 

Available until: Friday March 19^th 11.30pm GMT, 7.30pm EST

John Lyly’s Gallathea could have been a farce and it probably could be played as a farce. Two girls, Gallathea and Phillida, are forced by their fathers to disguise themselves as boys. Gallathea and Phillida meet and fall in love, each thinking the other is a boy. (And in the original production, which was performed for Elizabeth I, they really were boys – all the characters were played by men.)

THE BELLE’S STRATAGEM (Red Bull Theater)****

 

By Emma

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/the-belles-stratagem

Available until: Friday 7pm EST or Friday/Saturday midnight in the UK

A lot of people criticise Shakespeare because he hasn’t written many good roles for women. I think they are totally wrong because what about Desdemona? What about Lady Macbeth? What about Viola? There might be a lot more male roles than female roles but I don’t think Shakespeare has presented women too badly really and they’re definitely not all the same.

But I think the people who criticise Shakespeare would love The Belle’s Stratagem. It was written nearly 200 years later and it is not really very Shakespearean but it is all sort of classical and elegant and very different from plays now.

THE WOMAN HATER (Red Bull Theater)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk6ZMl-rcbI

Available until: Saturday 30^th January 12.30am GMT. Friday January 29th January 7pm EDT.

Frances Burney, also known as Fanny Burney, is well-known for her novels, the best known of which is probably Evelina. But she has also written quite a few plays, which have been neglected by theatres until recently. One of her plays, A Busy Day, was performed in the West End. The Woman Hater was performed at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond more recently. The theatre rightly has a very good reputation, but it’s a small theatre and its works don’t attract the same attention as those in the West End.

THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III (Red Bull Theater)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1dwrpaacSg&feature=youtu.be

Available until: Friday 15^th January 7pm EST (Saturday 16^th January 1am in the UK)

Content warning: Contains themes of racism, the use of racial slurs – the N-word.

Red Bull Theater’s productions premiere in the middle of the night for UK viewers and they’re only available for a few days, but they really are worth a watch. They find so many interesting plays which I’ve never heard of and they always have something really relevant to say. The African Company Presents Richard III is set in 1821 and was premiered in 1988 (though this production is of the significant 1992 rewrite, in which a major character was removed from the play). In many ways, attitudes have moved on and it’s a good thing, but other things haven’t changed, at least not as much as we’d have liked them to and one way of showing that is to put it into a work of fiction and let us see it for ourselves. The play might be fiction, but there’s a lot of truth in fiction if you’re prepared to look for it. Far too much of this play rings true.

A KING AND NO KING (Red Bull Theater)**

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/a-king-and-no-king

Available until: Friday 18^th December, 7pm EST/Saturday 19^th December 12.30am UK

It’s really hard to know what to say about this one. If you can watch it through to the end, everything does make a bit more sense and it turns out that there is a point to it after all.

But sitting through this play is not easy. It’s a dark, nasty and immoral play and a very uncomfortable watch.

THE COURAGE TO RIGHT A WOMAN’S WRONGS (Red Bull Theatre)***

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqVKp1pRUyE&feature=youtu.be

Available until: I think the early hours of 21^st November 2020 if you’re in the UK but probably the afternoon/evening of the 20^th if you’re in the USA.

The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs is an English translation of Ana Caro’s Spanish play Valor, Agravio y Mujer. A direct translation would be Courage, Wrongs and Woman, but the title chosen for this production does tell you a lot more about the play.  

KEENE (Red Bull Theater/American Shakespeare Center)****

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSYNsNsg0X4&feature=youtu.be

Available until: Friday 24^th October, 12am

This play sounds quite heavy. It’s all about academics at a conference and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t give me a few reservations. But it’s actually a sweet, funny and very relevant play about human beings. It helped that I’m a fan of Shakespeare and opera and that I managed to learn a fair amount about One Direction in the days when Imogen refused to speak about anything else but I don’t think this knowledge is necessary in order to appreciate the play. I think you’ll probably pick up what you need to know as you go along.

AMERICAN MOOR (Red Bull Theater)*****

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/american-moor-benefit

Available until: 7pm EDT on 16^th August which I think is midnight between the 16^th and 17^th August in the UK.

I love Othello. It’s one of my favourite plays. The title role is one of my favourite characters. A character I’d love to play. But after watching this play… I don’t know anymore. I don’t know if I still love it. And if I do, is that wrong?