Debbie Gilpin - Page 10

“Leave comedy to the bears, Ebenezer!” Back in 1992, the idea that the Muppets could do a passable version of Charles Dickens’ classic novella may have been a stretch of the imagination for some, but fast forward to 2021 and it’s a tradition for many; “I didn’t realise this many people liked the Muppets!”, squealed a young girl to her father as she made her way to her seat.

Life in the UK at the moment feels uncannily like we’re going through a ‘Worst of the 70s’ playlist: periods of no economic growth, food shortages, an increase in the cost of living, and rumblings over a referendum on Europe. There was also an attempt to kickstart the conversation about equality between the sexes, with the formation of the Women’s Liberation Movement. It’s little wonder, then, that this version of Measure for Measure seems so familiar – hint: it’s not just the perennially relevant themes of the play that hit home.

“All were worthy men in their degree.” The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392, all linked by the central narrative of a pilgrimage from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to Thomas A Beckett's shrine in Canterbury Cathedral; it features characters such as the Knight, Pardoner, Miller, and Merchant – though Zadie Smith has chosen to base her new play on one of the few female characters. The Wife of Bath becomes the Wife of Willesden.

After months of refurbishments and closure due to coronavirus, the Royal Albert Hall is back open and ready to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Part of its full re-opening programme was the return of Letters Live, an event which has taken place at various venues across the world (from the Union Chapel in Islington to the Calais refugee camp to Los Angeles), and made its debut at the Royal Albert Hall back in 2019.

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.” To some, Bob Marley is the dreadlocked king of reggae, writer of feel-good hits such as “One Love” and “Three Little Birds” – but there was far more to his life than that. Abandoned by his father and shoved from pillar to post in his youth, he formed a bond with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, the trio hoping to escape the ghetto with the help of music – although Bob probably wouldn’t have minded giving a football career a shot if that hadn’t worked out.

Following the success of their Romantics Anonymous livestream, Wise Children are back at Bristol Old Vic with an early Christmas present for theatre-lovers: a limited run of Kneehigh’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk. Audrey Brisson returns to the role of Bella Chagall; she talked to us about her love for Bristol Old Vic and other fond theatrical memories from her career so far.

As the series draws to a close, completing 40 shows within eight months, actor and director Robert Myles looks back on the successes of The Show Must Go Online and the rise of Zoom theatre. The Tempest ​​​​​​​will be the final show in the Shakespeare series that began at the end of March.

Even coronavirus can't stop the Olivier Awards ceremony - today is the day we've all been waiting for since its postponement back in April, as all the winners are finally revealed to the world.

Joe Bonamassa is no stranger to the Royal Albert Hall, having played there six times in his career to date a?" so it seemed only right that he join the Royal Albert Home concert line-up before the current series makes way for two weeks of the BBC Proms. Bonamassa has performed extensively from a young age, opening for BB King aged 12 with his band Smokina?? Joe Bonamassa, and joining forces with the sons of Miles Davies, Robby Krieger, and Berry Oakley to form the band Bloodline before he turned 18.

It was an important year for me, 2004. I started sixth form (no more school uniform!) and the Kaiser Chiefs burst onto the music scene. I discovered them through Soccer AM and my borderline obsession with the music channels on Sky, their pop-punky beats, smart lyrics, and incredible energy grabbing me by the throat and forcing me to pay attention. Sixteen years later and t'Chiefs are still going strong a?' as is my love of the band.

Following on from their 2018 Space Shambles, the Cosmic Shambles Network was due to make a return to the Royal Albert Hall for Sea Shambles a?' a celebration of the Blue Planet by way of science, music, and comedy. Instead, a re-jigged version took place as part of the Stay At Home Festival this weekend; a blue whale-like show of around three-and-a-half hours, an exceptional range of contributors were featured, including the likes of Lemn Sissay, Dr Helen Scales, Josie Long, and (naturally) Prof Brian Cox.

It's hard to believe that it's been four years since Emma Rice made her debut at Shakespeare's Globe, beginning her brief tenure as artistic director with the Wonders season and her own production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. As a Shakespeare fan (I was one of those rare beings: someone who actually enjoyed studying his plays at school), I'd been meaning to go to the Globe for some time but had never quite got round to it a?' and I'd never seen anything by Emma Rice before. How times change.

Following a short run in Bristol at the beginning of the year, Wise Children's Romantics Anonymous was due to head across the Atlantic for an American tour a?' and their new tour of Malory Towers was also on the verge of opening in Cumbria. All their plans were thrown into disarray, however, when first America and then the UK started to close the theatres (the Romantics Anonymous set, as well as the sound and lighting equipment, is currently stranded in LA). To try and come to terms with this loss, to a?oestay sanea??, and to plug the gap during the shutdown, Emma Rice and the team have begun a series of livestream editions of the Wise Children podcast.

a?oeI'm not the one that's on trial here.a?? Artemisia Gentileschi has brought fellow artist Agostino Tassi to court, accusing him of raping her a?" but, naturally, it's her decisions and actions that are being called into question, seemingly seeking to justify his actions if not disprove them entirely. Sadly, this is a familiar story to women the world over. This specific incident forms the basis of Breach Theatre's It's True, It's True, It's True; originally due to be playing at the Barbican's Pit Theatre at this time (prior to an Off Broadway run), it has been made available to watch online in the wake of its cancellation.

Chamberlin, Powell & Bon's brutalist design is an instantly recognisable part of London's architecture; the grade II listed building formed the inspiration for the film adaptation of JG Ballard's novel High-Rise. Formerly the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Barbican Theatre was also the original London home of long-running musical Les Misérables before its transfer to the West End.

Back in 2002, when Caryl Churchill's A Number premiered at the Royal Court, genetics was the hot new topic. The Human Genome Project was on the verge of being completed and a few years earlier Dolly the sheep had been cloned, leading to very real discussions about whether or not humans could end up being cloned. It was still science fiction, of course, as demonstrated a few years later when South Korean claims of harvesting viable stem cells from a cloned human embryo were found to be false. Nonetheless, Churchill's play featuring a father and his cloned sons must have captured the imagination of audiences.

a?oeGrime changed my life, more than my two first class degrees, it gave me permission.a?? Debris Stevenson is back at the Royal Court with a limited of her grime theatre show Poet in da Corner, prior to a UK tour. Inspired by the acclaimed breakthrough album from her idol Dizzee Rascal (Boy in da Corner), it charts Stevenson's journey from dyslexic teen trapped in a Mormon household to independent and self-aware woman; this is a story told from the heart, in the best way she knows how.

How do you see yourself? What seems like a fairly straightforward question can actually be far more complex than you might think a?" and if your own lived experience deviates even slightly from what other people expect, you may find yourself repeatedly fielding the same queries as both sides seek to justify their positions. In Janice Okoh's new play, The Gift, Princess Sarah Bonetta tries to balance her new role as wife with her passion for teaching, whilst modern-day structural engineer Sarah fends off a try-hard neighbour. Tea with Queen Victoria could be exactly what they both needa??

Emma Rice's Wise Children are back, bringing her acclaimed production Romantics Anonymous to the Bristol Old Vic for a limited run. Carly Bawden, who plays Angélique in the show, talks chocolatiers, suffragettes, and her passion for new writinga??

Following a critically acclaimed run at the Old Vic, with a subsequent West End transfer, Conor McPherson's Girl From The North Country has been remounted with an almost completely new cast. It had a short run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, and is now back in London for a limited engagement at the Gielgud Theatre prior to residencies of Upstart Crow and the hotly anticipated transfer of Broadway's To Kill A Mockingbird.