HAUNTING JULIA (Stephen Joseph Theatre)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.sjt.uk.com/event/1078/haunting_julia £12 (captioned version available)

Available until: 5^th January 2021. You can listen as many times as you like.

Age guidance: 12+

Content warnings: Death, blood, mentions of suicide

I know Alan Ayckbourn mainly as a writer of comedies, though, on thinking about it, some of his work has gone in other directions. But I have never read, heard or seen anything of his like Haunting Julia before so it came as a bit of a surprise – but a very good one.

THE TEMPEST (Cream-Faced Loons/Scram Collective)*****

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ44XNvHtBk&list=PLp9ljWlQivIObncsuojJYLrGHvsp3Ypk0

Available until: Unknown

I find Shakespeare plays quite difficult because I’m not as clever as the other bloggers but I really enjoyed this performance of The Tempest. It was really fun and it was very easy to understand who the characters were and what was going on. I think it will help me to understand other productions of The Tempest better in the future too.

HAPPY FOR YOU (Aurora Theatre/Ensemble Force/That’s Fantastic! Films)***

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6btdt5wzkVE

Available until: Unknown

Content warning: Mental health, depression, suicide, unsupportive attitudes

Estina is depressed about various things in her life and she can’t lift herself out of it but she wants to be left alone to feel. Penny doesn’t understand this and tries bringing her out of it with ice-cream, movies and singing. When Penny’s methods don’t work, she becomes angry with Estina. Really angry.

AMADEUS (National Theatre at Home)*****

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.ntathome.com/amadeus £6.66, £8.32 for a month’s subscription to watch all the plays or £83.32 for a year’s subscription

Available until: If you rent it, you can access it for 3 days. If you subscribe, I think you can watch it as many times as you like till they take it down. They add new plays every month so they might be taking them away too.

Yes, I know I already saw it when it was streamed on youtube. But I love it, okay? So I’m watching it again. It’s a really well-written play about my favourite composer (and it’s basically my dream role, I’d say I spend a very large proportion of my life acting like a child and playing the piano) and I don’t think there’s any play in existence with a better soundtrack.

JULIUS CAESAR (Sofa Shakespeare)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMvU4h7ehl4

Available until: Unknown

This production of Julius Caesar is so much fun. It’s not the most cheerful play in the world, but it is still very possible to have fun with it, while still giving a good and meaningful performance. It’s also great to see so many different people who have one very important thing in common: they all love Shakespeare.

DEAR DILYS (Compacts)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6GkWakYzRg

Available until: Unknown

Rick Allden is an incredible writer. It’s not just that he writes these plays well, he takes on such a wide range of characters and situations and turns them into a complete story that makes you think with characters you care about. This story is about an agony aunt and that’s not something that’s ever been part of my life. If I have a problem and I want to talk to someone outside the family, I’d rather go on a forum and talk to other people who have been through something similar. Pinning my hopes on one specific person who might not know anything about the subject sounds a bit like a stab in the dark.

TWELFTH NIGHT (Shake-Scene Theatre Company)*****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare

Available until: Unknown

Twelfth Night is Shake-Scene’s Christmas production and I think it’s a great choice. Twelfth Night is an important part of Christmas. There was always a bit of a fight at my infant school about who played the Wise Men in the Nativity play.

I don’t think Twelfth Night or Christmas is actually mentioned in the play, though Sir Toby starts to sing something about the twelfth day in December, so maybe the main part of the action takes place on ‘the twelfth night in December’. But I think the title comes from the time when the play was first performed and it’s possible the play is also set on or around Twelfth Night. In Elizabethan times, the Festival of Twelfth Night involved men and women exchanging clothes and generally behaving badly. Perhaps this is why the play ends happily for most of the characters – maybe everyone accepts all the happenings as another typical Twelfth Night.