World Shakespeare festival: around the Globe in 37 plays
The World Shakespeare festival, with performances from across the globe in nearly 50 languages, begins this weekend. Andrew Dickson travelled to India to watch rehearsals for a Bollywood version of Twelfth Night and an All's Well about the opium trade ...
A life in theatre: Barrie Rutter
'I kept thinking, I should be playing that part, but then I'd remember that the actor doing it was posh'On the looming cliff-face of Dean Clough mill in Halifax there sits an enormous sign, 7m long, in glittering aluminium. It reads: TRUE NORTH. This i...
Jacobean tragedy: of love and death
With new productions of The Changeling and The Duchess of Malfi about to open, it seems we can't get enough of revenge tragediesIn a hushed, darkened room inside London's Young Vic theatre, two young people are about to make a terrible mistake. The wom...
A life in theatre: Trevor Nunn
'The skills involved in working with a musical score and lyrics are every bit as particular as the skills required in putting on a Shakespeare play'When Trevor Nunn was about to take over at the National Theatre, his predecessor Richard Eyre records in...
Nica Burns: queen of Edinburgh comedy
For nearly 30 years Nica Burns has run the Edinburgh festival comedy awards. As an influential owner of London theatres, she is also a defender of the current state of the West EndNica Burns has a limp, and even so I'm rushing to keep up. A few da...
Shakespeare and Amateur Performance by Michael Dobson – review
Shakespeare isn't just for the professionalsLike many showbusiness professionals, Shakespeare seems to have looked warily on people who thought they could do his job for the fun of it. His most famous depiction of am-dram is, of course, A Midsummer Nig...
Playwright Simon Stephens: ‘The same old agonies return to haunt you’
Best known for Motortown and Harper Regan, Simon Stephens is one of the best young British playwrights around. Now he's tackling our guilt about climate changeTwo metal signs are screwed to the wall outside playwright Simon Stephens's office. "Cursing ...
Dominic Cooke: a life in theatre
'These are frightening, confusing times. There's a desire for stories that address where we are'George Devine, the founder of London's Royal Court theatre, had some words of aeronautical wisdom for anyone foolhardy enough to follow him as artistic...
A life in theatre: Richard Eyre
Andrew Dickson talks to director Richard Eyre, famous for his nuanced handling of actors: 'All good actors are quick-witted, some of them dazzlingly so. All you do is guide them'Richard Eyre recalls a conversation he had before the opening of his Carme...
A life in theatre: Nicholas Hytner
'I genuinely want to deliver the most communicative version of a play, whatever that is.' The producer and director Nicholas Hytner talks to Andrew DicksonRichard Eyre's diaries of his decade running the National Theatre record a meeting with the man...
Invisible Dot’s hoax phoneboxes have a story to tell
Andrew Dickson gets the number of the man behind a series of unusual phoneboxes popping up across EdinburghI'm in a phonebox, listening to a man telling me about his obsession with prank calls. He adores the noise of the fire engines, he says, and the ...
Words made flesh: the perils of putting poetry on stage | Andrew Dickson
Bringing poems to life in the theatre needs real ingenuity – but it's a risk more actors and directors should take
I don't know about you, but whenever I hear poetry on the radio the hair shoots up on the back of my neck. Maybe it's the change in...
