The week in theatre: Romeo & Juliet; Richard III; Passing Strange review – no fault in these stars
Richard III review – a fast-paced study of toxic masculinity with an almost entirely female cast
March 2024
Richard, My Richard review – less naked villainy, more realpolitik
In novelist Philippa Gregory’s telling, the much maligned king reveals a more human side amid rather too much exposition
Murderer, manipulator… or not that bad at all? The reframing of Richard III
Five hundred years after his death, the monarch most reviled by Shakespeare is still courting controversy. A new play and documentary aim to change how he is seen
For trauma survivors like us, theatre trigger warnings are not a luxury
Letters: Readers reflect on the deep impact that some scenes on stage can have on their mental health
February 2024
Acting, disability and the problem with ‘lived experience’
Letters: Guardian readers respond to the row about a non-disabled actor playing Richard III at Shakespeare’s Globe
January 2024
‘I’m done with pretenders’: disabled actors on reclaiming Richard III
Shakespeare’s Globe criticised for casting non-disabled actor as Richard III
April 2023
Richard III review – Adjoa Andoh’s maverick reimagining drags
The actor and director pitches the antihero as a racial outsider. She is compelling, but he is an inconsistent character in a production leached of intrigue
December 2022
Brief letters
The Lost King’s fictional thread
Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh to explore societal prejudices by playing Richard III
September 2022
Unfinish’d sympathy: can literature get over reading disability morally?
The ‘crookednesse’ of Richard III’s back was presented by Shakespeare as an expression of his villainy while Quasismodo embodied saintly unworldliness. Are we ready to see disability without symbolism?
August 2022
‘I had goosebumps!’ – the finder of Richard III’s remains in a car park is celebrated in a Steve Coogan film
‘Fuelled by anger’: politics loom larger than ever at Edinburgh fringe
July 2022
David Warner obituary
Stage and screen actor hailed for his 1965 Hamlet at the RSC who went on to have a distinguished film and TV career
The week in theatre: The Seagull; The Southbury Child; Richard III
The action’s all in the detail in Jamie Lloyd’s spellbound Chekhov; Alex Jennings excels as a vicar refusing to find the common touch; and Richard III falls short of its health warning
Richard III review – Shakespeare’s supervillain breezes through the bloodbath
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Arthur Hughes is the scheming sociopath in a production of magisterial stagecraft that builds to a powerful climax
June 2022
To prove a villain: the many faces of Richard III – in pictures
Boris the Third: new play tells story of clown who became king
December 2021
Antony Sher: a consummate Shakespearean and a man of staggering versatility
One of the most gifted actors of his era, Sher – who has died aged 72 – combined psychology and a keen sense of the visual in soul-baring performances
