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Nothing, says ANDY HEDGECOCK, can rescue this undistinguished amalgam of ponderous melodrama and shallow philosophical speculation
Shakespeare in another space
Northampton’s Royal and Derngate theatre is marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death with a production of The Herbal Bed, first produced at the legendary Other Place theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. PETER FROST reports
JAMIE BRITTON invites readers to visit 3,500 locals as part of a marathon artistic pub crawl
JOHN GREEN welcomes a valuable and incisive analysis of a world become hyperpolitical but without the mass movement institutions to represent it
JAMES WALSH is moved by a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture, and a plea to work with, not against, the materials and minerals of our world
An immersive, participatory display by a queer Australian Aboriginal performer, and a rebellious unravelling of traditional Scottish dance
THE Royal and Derngate’s artistic supremo James Dacre is never predictable and his latest contribution to the Shakespeare commemorations is The Herbal Bed by Peter Whelan, a play exploring the life of Shakespeare’s daughter.
Directed by James Dacre for English Touring Theatre, it is a remarkable production of a remarkable play.
It was written in the 1990s, when the Nolan Committee had laid down some basic principles on standards in public life and just as John Major’s Tory government carried out the most blatant lying whitewash with the Scott report on British arms dealers’ corruption abroad.
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