King Lear at Wandlebury Country Park

Tears begun streaming down my face and my froat akit. Lissener hispert, ‘Whats the matter?’ I hispert back, ‘O what we ben! And what we come to!’ Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban   On Tuesday, I went out to Wandlebury Country Park to see a terrific production of King Lear by in situ, a Cambridge-based experimental theatre company. The production took the form of a walk through the meadows and woodland of the park, as the sun went down and night encroached. The seven cast members led us through long grass, round the orchard, down the Roman Road,...

That was summer

This has been the most enjoyable of summers, partly as a result of working on some interesting projects (editorial, non-fiction, and fiction), and partly because of the lovely weather (warm but not too hot), which has meant I’ve been enjoying some outdoorsy activities for a change (I’m not exactly what you’d call the outdoorsy type). Chief amongst these were two productions we saw by Shakespeare’s Globe on Tour, of The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’d seen neither before, and did not know the first play at all. Both...

Something is rotten in Vorbarr Sultana

Hamlet! Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet! Yes, so – it was fantastic. Which I know is the point of going to see the RSC, but when you’ve been anticipating something so eagerly you never know if you might end up disappointed. I had a three-hour coach journey over in the morning, so I reread the play while I was travelling: as I read, I found that the Claudius-Gertrude story really stood out for me. What justification has he found for murdering his brother: could it be the Hamlet senior was a megalomaniac whose tendency to – say – get into combat with neighbouring kings is...