Iris Murdoch News

IAN MCKELLEN, TOHEEB JIMOH & RICHARD COYLE star in Robert Icke's production of PLAYER KINGS, adapted from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2.

'Lunar Eclipse,' a new play by Donald Margulies, makes its world premiere at Shakespeare & Company. Directed by James Warwick, the play features Karen Allen and Reed Birney as a long-married couple reflecting on life and time during a lunar eclipse.

Cordelia Lynn’s atmospheric new play treads familiar waters

A previously unseen John Bratby portrait of theatrical legend Alan Ayckbourn will be the centrepiece of a new exhibition at Scarborough Art Gallery exploring the role of portaiture.  

The play is directed by actor and director Geraldine Alexander, and is performed by a first-rate cast of Penny Downie, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Matthew Tennyson and Iniki Mariano.

 Joana Vicente and Cameron Bailey, Co-Heads of TIFF, today unveiled Academy Award–winning actress Kate Winslet as the recipient of this year's TIFF Tribute Actor Award,

The British actress Judi Dench will receive the prestigious Donostia Award at the 66th edition of the San Sebastian Festival next month. The Festival's highest honorary award will be presented on Tuesday, September 25th, prior to the screening of Trevor Nunn's Red Joan, in which Dench plays a woman whose tranquil life is suddenly disrupted when she's arrested by MI5 and accused of providing intelligence to Communist Russia.

Artistic Director Edward Hall announces Hampstead Theatre's spring/summer season. The UK premiere of Rajiv Joseph's darkly comic post-truth play Describe the Night will be directed by Lisa Spirling. The world premiere of Jemma Kennedy's blisteringly entertaining Genesis Inc. will be directed by Laurie Sansom. The world premiere of Fiona Doyle's haunting and provocative new drama The Strange Death of John Doe will be directed by Artistic Director Edward Hall for Hampstead Downstairs. The production is a Hampstead Theatre commission and a finalist for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Under 30s can access Priority Booking for all shows via The Downstairs Club - Hampstead's free membership scheme to allow better access to the cheaper seats.

Over halfway through DECONSTRUCTION, Jonathan Leaf's remarkable play about Paul De Man, Mary McCarthy (Fleur Alys Dobbins) tells Hannah Arendt (Karoline Fischer) that she sees no morality 'worthy of the name' in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. 'There's a need to find authenticity,' McCarthy concedes, 'But it seems to me that you can be genuinely and perfectly evil.' However one feels about deconstruction as a method of reading--I happen to be a fan--we should all agree that De Man was a bad guy: a thoroughgoing liar, a bigamist, a swindler, a manipulator, and the author of some 200 pieces for the Nazi publication in Belgium, Le Soir. I've lingered over this literary-historical context (ironic, given that deconstruction deemphasizes extra-textual material, including authorial intent) because while Leaf's play works beautifully as a story about the (alleged) affair between De Man and McCarthy, the play's real triumph is how deftly it evokes the intellectual minefields on which these personal relationships developed. DECONSTRUCTION is far better, to say nothing of smarter, than most of the ideologically-driven caricatures of the play suggest. This is all the more remarkable given the play runs a mere 75 minutes.

The full cast is announced for the final production in the Coronet's spring season, DEATHWATCH, from April 11 to May 7. This new Print Room production of Jean Genet's powerful and provocative first play, in a translation by David Rudkin, marks its first major revival in almost 30 years. Deathwatch stars Danny Lee Wynter, Joseph Quinn, Tom Varey and Emma Naomi, and is directed by Geraldine Alexander, who received critical acclaim for the direction of her own play, Amygdala, at The Print Room's former space in 2013. The Coronet is also working with playwright David Rudkin on complementary activity around the production.

Following 'Just Desserts,' which focused on a young Jewish woman's descent into madness, in B.K. Smith's 'Laina and the Vamp' our attention is now drawn to Laina, a dancer who lives in Fantasy Noir, and Vladimir, your basic vampire and smooth operator.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will host An Evening With Kate Winslet tonight, October 6, during the 53rd New York Film Festival.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will host An Evening With Kate Winslet on Tuesday, October 6, during the 53rd New York Film Festival.

Today the Rose Theatre Kingston announced its 2014 Season. 2014 will see the theatre continue to produce Rose Productions as well as embarking on new and exciting partnerships, sharing skills and resources with other theatre companies and venues to create top quality theatre. Visiting companies including Propeller and the Royal Shakespeare Company, touring family productions and one night events complete the season.

The Washington Stage Guild announces its 28th Season of our distinctive repertory, an array of eloquent plays of idea and argument, passion and wit - smart theatre for a smart town. The Washington Stage Guild's 2013-2014 season will focus on the fundamental basis of all art - the imagination. We will present four plays that examine the need to see beyond the mundane in order to create, to survive, to develop, to live. The Season of Dreams will travel from Vincent van Gogh's studio to Bernard Berenson's villa, and from the apartment of two fragile lives to as far as thought can reach. All four plays are Washington area premieres, and among the four is the first installment in a multi-year cycle leading up to our 30th anniversary, as we inaugurate our production of George Bernard Shaw's rarely seen Back to Methuselah.

Lynn Redgrave and Geraint Wyn Davies will star in an October 10th benefit reading of Austin Pendleton's Shakespeare adaptation H6R3