Latest editorial
Nothing, says ANDY HEDGECOCK, can rescue this undistinguished amalgam of ponderous melodrama and shallow philosophical speculation
Rehabilitation of royal with rare intelligence
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
Queen Anne
The Swan Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
4/5
HELEN EDMUNDSON’S new play centres on what has been called “the most famous court intrigue in English history” and of all the monarchs who have been the stuff of so much history teaching Queen Anne — with the possible exception of assorted Georges — is perhaps the least well-known.
In seeking to redress that imbalance Edmundson, apart from scripting a fascinating domestic drama, provides a history lesson which highlights parallels with the present.
Similar stories
Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship