#MindTheBaubles: round-up

As usual, things have slipped behind – despite a surprisingly efficient start… After my final two shows of the inaugural #MindTheBaubles last Thursday, I’ve been supplementing the week proper with a few more films, TV programmes, and podcast episodes just to bolster the resources. And – to be fair – I’ve been trying to fit […]

Favourite shows 2021 (digital)

Despite the fact that theatres were once again up and running for about half the year (varying from place to place), there was still a massive appetite for digital productions going into 2021. The digital revolution has been a great step forward for accessibility (I’m pleased to see that a few venues are committing to […]

Out of 2020 – Into 2021

I’ve ummed and ahhed over doing this sort of post, but (now the end of January is in sight) I’ve finally decided that I might as well follow up my ‘favourite things‘ post with a bit of a round-up – and some kind of look forward. One thing that I did manage was to get […]

2020: A few of my favourite things

I’m not going to have a go at anyone who has posted a list of their favourite things from 2020, or what they consider to be the best; we’re all dealing with the current situation in our own way, and for some people it’s easiest to carry on with as many ‘normal’ things as possible […]

Mind the Advent 2020

After a break in 2019, I decided to revive #MindTheAdvent for 2020 – and of course focused on the array of online theatre that proliferated from March onwards… #MindTheAdvent Day 1: I have to begin with the show that started it all… @TSMGOnlineLive's The Two Gentlemen of Verona! Little did we all know how TSMGO would take […]

2020 mid-year update

Against my usual penchant for starting off slowly and then steadily heading for entropy, I went straight in at the deep end this year: my first week back in London (& the first full week of the year) was set down as #MindTheMusicals 2020! That means, of course, I began my theatregoing year by […]

Wish list: National Theatre At Home

Following on from the instant success of the first National Theatre At Home streaming event on Thursday night (Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden), it’s got me thinking about all the other wonderful NT Live screenings that I’d love to come to the small screen as part of this series. Over the next […]

Coming up in 2020…

What I’d usually do here is say I’m aiming to be sensible again, but that clearly doesn’t work – at the most it lasts about one or two months and then anything goes… So I’ll just say that I’ll think carefully about my reviewing commitments, and then everything else can sort itself out organically. What […]

Favourite shows 2019

Whilst I didn’t see as many shows as last year, I don’t think I had quite such a good run of shows in 2018 as I have this year – so making this list was no mean feat. As usual, there were some which were ineligible for the list as I’d seen them last year; […]

Arthur Miller 2019: a summary

Before this, I’ve taken on Shakespeare, puppetry and Emma Rice; thanks to an early pattern in theatre scheduling, I decided this year had to focus on Arthur Miller. I started off really enthusiastically – it definitely helped that I was rather spoilt for choice in terms of productions of Arthur Miller’s plays in the first […]