Globe 2021: “Pomp, pageantry, politics & power”

The day is finally here – it seems like we’ve been made to wait an inordinately long time for this announcement, but it was definitely worth it as far as I’m concerned. In the words of Artistic Director, Michelle Terry: “The world beyond may be uncertain, but these plays are sure to guide us through […]

#MindTheBard 2021: round-up

You know what? I think this hybrid form of challenge week might be here to stay. Despite the fact that it’s taken me almost a week to write this round-up post, it’s actually felt pretty manageable – and I don’t know whether I’ll have the energy to go out to the theatre every single night […]

#MindTheBard: Blood (Macbeth)

Obviously blood isn’t a disease, but its presence or absence is clearly a key difference between life & death – or, if you’re one of the Macbeths, a guilty reminder of the foul deeds on their CV. There is an awful lot of bloodshed in the Scottish Play, be it in battle, a guestroom regicide, […]

#MindTheBard 2021: Diary

As I’m not doing much in the way of reviews for this #MindTheBard, I thought the best way to keep things going throughout the week was to do a daily ‘diary’ update – this way I can give you a little bit of feedback on whatever version of the day’s play I end up seeing. […]

Challenge Week 2021: Mind The Bard

We’ve had Mind The Bard, we’ve had Mind The Bard: 2 Bard 2 Spurious – and now I give you… Mind The Bard 3: Hospital Shift. (There is no earthly reason why I’m taking inspiration from the Fast & Furious franchise titles, but there we go.) It’s a bit of a risk taking the decision to […]

Most popular posts of 2020

Against all odds, Mind the Blog managed to gather very nearly the same amount of hits in 2020 as it did in 2019 – considering the fact that theatres were only open for about a quarter of the year, and that I became too knackered to put many new posts out from the autumn onwards, […]

The Show Must Go Online: “It’s a real community that uplifts and supports each other”

I may be woefully behind on my show write-ups (thanks, day job!), but I couldn’t not mark The Show Must Go Online coming to an end – at least until further notice. It’s also Love Theatre Day today, so it would have been remiss of me not to do something in honour of that; just […]

Macbeth (Big Telly Theatre)

We are now well and truly in spooky season and, if plenty of Doctor Who stories are to be believed, there is nowhere spookier than in the darkness of your own home… This works in Big Telly Theatre’s favour, then, as they continue their foray into online theatre during this continued period of uncertainty; their latest production […]

#MindTheBard 2020: Shakespeare & Somerset

As previous Shakespeare-related challenge weeks have been based almost solely in London, I’ve enjoyed taking the Bard out to Somerset for the majority of this #MindTheBard week. Disappointingly there don’t seem to be any records of Shakespeare’s players visiting the region during his lifetime, however I am one for tenuous connections (hence ‘2 Bard 2 […]

Challenge Week 2020: Mind The Bard

I thought it was a bit mad at the time, but it turns out doing Mind The Musicals 2.0 back in January was the best plan I could’ve had… Just like last year, I’m following up musicals week with another Shakespeare fest (as if you haven’t been getting enough of that recently!), as I go […]