By Megan
Link: https://www.patreon.com/TheShowMustGoOnline/posts
Available until: Unknown
Content warnings: This production contains noises and images that may be startling, sexual references and reference to suicide, along with depictions of self-harm and the occult.
Doctor Favstvs is the last full-length play in the Month of Marlowe and TSMGO give a brilliant performance just like they always do.
By Megan (she/her)
Link: https://www.patreon.com/TheShowMustGoOnline/posts (you need to sign up as a patreon to watch this show)
Available until: Unknown
The Show Must Go Online has performed all the plays which Shakespeare definitely wrote (though a lot of people would say The Two Noble Kinsmen is definite and other people include Edward III and Sir Thomas More) so now they are performing a classic play by John Lyly.
By Cal
Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/tsmgo-pericles-47333771 Everyone currently signed up to Patreon has access. If you’re not, it’s easy to sign up and there’s a range of price levels.
Available until: Unknown
The Show Must Go Online is back! After presenting all the plays in the First Folio last year, there was a clamour among groundlings for Pericles to be added to complete the set and TSMGO have done it – in style.
By Megan
Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ian-doeschers-a-christmas-carol-catch-up-tickets-133548891329?aff=
Available until: January 1st 0.00 GMT
It’s a sad day today but I’m sure
watching A Christmas Carol made a lot of people feel better, even if it
was only for two and a half hours. It is a really brilliant adaption of A
Christmas Carol with a Shakespearean twist and I really hope it will be
possible for more people to watch it before it disappears offline forever.
By Louise
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVtdtBbUwK4
Available until: Forever
I almost didn’t want to watch this because I knew that when
I did, it would all be over. But I also really wanted to watch it because I
knew it would be brilliant and it was.
Mostly, TSMGO have presented Shakespeare’s First Folio plays
in order (as far as we can be sure of the correct order). I think the only
changes they made were posting the three parts of Henry VI in
chronological order (Part I was actually written last) and now swapping the
order of Henry VIII and The Tempest and ending with a more
popular work. I think both these decisions are really good. Henry VI
makes more sense in order and although there is something to celebrate at the
end of Henry VIII, it’s not a very well-known play and although it has a
beautiful ending, it ends quite quietly. The Tempest definitely ends
with more of a bang.
By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5dKqdQ7dI
Available until: Forever
Henry VIII isn’t usually performed very often but
this is the third production I’ve seen so I feel very lucky. It’s often the
very last Shakespeare play people see to complete the set and I think it must
be a lovely surprise because it’s a much better play than people expect.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuOxCWd2ZiA
Available until: forever
Content warnings: sexual assault, violence, gore
Cymbeline is one of the funny ones – and I’m
definitely not calling it a comedy. (It’s actually listed as a tragedy, though
I am a bit surprised by this.) Cymbeline is a funny one because it
doesn’t make complete sense. You do have to suspend your disbelief. You do need
to forgive some very bad behaviour in order to be happy with the ending. You need a top-class cast in order to make
this one work. Fortunately, this production is by TSMGO so you get your
top-class cast and the rest is easy. But
it’s still a very strange play!
By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9V4YwZArao
Available until: Forever
Trigger warning: The bear is a very messy eater
The Winter’s Tale
is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. A lot of people don’t like it and
that’s okay but I really love it. I think the characters are really interesting
people and I like them all.
By Dave
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR1Ghcyt6DU&t=2044s
Available until: forever
I’ll be honest – of all the Shakespeare plays, I was
probably looking forward to this one least. I just don’t find it a very
interesting play. It’s also a very complicated play so it does require a
certain level of hard work in order to follow what’s going on. I’ve seen Tom
Hiddleston in the title role and if he can’t hold my attention, who could?
By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_jjQY9Ce3k
Available until: Forever
Antony & Cleopatra isn’t one of my favourite
Shakespeare plays but The Show Must Go Online made it so brilliant! The acting is
really good and it was hard to believe everyone was filming in their homes. It
felt like they were filming on location. It all felt really exotic and
mysterious and it was like it was a different world.
By Louise
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAAI_c65nZY
Available until: Indefinitely
Trigger warnings: Blood, death, violence, murder, self-harm,
child loss, violence against children and infants. I also noticed intimate
noises, animal cannibalism and simulated vomiting.
Megan was supposed to be reviewing this, but we looked at
the trigger warnings and we decided she wouldn’t be comfortable with it. I’m reviewing
it instead because as it’s a female and non-binary production, it seemed right
to have a female or non-binary reviewer. I am also half-Scottish and I support
the Scotland football team and I’m happy there’s a very famous play set in
Scotland.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1A2gDSD9XA
Available until: Indefinitely
When you’re learning Shakespeare at school (or at home as I
was), there’s a lot of talk about fatal flaws. Macbeth’s is ambition (as we’ll
all see next week), Othello’s was jealousy (as we saw absolutely phenomenally a
couple of weeks ago). These fatal flaws are seen as negative. Jealousy doesn’t
make anyone happy and although there’s a place for a certain amount of
ambition, it’s fair to say Macbeth… takes it a bit far.
By Aashiq
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpS33G8-HyM
Available until: Forever and ever
Trigger warnings: violence, blood, gore, implied vomit,
suicide attempt, flashing lights and lots of death. I got my husband to hold my
hand and I thoroughly recommend it (just not with MY husband. Get your own).
I really wanted to review this one because this is the only
Shakespeare play I’ve been in! I played Gloucester. I’m obviously much too
young and handsome to play Gloucester (I wanted to play Regan), but student
productions tend not to have a very big age range. We got to do some of it on a
trip to the Globe too! But obviously when I’m telling people I don’t always go
into that much detail because who wants to hear details? So I usually just say
‘I played Gloucester in King Lear at the Globe’. I’m not usually
succinct, but I do like to make the occasional exception.
By Cal
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBRqe-THfjA
Available until: Indefinitely
All’s Well That Ends Well is a problem play. There is
one incident in the play which I don’t like at all and which I will talk about
in more detail later, but this was a captivating performance by some brilliant
performers.
Even in a Zoom production, there was a lot to see – much of
it on the actors’ heads. There were some incredible hats in this production,
all of them owned, created or adapted by the actors themselves. I wasn’t sure
I’d ever see a finer array of hats than on Aashiq’s hatstand, but I think All’s
Well That Ends Well has got him beat. (For now. I’m sure he’s scouring the
internet as I type.)
By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJlHeazfYg
Available until: Indefinitely
I loved this so much! Othello was my first ever
Shakespeare play and I love it and I was really looking forward to this. My
granny gave me a children’s book which was the story of Othello and I
thought it was so sad but so good. I really liked all the characters and I read
it again and again and then my mum bought me the play. It has the play on the
right-hand pages and on the left-hand pages it says what all the difficult
words and phrases mean.
By Anon
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diB4ycHdIi8
Available until: Indefinitely
TRIGGER WARNING: Rape
By Dave
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5xBbLTri5A
Available until: Indefinitely
I should have known really. I’ve been offering to help the
younger generation with the blog for a couple of weeks now but they always told
me I was too old. Then suddenly they change their mind and I walk right into
it.
It’s not so much that they want a few words of wisdom from
someone who is (as they’ve pointed out more than once) much older than them.
(Not too sure about the ‘much’ part, but there’s teens for you.)
By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m9oONcXWvQ
Available until: Indefinitely
I can’t believe how good The Show Must Go Online is! Every
single week they find new ways of making brilliant plays even more brilliant
and they find new talented actors as well as bringing back people who have
acted with them before in completely different roles. They surprise me every
week because even though I know they’ll be good, I never guess all the
different ways they’ll make the plays special.
By Louise
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIDkPcYdSG0&t=8s
Available until: Indefinitely
The actors were so overwhelmed by their incredible
performance, they could barely speak to introduce themselves at the end. I can really
understand that. I think I’ve forgotten how to write, but I’ll do my best.
This was an absolutely outstanding Hamlet. It must be a difficult play to put on anyway with the length of it, the emotions, the physical challenges and not knowing which version of the play to use. The idea of Hamlet on Zoom must have been quite daunting, even for the wonderful TSMGO, but as always, they rose to the challenge and were brilliant.
By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwk8nTEmIuI
Available until: Indefinitely
My name is Megan and I am nine and I am probably the youngest
person who will post on this blog. I know I am too young really but my mum and
my granny and my older siblings are going to read this and post it for me.
The Show Must Go Online is a company that was formed in
lockdown in order to do online live readings of Shakespeare’s plays once a
week. Although most of the lockdown restrictions have been lifted, they are
still continuing with the plays. I am really happy they are doing this as I
have enjoyed all the plays very much (apart from Titus Andronicus which
my mum thinks is too violent for me) and we can’t go to the theatre at the
moment as they are all closed.
